Hallo world!!
It was on the 08th of February 2012 that we received yet another beautiful gift, in the form of a baby boy. In 2010 we had been blessed with a baby girl, on that day I could very well say I was also reborn. I just didn't know such love exist inside one. My husband had named our daughter Okuhle (Nguni name for all that beautiful) and I gave our son the name Mvelo (Nguni name for nature). Mvelo resonated with me, something inside my spirit gave me the name and just like that it was to be.
On this blog I will be reflecting on our family journey with autism, I will be sharing with you our triumphs, tough time, magical and proudest moments.
The diagnosis
Our son has always been a happy go chappie, full of energy, fearless, curios, keeping up with him meant getting exhausted before him. We have always find that funny about him and somehow thought"it a boy thing' all boys have lots of steam to burn. It became apparent to us that something was a miss with our nature boy when he was not meeting some of the key milestone that came natural with our daughter. The speech delays, the lack of eye contact, poor listening skills in class and the ability to slow down were all the things that made us sit up and take notice. The journey to diagnosis was not an easy one, it took a collaborative effort between the creche, speech therapist , audiologist, psychologist, pediatricians and pediatric neuro psychologist for us to get the diagnosis.
Teach me how to navigate my world
Mainstream creches did not work for our son, we started investigating special needs school where they could offer teaching methods suitable for our son. We started getting introduced to other methods of learning other than conventional methods, this we combined with speech and occupational therapy. Along the way we came across great teachers, by the likes of Cindy Furley from Broad Horizons, Marchelle and Jess from Michael Academy. Mvelo got introduced to learning with pictures, also known as PECS methods of learning. At home and at school he was using picture boards to help him know the daily routine. In the mixture of learning with pictures, music, tv, books and constant repetition of things learned. Mvelo's language and understanding of meaning behind the words started to happen. His vocabulary started to increase, however speaking was still not something that came naturally, he needed prompting or at most times speak only when under pressure.
Mom Wait for me
That was his first real sentence, obviously he said it completely unawares. I had observe with my son that he has so much vocabulary in him, but was just so blase to release it out. This is partly due to lack of confidence, little laziness due to knowing that people will figure out what he need, or generally being unsure if he can speak like others do.
Meltdowns
We have had our fair share of those and still are relishing a few till this day. I have been around many people who look at you and your child funny when they see meltdowns. Meltdowns and tantrums are closely linked as they present an untrained child to many who just needs a proper hiding. At some stage of life before having kids, I use to think like that. Children with autism tend to get meltdowns for a variety of reasons, partly due to a change in routine, no proper communication prior the change, sensory overloads or at times just because they are kids.
There have been many meltdown moments with my son, ones that stands out currently are our MacDonald moments, no matter how many kiddies meals we buy from there it somehow is never enough, passing by that place does something to his pyche, no matter how hard yo explain that we had Macdonalds yesterday today let try something else. It never really is enough. Another one is the day we went for a Sunday beach walk and mind you nature boy learns by observing. In the middle of our beach walk, he saw that cars are driving around the traffic circle and so he also wanted to walk around the traffic circle as it is the correct way of doing it. After numerous explanations to say cars drive around and pedestrians doesn't need to, he kept shouting "wrong way". All passbyers who didnt know what was happening obviously thought all sort of things about this 5 year old who couldn't be held as he insisted, kicking and screaming "wrong way"
Getting lost
Malls, restaurants, large parks, churches, peoples houses are not our best places, cause most of the time it always ends with a treasure hunt. My son not only has autism but has a high functioning one combined with ADHD, meaning sitting down for long is torturous for him. He thrives on speed and finds the chase thrilling as it gives him more gusto to go forward. In all of his 5 years we have lost him over 5 times, it start with an excited face, the need to play again and again non stop, and then the next minute vanished. We have made use of mall securities,and their security cameras so many times that most of them cannot forget the name Mvelo. We now have resorted to always putting a bracelet with his name and our numbers for just in case moments.
Autism and siblings
It was on the 08th of February 2012 that we received yet another beautiful gift, in the form of a baby boy. In 2010 we had been blessed with a baby girl, on that day I could very well say I was also reborn. I just didn't know such love exist inside one. My husband had named our daughter Okuhle (Nguni name for all that beautiful) and I gave our son the name Mvelo (Nguni name for nature). Mvelo resonated with me, something inside my spirit gave me the name and just like that it was to be.
On this blog I will be reflecting on our family journey with autism, I will be sharing with you our triumphs, tough time, magical and proudest moments.
The diagnosis
Our son has always been a happy go chappie, full of energy, fearless, curios, keeping up with him meant getting exhausted before him. We have always find that funny about him and somehow thought"it a boy thing' all boys have lots of steam to burn. It became apparent to us that something was a miss with our nature boy when he was not meeting some of the key milestone that came natural with our daughter. The speech delays, the lack of eye contact, poor listening skills in class and the ability to slow down were all the things that made us sit up and take notice. The journey to diagnosis was not an easy one, it took a collaborative effort between the creche, speech therapist , audiologist, psychologist, pediatricians and pediatric neuro psychologist for us to get the diagnosis.
Teach me how to navigate my world
Mainstream creches did not work for our son, we started investigating special needs school where they could offer teaching methods suitable for our son. We started getting introduced to other methods of learning other than conventional methods, this we combined with speech and occupational therapy. Along the way we came across great teachers, by the likes of Cindy Furley from Broad Horizons, Marchelle and Jess from Michael Academy. Mvelo got introduced to learning with pictures, also known as PECS methods of learning. At home and at school he was using picture boards to help him know the daily routine. In the mixture of learning with pictures, music, tv, books and constant repetition of things learned. Mvelo's language and understanding of meaning behind the words started to happen. His vocabulary started to increase, however speaking was still not something that came naturally, he needed prompting or at most times speak only when under pressure.
Mom Wait for me
That was his first real sentence, obviously he said it completely unawares. I had observe with my son that he has so much vocabulary in him, but was just so blase to release it out. This is partly due to lack of confidence, little laziness due to knowing that people will figure out what he need, or generally being unsure if he can speak like others do.
Meltdowns
We have had our fair share of those and still are relishing a few till this day. I have been around many people who look at you and your child funny when they see meltdowns. Meltdowns and tantrums are closely linked as they present an untrained child to many who just needs a proper hiding. At some stage of life before having kids, I use to think like that. Children with autism tend to get meltdowns for a variety of reasons, partly due to a change in routine, no proper communication prior the change, sensory overloads or at times just because they are kids.
There have been many meltdown moments with my son, ones that stands out currently are our MacDonald moments, no matter how many kiddies meals we buy from there it somehow is never enough, passing by that place does something to his pyche, no matter how hard yo explain that we had Macdonalds yesterday today let try something else. It never really is enough. Another one is the day we went for a Sunday beach walk and mind you nature boy learns by observing. In the middle of our beach walk, he saw that cars are driving around the traffic circle and so he also wanted to walk around the traffic circle as it is the correct way of doing it. After numerous explanations to say cars drive around and pedestrians doesn't need to, he kept shouting "wrong way". All passbyers who didnt know what was happening obviously thought all sort of things about this 5 year old who couldn't be held as he insisted, kicking and screaming "wrong way"
Getting lost
Malls, restaurants, large parks, churches, peoples houses are not our best places, cause most of the time it always ends with a treasure hunt. My son not only has autism but has a high functioning one combined with ADHD, meaning sitting down for long is torturous for him. He thrives on speed and finds the chase thrilling as it gives him more gusto to go forward. In all of his 5 years we have lost him over 5 times, it start with an excited face, the need to play again and again non stop, and then the next minute vanished. We have made use of mall securities,and their security cameras so many times that most of them cannot forget the name Mvelo. We now have resorted to always putting a bracelet with his name and our numbers for just in case moments.
Autism and siblings
Comments
Post a Comment