Monday 30th April

The day started off like every other Monday – or most mornings – with “I don’t want to go to school” being shouted, very loudly. She wanted a day off, to stay at home.

She was in a stroppy mood all the way to T’s school and then agreed to the iPad, which fortunately distracted her until we got to her school.

Her TA was there who’d been bashed with a tennis racquet on Friday (not by D) and loved her “get well” picture that D had drawn so she went in happily (yes, after all the initial stroppiness!):

She came out overjoyed to see me at the end of the day – virtually bowling me over and knocking my sunglasses off my head!

She hadn’t really wanted to chat about her day, apart from mentioning that the boy who picks on her is still doing so. I think this is a big part of why she doesn’t physically want to go through the doorway in the morning, I hope the school respect my request for them not to be in the same class from September (there are two classes).

She did a lovely drawing tonight, this is the “baddie” from Monsters vs Aliens – her favourite film at the moment:

Please read my post from earlier if you haven’t already. Comments/RTs as ever welcomed, thanks for reading Jx 😍

What Autism means to me….

My daughter is nearly 8 years old and whilst she may look like any other child, she has autism.

This means that her speech & language skills are delayed, her social skills can be inappropriately used – for example, she will try and hug the supermarket delivery person but be very scared of entering an unfamilar room for a family function; and she has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) – this means strict routines without deviation and she will play with the same toy over and over again, want to watch the same DVD three times in a row etc etc.

Unfamilar situations and noises scare her. She will never be able to cross a road by herself, she may never drive a car or form a relationship that would normally lead to marriage/children.

I’d like to wrap her in bubble wrap and protect her from anything and everything that scares her but that isnt the way modern life works.

I’d like public awareness to be raised and this is one of the reasons I blog on Twitter to help those parents who have a newly diagnosed child and those who just want to chat.