is it just me or.........

.........has our Becca been easier to handle the last few days???

I know she took bad on Wednesday evening and wanted to be in bed at 7pm. Unfortunately she's had a virus that has given her a sore throat and hacking cough plus a bit of a temperature so she's been off school on Thursday and Friday. Even taking this in mind we haven't had the usual 4pm daily round of war since Tuesday evening. Personally I would say its because she isn't in school rather than being ill because when I said I was going to go in and see the teachers for a small amount of work that she could do at home, she got just slightly agitated and tense; don't think it was just a coincidence!

Not impressed with her current teacher at the best of times as she doesn't seem to be taking into account Becca's point of view when I explain problems that Becca is having. Well the teaching assistant is just as bad; I'll say on a morning that she has a painful joint but then when I pick her up I get told it hasn't bothered her all day (yet Becca's come out saying it hurts)......*rolls eyes* someone figure out who is telling me the truth please????



Becca has finally gotten her appointment for her Occupational Therapy assessment. The OT has asked for two questionnaires to be filled in, one by school and the other by me. Got the school one back and I'm not happy with what they have put in it, they have accussed Becca as having daydreaming as her biggest problem at school grrrrrrrr When I asked Becca she said she doesn't daydream she's either thinking or bored!! Well we'll see what the OT thinks when we get to see them at the end of February.

On a good note I'm nearly finished filling in Becca's Disability Living Allowance claim form YIPPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! Just got one section to fill out but then need a very good friend of mine to fill it out one page saying how Becca's disability has affected her, should be fun lol ;) We're off on Tuesday to a Parent Support group run by CAMHS for other parents who are awaiting the formal diagnosis and their children who are in the system are thought to have ASD.

TTFN take care my friends xxxx

Stitching for 2011 - Update 2

Just thought I'd show you how far I'm coming along with my cottage. I'm really enjoying this kit but glad I made my parking system (see previous blogs) as now that I've got to the border where the flowers are its a constant changing of colours. You just get into the rythm of one colour and the block finishes lol :P

This is a closeup of the flowers that are
around the edge forming part of the border

Hope everyone is keeping well xxxx

Becca Update

I called a meeting with Becca's class teacher and the SENCO, we had this on Tuesday afternoon. We talked about Becca's recent CAMHS visit and discussed the couple of things that came out of that regarding school plus the fact I know had a prelimanary date for her MAAT appointment (yay!!! about blinking time).

I also asked the school how they saw Becca coping with school-life as Becca had come to me with a couple of problems for her. On the whole she has an adult working on her table with her and about another 4 kids but apparently to them thats not classed as being given extra support *shakes head*; I'm just wondering how she would cope without these adults working on the table, have a hunch that her work would detoriate rapidly if this support was withdrawn..... We were also informed that she is one of the quieter kids in the class until you get her interested then she'll put her hand up and answer questions. Teacher wasn't bothered about the fact that she was one of the quieter kids; the fact that is she is quiet within school raised a red flag for me considering that they know she has the ASD and social skills problems *duh* On a good side she has just been moved up a level in Maths and she loves this class so much so teacher said she seems to come alive in this one lol ;)

I told them about how Becca was perceiving things as on Friday she told me she had been told off for not getting some work done on time within class. I asked her why she hadn't got it done and she said that her wrist was starting to hurt while she was doing the writing but was too scared to tell the teacher incase she didn't get believed. I informed them that this stems from the last school where they were quick to dismiss what she said when giving the pain in her arm as the reason for not completing work; even to the extend that they didn't ring me on several occasions when she'd asked for some pain relief >:( Becca also had a problem recently that kids in the class were saying she was going out with a lad in her class but she wasn't and the fact that they won't listen to her is getting her down (she's only 9 btw) - school's reaction "oh that just sounds like kids being kids" grrrr they made my blood boil cos they didn't seem to take into account that Becca takes things quite literally when people say things.

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Because of all her problems that she will always face in life I have had to start looking for senior schools already to see what they can offer to her in the ways of support. Senior school is going to be a complete culture shock for her in the first place with having to keep changing rooms for each lesson plus having different teachers for different subjects; I think she'll cope with the latter more than the changing of rooms. I also have to take into affect that she doesn't like crowds and that the dinner time and breaktimes can be extremely busy and noisy as the kids decide to go about the school on mass. The first school I checked out today didn't seem to have enough funding to give her the help that she needs based on how she is now :( The second school although still a busy school when the kids come out of lessons have a better system for how kids move around the blocks and they keep the kids within the house blocks more for the first 3 years of their school life there which would suit Becca more; but once again the funding side of things comes into play as she currently doesn't have a statement. I don't think at the moment she needs a statement of special educational needs but the schools have less funding for kids without statements; the government are currently cutting back on the amount of statements they now issue which is fair enough as there is only so much money to go around. I have another school to go see next week and waiting for a fourth school to come back to me regarding going and chatting with them to see if they can meet her needs depending on how they issue their special needs funding.

Sorry its been a long essay today but so much information to get off my chest. Thank you for being patient and reading it all, just by visiting this page you make me grateful that you have taken the time to read it; comments are extremely appreciated as well though xxxx

Hey ho back to normal again - whatever normal is lol ;)

Well kids went back to school on Tuesday 4th January and the busy hectic days have followed; on the same day both Becca and Stevie went to CAMHS for seperate appointments and got two different outcomes hehe

With Becca we talked about how Christmas was and that she'd enjoyed it. We also talked about how Becca felt about doing homework - she doesn't like doing it much shall we say. We also found that Becca's appointment date for the Multi-Agency Autism Team diagnosis assessment has been provisionally set for the 26th May which is good news but now we're in the limbo state of waiting *groan* We'll still go to CAMHS but just not as often now, her next appointment in not until March now.

With Stevie we had a good session again talking about how he felt over Christmas. Within the session Cathy (the psychologist at CAMHS) realised that Stevie may have what she called "anchorage" issues within his sensory issues. By this she means that when he sits down anywhere there is quite a bit of him that needs to be in contact with the chair etc. She gave him a situation where if he could choose where to sit in a room a) on the floor in the middle of the room or b) against the wall what would he choose; he chose b) against the wall, then promptly laid out flat on the floor and become such a more relaxed person that we could see the change in him straight away which was really weird to see from my point of view as a parent.

Since then I've also had a meeting with Becca's teacher and the SENCO to update them with what was discussed at CAMHS plus to ask them how they were dealing with Becca during the day ie what sort of help were they putting in place for her etc. Found out that she has just been moved up in Maths which is brill but no great surprise as she really loves and enjoys this subject. I was also told that in all lessons she is on a table where there is always an adult member of staff be it teacher or teaching assistant but they aren't classing this as help for her *duh me thinks it is* Becca has always struggled with her spellings and this is becoming more apparent over the last few months but the school aren't at the moment treating it as a problem; they're trying to say there isn't a problem but I know for a fact there is a problem. What she struggles with is the understanding of what the word means then having to put that knowledge of the word into a viable constructive sentence. Gonna give until the end of the month trying what was discussed today but somehow I don't think its gonna work. Poor Becca is also scared to tell her teacher when she is in pain for fear of being disbelieved; this stems from the treatment she got from her old school where they didn't appear to take her fears and anxieties seriously so now she is left with the feeling that teachers won't believe her when she says something *sighs* the poor little lamb :(

Ending on a happy note we have also finally gotten a date for Becca's Occupational Therapy assessment appointment for the end of February this year; not bad considering she was referred back in May 2010!

Stitching for 2011 - Update 1

Hi there folks!!

Well I've had a busy week this week with lots of things going on but I still managed to get quite a bit of stitching done this week on my Janlynn kit. I've posted all the pics that I've taken at the end of each day I've stitched, this kit keeps calling me to work on it:-

This is my "parking" system I use for the needles

The "parking" system is because I will do one bit of the thread but there will be another further over but because its too big a gap between the areas I "park" the needles with the thread in so that I can use it again when I get to it. The pink material is just a spare bit I found in my material box; using a normal biro I write the colour number down then put the needle in the material next to the number until its needed.

Hope you've enjoyed reading this update.

Stitching for 2011

To start this years stitching off I've decided to raid my stash box and do one for myself that I bought about 15-18mths ago. At the time when I bought it I'd been taking my James and his school friend to violin orchestra each week for several weeks. At the end of the term the friends mum had bought me as a thank you some vouchers for Hobbycraft so I indulged in something that I would want to keep once I'd stitched it. I found this gorgeous kit by Janlynn called Our Little House, it got put in my stash box and I knew it would end up getting stitched at some point lol




This is design by Janlynn "Our Little House"
the words at the top read as
"Our little house is sweet and small
But in our hearts there's room for all"

 


This is the progress that I've managed to get done today 02/01/2011 (didn't find camera until after midnight)
I did some this afternoon then picked it up again once kids were bed so not bad for today



Take care and happy stitching to my stitchy friends and followers xxxx

Who needs a man??????

We bought a chest of drawers from Ikea for our James back in October time I think but its just been sat there waiting for the right time to get time......but of course it never came around. Shock horror for the lovely box sat quietly in the corner snoozing cos I finally got around to doing it seeing as the kids Dad came around for his access time so I'm now officially off duty for a few hours hehehehehe

When we first got the box we checked it over and found there was a piece missing so we got that bit and then it just sat in the corner gathering dust. Reopened to find the paper instructions had disappeared...oh crap!!!....then had a brainwave....lets see if Ikea do their instructions online.....Hallelujah they did!!!!!!
Here follows the outcome of putting it together (our James took my photos for me). Amazingly I didn't need a swearbox and all James did help was pass me the bits I needed so all went well, from start to finish it only took just under 1hr 15mins including finding the instructions online!!! Me is quite impressed with oneself lmao!

Laid all the bits out to save searching for them

All the bits were accounted for, had a few left of panel pins though

Main frame finished minus the back

The assembly line as James called it lol :)

Yay all done just need to put the clothes away now

What I liked about these drawers is how deep they are, plenty of room
for James clothes now that he's a pre-teen

Well thanks for reading a boring subject but hey I'm impressed with myself cos I did it all on my own without a man!