I know I'm biased but my son is very smart. He does however struggle with getting his stupid parents to understand simple things so has to find ways of explaining things to them. He often has to break down information into bite size pieces so that we are clear about his needs. Yesterday he had us in stitches when he did this. He has been testing his boundaries recently and getting him dressed can often be a battle. He finds a million and one things to do that are far more interesting than getting dressed, he is the king of distraction. It is tricky because at some points during getting dressed/undressed he doesn't have his implants on and so then communication can break down. I wonder if I let him get away with things that I wouldn't normally because of this. Anyway I ended up losing my patience realizing that I was being taken for a fool and so I put him on the naughty step. We have only just introduced the naughty step and usually the threat of a spell on the naughty step gets him to comply. Yesterday it didn't!! I put him on the step and went to talk to Jason who was working (trying to work) in his office.
We could hear Tom shouting and having a full on tantrum. Then he stopped and started saying "I want to get off the step" followed by more shouting...followed by silence then "I want to get off the step" (he could get off the step at any point but he is inherently a good boy so stays on it until we say he can get off). Then more silence whilst he realizes that his parents are clearly not understanding what he wants so how to explain it them? ..hmmm... then "I want to get my bottom off the step" ...silence..."I want to get my bottom off the step and walk it to the bathroom".."my bottom doesn't want to be on the step mummy"
What do you say to that? I had a good chat with him about why he was on the step then we got on with our day.
Needless to say this morning he got dressed without any problems.
Saturday 17 November 2007
Thursday 15 November 2007
Changes
Big change
This is my first week as a non working person and it's great. I feel as though a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders and all this fuzzy stress noise has been taken out of my brain. I am still doing a few things for my EX work place but I get paid a daily rate and do it when it suits me.
I did have a few panicked moments late last week when I looked at our bank statements and thought how will we manage without my salary (not that it was that great but it was something!!). I think I am worried about the financial side of things because I feel that a lot of the care that we have been able to find for Tom since leaving hospital has been privately funded. His second ear..his speech therapy...his physio... Then I think about the long term and put things into perspective. Friends, family and the meningitis trust have been and continue to be very generous and help us fund 'Tom's recovery', so actually having more time with him is much more important right now. I think he loves the new pace of life. The big things I have noticed are that I have time to enjoy being with him and to turn his speech and physio therapy into games. Last night Tom started feeding me imaginary Green Eggs and Ham. It was so funny- he kept putting imaginary spiders in them. I also had time to get him to help me put things in cupboards which is part of his physio - reaching up at different heights and in different directions. Last week our time together was so rushed that I didn't have time to make a game out of tidying up or pretend eating.
We have some other big changed coming up -
Tom will start nursery in January. He has got a place at the local preschool attached to the school. It'll be two and half hours every morning which I'm sure he'll love. He has been going to a childminder since he was 11 months old but it's different in that he was often the only child there and it's in her home. It feels like a big step as he'll be completely mainstreamed. The school have made some adaptations for him in terms of putting in a door and carpeting an area to reduce noise. We are going on a couple of pre-visits with him and also going to a training session with our teacher of the deaf. I think it's a bit daunting for her because she usually does the training without the parents being there but we feel it's important that we input into it. We haven't really worked out what we'll say yet...any advice greatly appreciated but we are thinking in terms of practical issues such as how to put his hat on without his "ears" falling off.
***since originally posting this I have decided not to 'publicise' one of our changes so have deleted part of my post. Apologies to those of you who have commented on this 'event' as I have also had to delete your comments. Thanks for commenting though :) ***
This is my first week as a non working person and it's great. I feel as though a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders and all this fuzzy stress noise has been taken out of my brain. I am still doing a few things for my EX work place but I get paid a daily rate and do it when it suits me.
I did have a few panicked moments late last week when I looked at our bank statements and thought how will we manage without my salary (not that it was that great but it was something!!). I think I am worried about the financial side of things because I feel that a lot of the care that we have been able to find for Tom since leaving hospital has been privately funded. His second ear..his speech therapy...his physio... Then I think about the long term and put things into perspective. Friends, family and the meningitis trust have been and continue to be very generous and help us fund 'Tom's recovery', so actually having more time with him is much more important right now. I think he loves the new pace of life. The big things I have noticed are that I have time to enjoy being with him and to turn his speech and physio therapy into games. Last night Tom started feeding me imaginary Green Eggs and Ham. It was so funny- he kept putting imaginary spiders in them. I also had time to get him to help me put things in cupboards which is part of his physio - reaching up at different heights and in different directions. Last week our time together was so rushed that I didn't have time to make a game out of tidying up or pretend eating.
We have some other big changed coming up -
Tom will start nursery in January. He has got a place at the local preschool attached to the school. It'll be two and half hours every morning which I'm sure he'll love. He has been going to a childminder since he was 11 months old but it's different in that he was often the only child there and it's in her home. It feels like a big step as he'll be completely mainstreamed. The school have made some adaptations for him in terms of putting in a door and carpeting an area to reduce noise. We are going on a couple of pre-visits with him and also going to a training session with our teacher of the deaf. I think it's a bit daunting for her because she usually does the training without the parents being there but we feel it's important that we input into it. We haven't really worked out what we'll say yet...any advice greatly appreciated but we are thinking in terms of practical issues such as how to put his hat on without his "ears" falling off.
***since originally posting this I have decided not to 'publicise' one of our changes so have deleted part of my post. Apologies to those of you who have commented on this 'event' as I have also had to delete your comments. Thanks for commenting though :) ***
Right I actually have a few hours to myself now...what to do?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
