A new week

OK, I'm back.  Had a wee dip there in energy.  A knee problem has really challenged me, but I feel like I am on top of things again.  I should have said though in my last post that I was tired, not bored.  I am not bored of Autism - it is far too interesting.  But, I was tired.

I had a great meeting with Olivia's team last week.  Well, I say great, but it always ends up highlighting deficits or a new issue, which then puts me in a dip... but it's good that they push ahead - it shows that Olivia is progressing.

Something that became very clear at the meeting was that Olivia needs to be problem solving.  If we lay on everything for her, she is very compliant.  She LOOKS very good.  But we need to be giving her a chance to figure things out.

Yesterday she came up to me with her toy rabbit and said 'what's this' and I said 'I don't know. What's her name?'.  She kept looking at me for an answer, but kept shrugging my shoulders, but remaining interested.  She kept saying 'name is... name is...' and then she suddenly came out with the name 'colourful'.  I told her that was a beautiful name!  I checked today when she brought the bunny out and yes, the bunny's name is Colourful :)  This is the first time she has done this.

I have to say that I am really bored of Autism today.  I don't want to think about it.  I don't want to deal with it.  All I want to do is go to bed and sleep.  Obviously I can't, so today Olivia has a half-arsed mum.

I've been working with Olivia's therapists to decrease this aggression that Olivia's been displaying.  We are now doing what her therapist calls 'peel and go'.  When Olivia scratches/hits/punches/kicks then I am to get up - take away whatever we are working on and leave the room.  Obviously making sure I have a keen ear listening for her and not leaving her in any danger. 

Afterwards, her therapist wants us to go back to what we were working on, before the scratch/punch/hit/kick happened and make sure Olivia ends on a high note - some kind of success.  I keep forgetting that bit...

'Peel & go' does seem to be working though.  She is very attached to me, so me leaving is a bit of a shock to her.  She was obviously wanting some kind of reaction and I was giving it to her - even though I didn't realise I was.  She calls for me when I leave her, which I find really hard because I never want her to feel abandoned, even if I am the other side of the door.  However, something has to be done.  This is not good for HER in the long run and I have tried everything.  This feels like the last resort.

Now she has turned her attention to the teachers at school, so I sent them the behavioural plan today and hopefully they can find a way to implement some of it.  They won't be able to leave the room, but I am sure they can just not react and remove themselves from the situation.