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Well it has been another busy week here! I guess I should start with the visit from the Speech and Language Therapist. She came out on Monday to see how Daniel is getting on and find out how he has progressed over the last six weeks as we have had her assistant coming out once a week to do a session of therapy at home with Daniel. We did a play session of therapy as normal, with the SALT just observing. Daniel was really in good form this week and was enjoying the games. He and Matthew played really nicely doing turn taking games such as playing with the ball run and playing with Flashcards. It is nice because Matthew is actually picking up words as well through Daniel’s therapy. The therapist uses Makaton Sign Language and gets Daniel to ask for ’more’ before he is allowed to carry on with a game he likes to play – in order to encourage him to learn social interaction and that he can affect outcomes by his own communication. Daniel gets stressed when he is made to ask for ‘more’ as he would rather not communicate. So the therapist repeats the sign and word, and Matthew was picking it up and he was signing and saying ‘more’!!! It was so cute. He is only 16 months, but he is picking up basic sign language and speaking words in appropriate context. It is very cute. Matthew also likes the Flashcards. Anyway, then we had a chat with the SALT. She was asking how Daniel is getting on at nursery, how large his vocabulary is now and other such things. She mentioned the Flashcards I use, as she knows I use Baby BumbleBee from USA Flashcards & DVDs. I told her he is on Level 3 of 5 now. And I also mentioned that Daniel can count to over 30 now, and he can read every letter of the alphabet consistently. She was very suprised at this and said that this means that Daniel is ‘gifted’!! This is really heart warming. I know he is still very behind in other areas. I know he doesn’t eat food, he still drinks from a baby bottle, and he doesn’t walk much outside; but he is well above average in other areas. So I feel really heartened by that. You must focus on the positives I feel.

On Wednesday evening we went to Daniel’s Parent’s Evening at his Nursery. They were very enthusiastic. They say that he has come on in leaps and bounds since xmas. This I would definitely agree with from what I see at home. They are very thorough at Daniel’s Nursery, and they keep a book, where they put photos, and drawings he has done, and record milestones he has achieved etc. They keep the Key Stages paperwork in this book and tick off which milestones he has achieved according to his age bracket etc. When you look at all this paperwork, Daniel is actually doing pretty good, and I am very hopeful for his future, that he is slowly catching up. At least the gap is not widening. That was always my fear. So all is good there. However, he does seem to be taking ages to go to sleep again at the moment. I don’t know whether his mind is more active at present for some reason, but some nights when I put him to bed, he can still be awake at ten oclock when we want to start thinking of going to bed! It is a bit of a nightmare. Then, of course, he sleeps in late. So I think I need to try and break that cycle this week!!

Yesterday Daniel’s glasses arrived from Glasgow. That was very efficient. Only 7 days. They are so cute!! This tiny little pair of red specs with reddish frames. I have ordered some ties from the Internet that you can use to secure children’s glasses behind their ears so they don’t keep pulling them off, but they have not arrived in the post yet. So we put Daniel’s new glasses on. He looked around the room, and you could see him looking above them, then through them, then above them again. You could see that things looked very different for him. But then he kept taking them off. But I must admit, they are very dark. So we went out, and I tried putting them on him again, and he kept them on. We went for a bit of a walk, and he kept them on the whole time, and we think he may have appeared slightly more sure-footed which is great. When we got home, we waited for the ultimate test. Because up until now Daniel always clambers over the threshold to get into the house on all fours. But yesterday he walked up, had a look, then stepped up normally into the house without having to get down on his hands and knees. It was fantastic to see. Just little things like that are such huge milestones for us. This obviously means that the glasses are working and that it is opening up Daniel’s depth of vision immensely, which will only improve his quality of life and make him more confident and self-assured. I am over the moon. The only thing is that he doesn’t seem to want to wear them indoors at the moment. So we shall see. But hopefully when the ties arrive in the post I may be able to persuade him to wear them for longer periods. So that makes the rather eventful trip to Glasgow worthwhile and I am very happy.

Now the boys are both finally asleep and hubby has just got in from work so am going to enjoy some wine, chocolate and TV!!

Goodnight to all and I hope you are all well and had a good Fathers’ Day!

Sally www.limemag.co.uk and www.digbyandsprout.co.uk and www.ict4autism.org