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/

Having fun with acronyms!

When you enter the world of autism, there are more acronyms & buzz words to learn than your typical office environment. Here are some of my favourites:

ABA "Applied Behavior Analysis"

ADD "Attention Deficit Disorder"

ADHD "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder"

ADOS "Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale"

ASD "Autistic Spectrum Disorder"

PDD-NOS "Pervasive Development Disorder--Not Otherwise Specified" (A personal favourite of mine)

and last but certainly not least....

RDI "Relationship Development Intervention"

This of course isn't all of them by any means, but these are the ones I've been personally introduced to so far. I sound pretty cool when I rattle them off now.

Autism groups warn of payout delays

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/21/2396881.htm?section=justin

"Autistic children under the age of six are eligible for $12,000 over two years for early intervention services and parents need to contact an adviser to access the funding."

This has just been announced and it's awesome. We are eligible for this. We are leaning towards RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) as a therapy but the cost is extraordinary. The government funding would certainly help.

We are now in the process of talking to RDI practitioners. Only 3, cause we want to get started on this sooner than later, but we need to shop around and weigh up the costs. All 3 are on the board to receive the government funding.

The beginning

Ok well it's not really the beginning beginning. We're about 3 months into this thing, after the diagnosis of an ASD for our 4 year old boy.

We were advised about the grieving process by the people who advise you on these things, which we duly followed.

And now we're firmly entrenched in the world of Autism, which is a world that exists within our own, which you would never know about if your life or someone close to you hasn't been touched by Autism. It's a world of conflicting therapies, acronyms, funding, support groups, research, tears, heartache and uncertainty.

This blog will kind of act as my own personal therapy to get through and finally accept this. If it helps anyone else, it's a bonus. Maybe it will help others knowing that someone else is going through the same thing as they are.

And maybe, if enough information and experience gets recorded here, this blog *will* act as some kind of manual. Cause you don't get a manual when your kid is diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.