Voyage of Discovery Part 3

At the end of grade 1 Techno Boy had learnt very little. His teacher had just ignored him, allowed him to go his own way, do what he liked and not what he didn’t. He was a quite child, didn’t disturb the class so she didn’t see any problems. He never had meltdowns, he never made much noise, and he also didn’t learn to write or spell anything. At the end of grade one he could write his name, that was it. He could count to 1000, he could add and subtract, he could read a little, but he couldn’t write. Amber was writing sentences at the end of grade 1, so we began to worry. Looked like things weren’t going well after all, we were very unhappy with his teacher.

Grade 2, well the whole class was behind, but he had a wonderful teacher, she was our lifesaver. One day after school she asked me if Techno Boy could have Aspergers syndrome, as he had many behaviours similar to her nephew who had recently been diagnosed with this. We took him back to the visiting paediatrician who said, no chance, he is too social. So we continued worrying. He hated school. We decided that he couldn’t have aspergers, but he clearly had a learning difficulty, he still couldn’t spell anything, he would just put any random letters down. So we took him to a private paediatrician who specialised in learning difficulties. She sat with him for half an hour and spoke to him, got him to read to her, and really paid attention to him. She suggested he might have aspergers. So we started down the path to get a diagnosis. At first we went public, but a friend on the inside told me we could be waiting over 12 months, we just didn’t’ have the time, he was starting grade 3 and still couldn’t spell. So we went private, got a diagnosis within 6 weeks, and a teaching aid the next week.

After that our journey got a interesting, we had to travel to Perth regularly for speech therapy as the local service only does early intervention. Sadly our diagnosis came so late that Techno Boy was not eligible for Early Intervention, so we had to travel regularly to Perth and pay through the nose for help. Still it helped a lot, after a year he could tell a story that was almost coherent, it had a beginning, middle and an end. Only problem was that the middle went all over the country before we got to the end. Still life is better now.

We continued to allow Techno Boy the freedom to be himself at home, but at school he had to learn to fit in. So many simple things were difficult, like closing the door in the toilets, blowing his nose when it was runny (still haven’t mastered this one), covering his mouth when coughing. Sitting quietly when waiting. Understanding when is a good time to ask a question, understanding which questions are OK in the class, and which should be asked privately afterwards. School is hard for Techno Boy, every day he spends half an hour winding down when he gets home, then he pops in for a bit of afternoon tea before another half hour of winding down out side.

Amber, Lily and Possum accept him for what he is and help him through many potential problems. They are wonderful children. Possum arriving in our lives when Techno Boy was 9 was a great thing for him. Babies don’t speak but they communicate so much through other means. Techno Boy learnt a lot about non verbal communication through having a baby in the house. He also learnt a lot about caring for others and helping those who are less able than he is. Having a baby in the house taught him about sharing and about being selfless. We are so lucky that we had Possum when we did, Techno Boy really learnt a lot. We watch Possum do things, and remember that Techno Boy didn’t do them. Sadly Possum is already more advanced socially than his older brother.

One car down

We went to Perth last week, we often go there for a few days during the holidays. On Thursday Hubby and Amber went to a gym coaching course. They learned heaps. The other three kids and I took the bus to Kings Park and had a ball. Possum loved the bus, first time my country kids have been on public transport, they found it really exciting. We caught up with some friends, Thursday was a great day. Friday wasn’t so good.

On Friday morning we all woke up after two bad nights, so were tired and grumpy. We headed to Uni to pick up my text book, and to have a family photo whith Hubby in his academic regalia (he graduated from his MBA earlier this year). Things started to go wrong, we did get my text book and some other useful books, however there was a graduation on, so the line for photos was too long. We decided to prebook next time.

So we headed home, drove down Berwick Street towards Canning Hwy, we were slowing down for the intersection and as we drove past the fast food place, with a van to our left, a 4WD pulled out and hit us. He couldn't see us past the van, which turned in. I was chatting with the kids when suddenly this huge maroon monster came straight at me. Luckily Hubby and the driver were aware and pulled away from each other, but we still crunched. The 4WD was attached to our front left wing, my door was blocked shut. We were stuck in the middle of a busy road, with four kids in the car and no way of getting away. Hubby got out and then Amber hopped out to help, I kept the other three in the car while I rang our insurance to see about help.

When the tow truck arrived we all hopped out and carefully crossed the road to a vacant block and watched the tow truck diver separate our vehicles and then we road in the tow truck to the panel beaters. Another excitement for the kids, but definitely something we could have done without. We spent the next three hours at the panel beaters talking to our insurance, and the other driver’s insurance, trying to sort out how we would get home. Our insurance was happy for us to catch the train home at 7am on Saturday, so they were happy to pay for accommodation on Friday night. We weren’t happy with that. Imagine trying to cart 6 people’s Perth luggage, plus all the miscellaneous junk from the car home on a train. Not only that to get to the train station on time we’d have to get up at 5 am. After more discussion, we organized a car from one group and accommodation from the other, so we spent another night in Perth, and drove home the next day.

The staff at the panel beaters were so helpful, they gave us a good idea of what was reasonable to expect from insurance, and they were so happy to have us crowding their office. They offered the kids food and drinks and luckily they had some Garfield comics so the older kids were entertained. They were great.

On Saturday morning we picked up an 8 seater, packed all our junk into it and came home. Must say I didn't like it, it doesn't like going round curves faster than 60 so once we got out of the city, it was very frustrating, it just didn't want to turn. We definitely aren't getting one of those if our car is written off. Actually I hope the car isn't written off, as I like it and we can't really afford another, even with the insurance.

Voyage of Discovery Part 2

When Lily was 3 months old and Techno Boy was 3 ¾ he started kindy, this was when the problems began. We had never had any trouble with him before that, but at kindy they tried to jam our square peg into a round hole, and he just didn’t fit. Amber had really enjoyed kindy, she just slotted into the routines and patterns of school with ease. She walked into the room, saw how others behaved and followed the cues, she saw what the teacher wanted and gave it to her. Techno Boy saw none of this. He saw a room full of toys and wanted to play. He was meant to go 4 half days, which I felt was too much for a 3 year old, so I sent him three half days. Within a short while I realised that was too much for him and kept him home another day. He didn’t enjoy kindy, I couldn’t understand it, Amber had had so much fun. One day he came home and asked me “when will I be good” I nearly cried, he already was good, he was my wonderful boy, how could his teacher do this to him.

I took him to the visiting paediatrician (when you live in the bush, that is what you get if you are lucky). He asked me lots of questions. Watched the boy play, and heard him talk to me, asked a few questions of the boy about the toys and got quite sensible answers. His diagnosis was poor parenting, too much TV, not enough interaction. He also thought that we weren’t paying him enough attention because of Lily, but Lily was an easy baby, and I could do anything while feeding or holding her. So we went home and worked on all these things, didn’t help at all. I watched him with the TV, he didn’t really watch it, it was just background noise, something that Amber was watching.

He was a lot happier at pre primary, Lily loved it too, they both enjoyed doing art at the school on my parent helper days. Techno Boy still had problems, and the teacher was worried, still at the beginning we thought it was just the result of the hard year he had at kindy. Half way through we had him assessed by the school psych, IQ test, query ASD. Well he ceilinged the test, that means he got so many right that they ran out of questions. We had been considering holding him back because he clearly wasn’t coping, but after this we decided maybe he was just too bright for this, and would do better when he started real learning. So we progressed him to grade one.

I explained his difficulties to his new teacher and she just ignored me. After all she was the expert, I was just some ignorant mother, I didn’t realise she had ignored me until later. I checked in regularly, she reassured me, “Techno Boy is doing really well, No problems.” I relaxed, we had made the right decision, he just needed the extra stimulation of real learning. We sat back and enjoyed our year. Techno Boy wasn’t really happy at school, but he didn’t complain. I heard from older boys that he was doing a few odd things, so I sorted them myself. The teacher was still saying he was doing really well. It was during grade one that we began to think Lily was a social genius, she was more socially adept than her brother.

Voyage of Discovery

Having kids is a voyage of discovery. So many different things to discover while bringing them up, so many gems of personality to help unearth. I feel though that our journey with Techno Boy has been a bit more stormy than with the other three (although we are only beginning Possum’s journey so no idea what it will bring). This is because Techno Boy has apsergers syndrome. He is different to the rest of us.

When Amber was three, Techno Boy entered our lives. Amber was a delight, and so was Techno Boy. They were very different, but that was OK, all children are different and of course boys and girls are different. We were happy. Amber was a strong personality and had taught us to let our child form there own niche in life. In our house we didn’t force square pegs into round holes, we let the little pegs create their own little holes that fit them perfectly. This was Amber’s gift to our family, children are individuals and need to make their own holes. We needed this gift to help us deal with Techno Boy. We had learned the lesson so well that we had no trouble with Techno Boy, he was a delight just like his older sister.

I had the occasional moment of concern. I remember thinking that he wasn’t getting as much attention as his sister had. I remember noticing that I didn’t play that babble game with him, we didn’t babble back and forth like I had with Amber. So I tried to play it with him, and he just wasn’t interested, so I accepted that he didn’t want to play that. After all he was an individual, it was his own choice. Another gift Amber had given us was the knowledge that breastfeeding was good for toddlers too, we had breastfed until she was 2 ¾, so we did the same for Techno Boy, in fact we fed him until he was a week shy of his third birthday. This gave him lots of cuddle time, lots of time connected to me, lots of time to feel loved and to feel safe and comfortable. Looking back I feel he really benefited from this. It was so good for him to be breastfed and held close until he was three.

When he was 3 ½ Lily was born, she was an easy baby. Lily slotted into our lives with ease, she went anywhere anywhen with no hassles. She could feed any time and sleep anywhere. Life just flowed around her, and I just took her everywhere. Her birth changed nothing, we still took Amber and Techno Boy to kindy gym, ABA meetings and school. Life really didn’t change when Lily came along, she was a delight to add to our family, fitted in with no hassles. I sometimes think Techno Boy didn’t even realise she was there. Other times he knew full well, after all I did have to sit and feed her sometimes, so he was no longer the youngest and centre of attention. He had to move out of my bed and into his own, life did move on for Techno Boy, but he was fine with it.

Well, I didn't get the job

On the 13^th of June I blogged about how busy my life was about to get, with a job in the offing. I applied for the job and on the next Wednesday I had an interview, at very short notice. Luckily hubby could look after Possum at 1:30 so I could sell myself to the local librarian. Sadly someone else with better qualifications came along. They were looking for someone to run the kids programs and she has early childhood qualifications. Of course I haven’t finished my library studies yet, so don’t out rank her. So luckily (yes it is good news) I don’t have a job yet. The only reason I applied was that it was a permanent job, if I had got the job it would have been extremely inconvenient for us now, but terrific for our future. I really can’t afford a job for at least 12 months, maybe 18 when Possum starts full time pre primary.

I’m looking forward to studying this coming semester, should be great, and glad that I won’t have to fit it around work as well as family. Interestingly enough one of my great friends from school has recently started working at my University, luckily she won’t be teaching the units I’m enrolled in, otherwise it might have been a bit tricky. Still I’m so proud of her for doing so well with her library career, it is great to see your friends succeed.