Good introduction to Autism

A lot of people ask me about Autism, and I can usually rattle off definitions pretty well, but I found an introduction article which sums a lot of it up (causes, symptoms etc.). It doesn't mention RDI, the therapy we are doing, and it's a rather clinical summary, but it's good if you want a quick 'Autism For Dummies' introduction :)

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Myths

Some important facts

There's a lot of info flying around about, "This therapy doesn't work, don't do it"...."This treatment is 'evidence-based'", etc.

ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) was the first major treatment for Autism and it's been around for around 35 years. It is currently the 'gold standard' Autism therapy. BUT.....

In recent separate studies conducted by the National Autistic Society, Dr Patricial Howlin, and Dr's Seltzer and Krauss, studies of between 68 and 450 people with autism showed that only an average of around 9% of those people held a steady job, 4% were living independently, and 17% held friendships with peers.

Is this all we should expect from the 'gold standard' treatment for Autism?

Hooray for the government!

Never thought I'd say that!

Today we officially got the go-ahead for our therapy payments. So we have $6000 to spend before June, and then another $6000 to spend for the next financial year.

With the RDI and OT we have planned for the boy, we shouldn't have any problem burning through that 6 grand before June. We're trying to power through those initial 10 parental education modules so we can get onto doing some actual stuff with him, but man, these modules are like going to school and doing homework! And who wants to do that after a busy day at work! But it's gotta be done....especially now since we need to burn up this $6000 in 5 months. Yes, whatever you don't use before June doesn't roll over.

Thanks Kev.....I knew you'd get something right sooner or later.

Now get your filthy hands off our Internet Service Providers in Australia!

I'm a hopeless blogger

Ok so it's a new year and so I guess I should be doing this blogging thing more often.

I really don't see how some people can write their blogs every day. They must have too much time on their hands, or no life. But then I see blogs of parents with autistic kids who write these huge passages of text every day. Who knows how they fit the time in. I'm not Bloggy McBlogstein. I can't write in a blog every day. I guess I prefer to let a bit build up, then blog it.

Anyway...see that picture up there? That's Northbridge, in a suburb of Sydney called, funnily enough, Northbridge. I've rarely driven across it in my life cause I've never really had to visit that area before. But now I do quite a bit. To a lot of people, it's just a nice old bridge to drive across. But to me now, it's the grand entrance to Autismland. Cause that's where our RDI therapist's office is.

We've started our parental RDI training. Before we even start interacting with the boy, us as his parents have to do an intensive online course to develop our basic understanding of RDI and what is expected of us. It involves watching & reading masses of information about RDI, and then answering questionnaires after each parental module about what we'd just read or watched. The therapist assesses our answers and we progress to the next module. I think there's about 10 parental modules to complete, each about an hour each - not including the time to fill out the questions afterwards.

That's right, we've gone back to school!

ASPECT Training

We just finished a 3 day course with ASPECT on Autism for parents. It was very intensive and very helpful. On the night of the end of the course, we implemented some techniques we learned during the course (using visual prompts to get the boy to get ready for bed), and he followed them to a T, whereas most of the time he would fight us to keep playing with his toys, or just throw a tantrum!

The more I learn about Autism, the dread & uncertainty I have is slowly replaced by fascination. I look at the boy and think, "So that's what's going on in that little head of yours..."

5 Mistakes parents make when deciding on a therapy

http://www.filefreak.com/pfiles/76096/FR_5BiggestMistakes.pdf

Or as this document rather scarily expounds....The Five Biggest Mistakes Parents Make When Choosing a Treatment Program for Their Child & How YOU Can Avoid Them

Someone sent me this document. If you look past the title that seems more at home on a tabloid current affairs show, it actually contains some worthwhile information. It does lean towards the RDI philosophy, which is the therapy we will be starting soon for the boy, and it makes a lot of sense.

I haven't been to their website yet so I can't tell you anything about the authors, but I guess I should credit where it came from - http://www.horizonsdrc.com/