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.
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