Parenting ASD Kids

Last weekend we (Mum, dad, two kids and a baby) went on a road-trip. The trip was approx. 1000km in 2-3 days. We set off on the Friday, back for Sunday.

Preparation

Dealing with autism and road trips was a new one for the family, generally one hour drives to family members was the maximum time. This time, 4 hours was the travelling time, so making sure it was fun was important.

Planning the route

We had a fixed destination to meet up with friends and tour around the area. So we got the maps and explore Australia which gives information on attractions, towns and other places of interest. There were a number of viable routes to take, including:

• Direct route with no place of interest
• Tourist route with places of interest

We went for the direct route on the way out and the tourist route on the way back.  Assuming James would cope with games and activities en route. Then we could take our time on the way back, so if James autistic behaviour became worse we could break the return drive into smaller amounts.

There are a number of other issues when considering a Autism road trip, namely:

• Suitable toileting
• Timely food breaks
• Boredom fillers

Fortunately our sat nav and maps were a great way of finding picnic and rest places.  The quickest out going route had very few places of interest, so outbound was based heavily on in car entertainment and other distractions.

Entertainment and Other Distractions

Australian roads can be long and boring between places of interest for kids generally. Boredom is the ‘elephant’ in the car. We made sure we had a number of techniques or making the trip more pleasant:

• DVD players
• Snack food
• Activity books
• Impromptu games (eye- spy, counting…etc.)
• Stopping for leg stretching
• Soccer ball for a quick stops

James doesn’t like the radio as “it hurts my ears” is the mantra when the radio is on.

The Road-trip

On beginning our Road-trip, we found James had a seemingly endless facination for our Sat Nav system and became upset when there was no map. This aligns with his interest with drawing roads, round -a-bouts and pedestrian crossings! One advantage of a Sat Nav, if James became upset we could quickly look up a local area of interest – stop and relax.

The Easy-Complex question

James had a tendency of asking “where we going”, at first this was quite funny – after the 500th time a little wearing, so plenty of food and game distractions came into play. The intensity would vary depending on our stops and setting off with a barrage of the question.

Meeting People and Attractions

During our road-trip we met many people and experienced some fun.  Through some research planning and being careful, the attractions we visited we ones which James would have no difficulty in enjoying.  Most the attractions had outside elements (i.e. maritime museum with a village, parks and wildlife reserves). The main focus was on fun and hopefully helping James not let his Autism get the better of him.

My Thoughts

Having a child who has Autism shouldn’t restrict your travel or activities, i’d suggest:

• Start with small local trips
• Plan and research well
• Contact places of interest to find out about their facilities
• Gather and prepare for meltdown tactics

Road-trips aren’t for everyone, try and have a go – no worries if it isn’t for you, maybe later when your ASD child is older.

I’d like to apologise to anyone who tried accessing my blog in the last couple of days. This site suffered a hack attack.

A hacker managed to load some javascript which ran a ‘splash screen’.  I was unable to access for a while to take the file off my server.

It’s is sad when hackers target sites which are personal and deal with sensitive issues like Autism. Also, this type of hacking is unfair on visitors who have come to view some information.  This site is personal non business, so is not highly protected, as i thought it is unnecessary for such actions.

I did try and understand why this has happend, perhaps i have offended someone with one of my Autism posts or perhaps the attack was purely random.  I say to the person email me and talk about the reasons.

The Jumba Team

Thanks to the technical team at Jumba.com.au who acted swiftly to advise and help me restore this blog. Cheers Guys!

Week 5 & 6: The Autism mind of Construction and Ingenuity.

Unfortunately i was unable to post my week 5 Autism biomedical treatment observations due to illness.  However, I’m feeling better and thought I’d put weeks 5 & 6 together.

Observations

Here are this weeks Observations

Language

James language is not really take much shape when considering he seems to be improving in other areas. Saying that – i did notice his words are more clearer and he is becoming louder. The mumbling and talking with his head down seems to be reducing.

Motor Skills

Over week 5 & 6 James has made big steps in using his finer and gross motor skills. Here are some of his achievements:

Building a toy garage – for months a three tier toy garage was in bits around the kids playroom. One morning James began collecting all the pieces and built the garage. He managed to correctly put the garage together and play with his cars with any assistance.

Connecting toy train tracks – Similar to the garage, James was able to find and build his train tracks with no assistance.

Helping hand with washing – Normally i wouldn’t have any help with the washing, on this occasion James took all the washing out of our front loader, placed the washing in the basket. He also assisted in carrying the washing to the line and handed me items of clothing for pegging.

Hooking and zipping jacket -The fiddly process of hooking and zipping a jacket was all over in an hour, in the past i’d have to give up through both our frustrations! Not now James manages to complete the task.

Sitting more at ease – One huge step forward over the last few weeks is James’ ability for sitting at home and in public. Normally his excitement would get the better of him, but he seems to be controlling his urge for running round.

Social Behaviour

I mentioned sitting  more at ease as a huge leap, well this is helping James autistic behaviour. As most parents of ASD kids know, social behaviour is a big systematic barrier, especially when our kids are having a meltdown, fidget or just can’t sit for long periods of time (i.e. 5 Min’s). I found with James ability to sit, comes his own observations and interest around him. Hence noting sitting at ease important.  His social behaviour is moving slowly in the right direction, he till needs prompting when greeting and say farewell, or even interacting with any speech.

Possible Reasons for Change

Part of the biomedical treatment is giving James a daily dose of fish oil.  Fish oil is known for being good for your body, for example:

• Cognitive functions
• Joint health
• Heart health
• Mood health

From information i have seen, I believe fish oil is rich in omega 3, a essential fatty acid which promotes healthy function of the brain. This suggests the reason of James’ improvement in cognitive and concentration, therefore helping him to participate and complete tasks more easily.

Since or decision for making an application for Autism school and our school tour, we are in the process of working through James’  application.  Our Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) team are being very useful in assisting with making the application process less stressful. All our documentation is in place and our ECI have performed a number of tests and support our application for James’ inclusion into the the Autism school.  One final stage  and vital part of the application process is for an independent educational psychologist to test James language and cognitive ability.

Educational Psychologist

The role of the psychologist is to oversee the application and test the application against James ability, making sure he benefits from the correct type of education.  This is a standard procedure when considering places and needs of the kids at autism school, incluing other specialist schools. The test is  the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI). The test has been used over decades and the current version is WPPSI – III.

About WPPSI

WPPSI essentially measures your ASD kid’s intelligence quotient (IQ) against the national statistics of all other children in the age range (2yrs 6 months to 7yrs 3 months). The scoring is in point increment bands where:

• below 69 (Extremely Low)
• 70-79  (Borderline)
• 80-89  (Low Average)
• 90-109 (Average)
• 110-119 (High  average)
• 120-129 (High)
• 130+ (Superior)

From observations of James test, a number of different methods were incorporated – pens, paper, objects and verbal instructions. The WPPSI concentrates on the following scales:

• Full Scale
• Verbal
• Performance

Generally the test is conducted in a suitable neutral place.

James’ WPPSI Test

The test for James was conducted at our ECI centre, where we had the opportunity to view through a one way glass. The Process was:

1. Introduction by the educational psychologist
2. The completion of the Full scale WPPSI test, approx 30 minutes
3. Post test interview

Fortunately, James being in familiar surroundings and having games with a lovely educational psychologist must of helped him settle quickly – i think i was more nervous of her!  I had a number of emotions after my initial uncertainty about the test. I think being proud of James having a go was driving my thoughts. Watching him from the observation room was wonderful to see how he was performing.

On completing the test i was asked to attend a short post test interview. The interview was filling in background history with all the informational documents the psychologist had been given. The ultimate aim was for the psychologist was to report on James performance and his educational needs and suitability for an appropriate school (i.e. our application to autism school).

From the information i received during the interview, James’ Autism is causing language delays, while his cognitive reasoning is good.  Furthermore,  in comparison with his initial psychology report he is making a big progress with his cognitive skills.  Apparently there has been a large increase in these skills, so giving a wider gap. His concentration excellent and his ‘coding’ of shapes.  James’ worst performance was his language, this was as expected-  since his diagnosis we found his visual understanding forming more quickly while is verbal communication was and still is very weak. I look forward to the full report in the next few weeks.

My Take

I came away from the test in a positive mood, knowing James is showing progress and his Autism Spectrum Disorders are not all equally bad, but areas of his Autism are improving. I was also relieved he hasn’t a intellectual ability and has an ability to improve in a nurturing environment an autism school can provide.

Financial Planning For Autism

This is a series of posts on financial planning for Autism. As we know, Autism is a lifelong disorder which can be costly to manage. Government funding and assistance is finite and will finish at typical milestones.

When funding or assistance finishes, extra pressure will be on current household finances, this needs to be addressed.

The Purpose of My Financial Assessment

I was contemplating the future of James’ speech therapy, occupational therapy and his general development through his transitional years. The stark realisation, Government funding made available for early intervention will finish. Therefore i need to consider financial planning – sooner – rather than later. The assessment was to reveal the families current financial status and give a platform for building financial goals.

Spend Spend Spend!

I began making my financial planning comparing the family budget against our outgoing amounts. The first step was to clear our kitchen table, grab all our receipts bills for the last three months and the lap top. Not forgetting a large piece of paper and pen! My aim was to:

• Organise all receipts into piles
• Compile a cash flow list
• Mark up a top ten of spending (indicating low, medium and high priority)
• Compare online banking statements with receipts (catch all those small receipts)
• Make a list of funding finishing dates

Recording My Financial Assessment

I made sure i began a recording all my research from the available information, I made a primary list of monthly cash flows, for example:

• Income sources (i.e. wages, savings interest, investments…etc.)
  • Wages
  • Interest on savings
  • Investments
  • Miscellaneous funds (i.e Government child support)
• All Out Going expenses
  • Mortgage
  • Utility Bills
  • Health/Medical
  • Vehicle/Transport
  • Social /Entertainment
  • Debt (i.e. credit cards)
• Other – Tax returns

The list is important, you get an instant visual understanding of you cash flow and where problem area’s are.  I also made a top ten list of spending and prioritized the importance. This helped me focus on my objective of goal setting.

Our Realistic Financial position

I found the process of analysing the information a mixture of shocks, surprises with some expectations.  Those ‘drive by’ fast food places were moving up the charts, this was the shocker.  Toys and gifts were the surprise while medical/treatment bills outside funding were the highest, as expected.  I also took into account house bills and mortgage repayments on the move from recent interest or inflation hikes.

The family financial landscape was overcast, not sunny, but not rainy day stuff. This was my realisation we’re ok, but not really in terms of future needs. The important parts are our home finance is intact – great we have a roof over our heads.  Our downside is we are leaking small amounts here and there on treats and superfluous stuff:

• Too much fast food
• Unnecessary gifts
• Lollies
• Excessive use of some utilities (i.e. gas and electricity)

These small amounts were regular small enough to be missed over a week but more noticeable under scrutiny of the accounts. This may not seem too bad, but then you consider this is a one income family and we need to be careful.

Micro Managing Our Money Usage

While auditing our financial position, i was learning we were avoiding controlling our budget carefully and failing managing on a daily level. I also became aware we were becoming experts in justifying  our means or reasons for that purchase.  It appears I’m excellent at avoiding the issues and applauding the successes – this is not the way! Tackling the issues and admiring the successes is the way.

Controlling daily financial budgets also means the administration, something  which needs attention.  One tip is to have one place a box or container for every record of a transactions (i.e. receipts). Build a habit on every expenditure  to deposit a record in the box.  Saves hunting around for missing bits of paper!

Transaction Observations

I also noticed we had a mixture of manually paying and automatically paying some regular bills or invoices. Therefore leading to confusing transactions and difficult to track. Again, this is a preference of control when setting up accounts and paying periodic bills.

Assessment Conclusion

In a nutshell i drew all our financial receipts, invoices and statements into a pile on the kitchen table. With a pen paper and grim determination i worked through the mass of information to form an assessment and a realistic representation of our monthly wealth health.

The next step is to begin building our achievable financial goals.