Settling in...

We are into October and the kids seem to be settling into school. River seems to be okay with kindergarten, although there are still some anxieties. He has a very inexperienced Special Education Assistant. This made us nervous at first. Some ways of dealing with River (and kids with autism in general) are way better than others. River's has quite a severe communication delay so it takes time to understand him and read his behaviour. Anyway, he decided to try out, and got away with, some behaviours that are not conducive to learning, i.e., running around the classroom and crawling under tables, and being really silly, etc. However, in the past couple of weeks we have worked with River's SEA and with the school. Matt has been willing to come to the house to work with River's ABA interventionists and also with our consultant. Sometimes inexperience matched with a willingness to learn can be a better thing than experience. So River seems happy and is beginning to understand what is expected of him. He's even brought some little projects home that he completed; cutting and pasting type of stuff. We still pull him out 3 times a week for at-home Behaviour Intervention sessions, which he needs. The school is fine with this and so it is working well. So far I am quite encouraged, but it is early days so I am still a little wary. I'm not sure what we are getting into with IEP's (Individualized Education Plans) and all that. Also speech therapy has gone by the wayside as we wait to go on the school board's list.

The other kids in the class seem to accept River. He cannot really communicate with them and they, being only 4 and 5 years olds, lack the patience that is needed to wait for an understandable, 'typical' response from him. But they take an interest and I think we may be able to put together a birthday party for him. It will be the first birthday party that River has invited his peers to!

He is very into garbage trucks...I could write a whole seperate post on it because I know a lot about garbage trucks now, oh yes. We also discovered that there are A LOT of people out there who are into garbage trucks. You may even be one of them. We discovered all kinds of YouTube videos. I even made one for him of the garbage truck going down our own alley. That is a favourite video. His favourite truck is the "side-hauler"...in case you're interested

Here's one of his favourite vids. A treat for all you garbage truck lovers...and you know you're out there! And the music is a cool too.



Bronwyn continues to love school. I hope it stays that way...but doubt that it will. She is growing up so fast it is amazing.

I am putting out feelers (not very successfully) for work. Trying to find references and update my resume. It is scarier than I thought it would be. The world is not a forgiving place; particularly if you are a woman in her 40's who has left the workplace for 5 years. Thinking about working and what I can do...thinking about childcare (and childcare for River in particular) is giving me some anxiety I must admit. But it must be done. Five years is long enough and I am ready to do something else besides being a stay-at-home mum.

There's a small...and boring update. I will try to do more regular updates. I am conscious of the fact that I have slacked off lately. It happens.