I guess if you are keeping up to date with A 4 Aspergers you might be wondering why there hasn’t been an update from Mondays session at TSSV.  Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten to post, the session was not on as it was a public holiday here too.  So Elliot gets the day off, not that he really thinks he is doing anything other than playing.  So it is along week between sessions as his next session is friday with PTS…..

As Simon is away in the UK and I have no option but to take Oliver to Elliots session, so we head to PTS together.  Elliot seems to be quickly striking a bond with Joyce and is always happy to go play with her.  Lets hope that it is the same today as I will be leaving him in the class and then just going in for a 5 minute session towards the end.  I find this really frustrating as it is interesting to see what they are doing with him to know if there is any follow up at home we could be doing.  I can’t help think though it will be better for Elliot in the long run.  His 45 minute session goes really slowly trying to entertain Oliver and worrying about Elliot.  We head in for the last 5 minutes to catch up with how the session has gone.  They made an obstacle course again, sticking with the the picture maps theme Joyce helped Elliot draw what they did so he could explain to me and Miss Christie.  They played with the stretchy tunnel again, fish swing, trampoline, flip flop faces & Trapeze all to help work on strength co-ordination and motor skill. Joyce comments that he did fine without me there but was a little quiet again and reverted to lots of screaming/pointing rather than talking and communicating with her.  So little change I guess really.  He is however pretty relaxed and doesn’t seem anxious that I didn’t stay for the session so we agree that next week we will try the same.  Elliot also informs me that he likes playing with Miss Joyce on his own so it looks like this is the way forward.

As we head to the SLT session with Christie Joyce asks me if we had plans for therapy for the summer.  I tell her that we had considered the sessions at PTS  but it didn’t work out with our holiday plans.  Joyce still recommended that it would be worth putting him in a language and motor group to really help him in social situations even if he were to miss some because of his holidays.

We sit in SLT and wait for Miss Christie armed with the map of Gilroy gardens and the pictures on the ipad that we promised to prepare last week.  We also had one of Elliots favourite reading books with us that he insisted on brining.  Elliot is really pleased to see Christie and tells her all about what he did in his session with Joyce and is really making a big effort to speak clearly and form sentences.  He moves on to the map he brought from Gilroy gardens and he tells her what we did there and he then reinforces it with the pictures from the ipad and explains to her who everyone is.  He is really animated and really enjoying chatting to Christie and really opens up to her.  He then shows her his book that he brought with him and reads pretty much all of the stories to her well as best as he can as he can’t actually read.  It was pretty amazing really as i have only been reading the book with him for a few weeks and he nearly knew it all.  After he finished the book he told her that his poorly finger was better and that he had a been having some strange dreams.  He then went onto to describe the dreams very vividly to her.  It was amazing it was like someone had turned on a tap, the shy little boy that never speaks couldn’t be silenced.  The best thing was that he was really forming his words well and communicating easily with Christy and he was enjoying it :o)  It was a great feeling to see him opening up.  I got a big pat on the back from Christy she was really pleased with the massive progress he is making in a short period of time.  So we agree to do the same next week. In retrospect I am worried that he has done so well this week because Oliver was there. I suppose for the speech and language it doesn’t matter or does it.  I guess for next week Oliver will be present again and then we can see what Christie thinks going forward.  Christie has also mentioned about PTS sessions for Elliot. Maybe we should consider another programme and to hell with the expense.

Trying to work out the best thing for Elliot can be a never ending task and some times a lonely one too.  The constant questions I ask myself drive me crazy.  Do we do enough with him? Should we push him out of his comfort zone a little more? Is he getter better? Is he getting worse, Will he get much better?  Are we doing enough to help?  Is this the behavior of a “normal” 4 year old or is it different? The questions are endless and sometimes you can feel like you are the only one that has these issues to deal with.

This really is just not he case at all.  I realised this after bumping into a friend I met when I first arrived here, at a BBQ on Memorial Day.  She asked what was new with us and after a little small talk I decide to talk to her about Elliot and his pending Aspergers diagnosis.  She shared with me that her eldest child has Aspergers quite badly and that her youngest has it also.  Wow! amazingly she is going to one of the sessions we are going to and has great things to say about TSSV which is very reassuring she also thinks that she may have details of other summer programmes that really might work out for  Elliot.  It is so nice to know that you are not alone on this journey albeit a little scary to have a reminder that both the boys may have Aspergers.  Although Oliver is currently at the other end of the spectrum and very sociable who knows if this will last forever, at least we know what warning signs to be looking out for in the meantime.

Friday is here already and luckily Simon is working from home this morning so that I can head to the therapy session without Oliver in tow.  At the moment I am sitting in on all of his sessions as it would be too disruptive for Oliver to be in there also he stays at home.  We arrive at PTS sign in and after a short wait head to the gym with Miss Joyce.  Elliot seems very quiet and I am wondering if the early morning sessions are not working for him and if we should be a little later.  Obviously an earlier session would work for me as currently he has a 8.15 start which considering some days he doesn’t get up until after8 this can be a little difficult as we have to wake him early.  Not always a good idea :o)  Joyce gets straight to work and has a quick chat with Elliot about the toy he brought to class today.  One of Elliots little quirks is that he can’t leave the house with out some sort of toy.  This is not such a great deal but each day the idea of what he wants to take out with him changes and it can delay the house leaving process by a good 15minutes.  As I am usually running late this little “quirk” can get very stressful and tearful for Elliot.  Joyce asks Elliot what he would like to do today and she suggests they make an obstacle course.  Elliot is not as “animated ” as he was last week and keeps looking back to me for reassurance.  When Joyce asks a question he looks at me to answer for him.  Which clearly in the past I have been doing too much.  I encourage him to speak in his big loud voice and tell miss Joyce himself.  He tries his best but you can see how hard this is for him.  The poor guy just when you feel that some real progress is being made and that he maybe isn’t as shy as we think he has a session like this.  During the building of the obstacle course he keeps looking back to me to answer for him.  He does warm up by the time the course it built and really gets into the flow but it takes a big part of the session.  I wonder if me being in the session is holding him back.  I ask Joyce and as next week Simon is out of town I suggest that he attends the session himself and see if he gets on any better.  Working on one of the techniques that Christie started last week Joyce asks Elliot what his favourite part of the obstacle course was.  He tells her it was the stretchy tunnel so they draw a picture together to help explain to Miss Christie what fun they had swinging in the tunnel and doing wiggles.

Onto the SLT session.  I am sat on the floor playing with toys with Elliot when Jayne pops her head around the corner.  Apparently Miss Christie is running late.  This really isn’t an issue as we don’t plan too much during the day to get a smooth transition for Elliot to get to school.   Christie arrives and Elliot proudly shows her his toy and tries to tell her all about it.  He shows her the drawing he has done with Joyce and does his best to explain to Christie what he has been doing in OT.  She asks how we have been getting on and I tell her we have been doing the exercises and that he is doing a lot better at telling us what he has been doing at school.  I tell her that we are making a big effort to help him correct words he is struggling to pronounce we are reading lots more books to help with language development and encouraging him to speak as much as possible.  Christie comments that she can already see a big improvement in him which is really reassuring.  I discuss with Christie how she thinks having him in session on his own will work.  She suggest we give it a go and ask me to prepare some things to talk to Elliot about.  I tell her we are going to Gilroy gardens so she asks that we bring back a map and take photographs of the day out.  Elliot tells her that he will be playing on the Xbox so Christie asks him to draw a picture of what happens in the game so he can tell her all about it next week.  Elliot seems to think that this is a good idea and has a good session chatting to Christy.  I think it is fair to say that when Christy gets her Ipad out his eyes light up, they play a couple of games together and chat about them.  He has a quick game on angry birds as a tool to engage more conversation from him which he just manages.  We quickly discuss how next week session will work with me having Oliver in tow and agree that Elliot will spend most of the session on his own and I will join for the last 5-10minutes.

In other news we have finally managed to get him to remove his plaster from last weeks finger cut.  He went from being completely adamant about not having a plaster on to being obsessed with wearing one.  I sometimes struggle with these changes in direction with him and constantly seem to be asking myself does he have aspergers, are we imagining things on a good day.  On a bad day I am then on the other side, OMG he definitely has and am I in complete denial that he is much worse than we possibly think.  Oh the indecision and the endless questioning is driving me crazy.  At least it isn’t too long now until his session at the Centre fro Developing minds, hopefully this will give us the clarification we need, role on the 14th……