Don't we all love positive feedback?!

Today as I picked up Callum from daycare, one of his teachers came over to me, telling me about how he has almost had her in tears these last 2 days. Daycare has set up a 'Bob the builder'corner - bit like home corner for the kids to play in. Apparently Callum is loving this and has been initiating play with the other kids in this area. Callum goes and gets everyone a hard hat to wear. Today he even gave the dolls and his teacher one. He has also been playing with a big ball and rolling it to another child and taking turns, waiting for the other child to roll it back to him. He has also been asking for more bread at lunch time - actually using the word bread. It must have been the cutest thing - apparently he was sitting at the lunch table waiting to say grace, with his hands pressed together singing kumbya. He still shouts hooray when grace has ended but they accept this as a compliment and not Callum being disrespectful. The initiating play is a big thing, and she was so proud of how far he has come along in his interactions with the other children and how quickly his skills are improving.

And so it begins...

Walked into daycare yesterday to pick Callum up, and there were three little boys being times out in the baby yard. Thought nothing of it other than, thank goodness Callum isn't in the mix. greeted Callum and was called over by the educator who marched the 3 boys out and asked them what did they want to say to Callum, all 3 chimed "sorry Callum" at which time Callum had burst into tears. Apparently he had been playing happily and the 3 had set up on him in the back corner and were being very nasty to him - pushing, shoving, hitting, teasing. They had to stay in time out until their mother's arrived so they could be told what they ahd done. And so it begins...the life I didn't want for my son is coming to fruition already - being picked on because he is different. How do I stop this self fulfilling prophecy??

A very long time...

Well we nearly have a three year old! A lot has happened since we last blogged. Callum's book is different to "the book" becasue Callum has Autism it has been decided by the powers that be. He is communicating well with us, but still is not talking in sentences, although his phrases are getting longer. It has been heart breaking to get this diagnosis. All through my pregnancy I prayed that he wouldn't have it, and as he grew and was being checked off on "the book" I hoped he wouldn't, but it wasn't to be. Being a teacher I've taught chidlren who have autism and have seen the difficulties for them and their families - not having friends, not being invited to birthday parties or play dates. Callum already has children dobbing on him at daycare for his behaviour. Because he doesn't have the words to tell them that their games look fun and he wants to join in, when he gets excited he hits. We are working on this with him and trying to help daycare where we can, but we don't have any social circle with little children for him to practise with at home so he only gets it at daycare. Next year he will be going into a program to try and teach him the social skills he needs and language skills so that hopefully he will be able to attend school full time in 2015. Otherwise he will ahve to remain in the program and attend school part time. With the research we have done, there seems to be no clear answer as to why autism develops in children. So far the theories I have read are - being an older mum is a factor, stress during pregnancy, hereditary and the 12 month vaccination shot. Well tick off 3 of those - I was a month and a half off being 39 when I gave birth to Callum - a geriatric pregnancy it was labelled - thank you very much! there was definitely stress during my pregnancy, and yes, his language according to "the book" was advanced at 12 months and then it stopped. As far as we know, no one in the family has been diagnosed with autism. Some of the other research says that due to developmental stages, we shouldn't be looking into autism until he is at least 4 years old. I was happy with that, but the medical profession is adamant that he has autism. But a visit with the paediatrician came away with a verbal diagnosis of mildly autistic/high functioning - but not enough to make it formal with a written diagnosis. ???? It's doing my head in! We go back to the paediatrcian in two weeks to get the written diagnosis that every is adamant he needs. See what happens then.