Life as we know it

One of the symptoms of Autism that I find fascinating and yet sometimes as a parent can grate on your last nerve is Echolalia.

For a child that is considered "Non-verbal" Diddles does an amazing amount of talking. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of Echolalia there are two types. Immediate Echolalia (also known as parroting, repeating the exact words or sound directly after hearing it) and delayed Echolalia (repeating a word or sound an hour,a day, a week after hearing it). It is not just a symptom of Autism, it can also relate to tourette's syndrome etc. etc. Immediate Echo is for example me saying "Would you like Juice?" and his answer to me would be "Would you like Juice?".  Diddles does both Immediate and delayed, which is pretty common with kids with an ASD apparently. It is the delayed "Echo" that amazes me as he can repeat an entire script from a TV advert or TV show at perfect pitch and sometimes in the exact accent he hears. It can also remind you of a broken record at times as it is repeated SO often!

The first incident with it that sticks out in my mind was when Diddles was about 2 and he was sitting in the trolley while we were doing our weekly food shopping. We were half way through the supermarket and the queue's were long, people everywhere. All of a sudden we heard this little voice shouting "HELP!", we were looking around to see where it was coming from when we realised everyone was staring at us because it was Diddles. Bare in mind that he had never said more than "Mama" or "Dadda" before this. He was shouting HELP! as if he was being dragged away by 8 foot monsters. Barry and I looked at each other both flushed with big red faces, shrugged and laughed it off awkwardly. "Oh he's just playing he he," I remember sheepishly saying to fellow shoppers who were actually starting to look concerned. Yes we kidnapped this child and brought him .... you guessed it FOOD SHOPPING! I think not! We could not just abandon our shopping so we had to endure the "HEEEELP!" shouting even in the queue. We realised when we got home that he had been repeating a line out of the pixar movie Cars.

He also used to walk around in public echoing the advert for Subway in a very angry french accent, you might remember it. It went something like this .... "Whats the matter? Too Hot? Too Spicy?" "HOT! HOT!" Now can you imagine people walking by and Diddles (a 3 year old half pint with blonde curly hair) re-enacting a role played by a giant jalepeno pepper?? 

For example and to name but a few he has cart-wheeled out of his cot head first (just for the sheer fun of it), is afraid of neither man nor beast. I caught him trying to feed his uncles rottweiler through a gate once at a kids birthday party. Yes, forget the giant bouncy castle and the cake there is a giant toothed animal to play with instead.

Aside from the obvious autie traits Diddles personality is really starting to shine! It is so great to see his sense of humour sparkle. This afternoon I was calling him for his lunch, usually he hears the mention of food and there is a Diddles shaped hole in the wall that he has run through to get to the kitchen table.

I love to hear him laugh! It is so contagious!

I do think looks-wise they are the absolute spit of one another! Anyone agree?

I am usually abruptly awakened each morning. Around 6:45 (ish) with a thump of a baby bottle in the head which has been hurled from the cot followed by Diddles hopping into the bed beside me saying "Good morning" on repeat until I say "Good morning", and I realise I was dreaming and I am not in the jungle eating "daddy long legs". This time of morning is despite numerous encounters through the night of pacing the landing back and forth to Diddles room. Needless to say there is no room for a snooze button in our house! As much as you would like them to the little darlings are not going to wait for you to wake up. It is almost like someone shouting "GO!!" without giving you a "Ready, Steady" first.

Madman as we like to call him lately seems to have hit the terrible twos' at 18 months! He leaves a trail of destruction behind him where ever he goes. His most recent venture was pulling the first two rows of buttons off my laptop. I stepped out of the room to put something in the dishwasher returned to find him waving at me sweet as pie smile on his face "Hi Mammy" he says. While standing over his art work.

I have mastered pizza bases and bread which is seriously an accomplishment for someone who was not totally sure about boiling an egg a year ago. Honestly ask me about any gadget be it ipod, laptop or fixing an internet connection great but ask me how to cook a meal from scratch and you would get recipe for disaster. Instead of home economics in school I took Technology.

 I'm not bad now but I still have the odd (giant) hiccup aka Blonde moment.

 For example a few weeks ago I was attempting to make chocolate muffins for Lukes lunch for the week. I found the recipe on a gluten free dairy free website. Thought I was following it to a tee. Until I checked on them 10 minutes after putting the baking tray in the oven and I square to bob my oven was covered in this brown ooze. It was on the top, on the sides and the bottom and expanding by the nano second. I had no clue what I had done wrong. The other half came in to see what I was giving out about and started breaking his heart laughing at me. I read the recipe twice over again until I realised I had used BREAD SODA instead of Baking powder. If you ever want to make inedible chocolate ooze I'm your woman!!

Aside from the hysterics of my Kitchen, I have been spending the rest of my time trying to find new games to get Diddles talking. What I love about these games is Madman can join in. They are both learning to take turns and learning a multitude of new words. We have moved on from the Balloon game which I had mentioned in an earlier post, we do return to this about once a week to mix up the routine. However right now we are playing the blanket game. We took down one of the kids duvet covers and lay it out on the floor. Both of the boys jump on it and then we decide that Madman takes the first turn. (He seems to be the most impatient at the tender age of 17 months) He lies in the middle of the Duvet, I grab one end and Barry will grab the other end. We say "ready steady go!" or "on your marks get set go!" or "3,2,1 Blastoff" mix it up every time so we use as much language as possible. Then we swing the duvet from side to side (narrating the whole time everything we are doing). Next we ask "want to go fast or slow?" Now, for Madman he just says GO! but he is taking in everything and loving the game.  Diddles will obviously want to go fast and this is why we give him "fast" as the first option as a big percentage of the language you will hear from Diddles is immediate Echolalia i.e he echos the words you say directly back to you but does not necessarily understand what you have said.

To test his understanding you give him what he asks for and not what you know he wants. This is so he realises the actual meaning of words.It is a long process but he is beginning to get the gist. He watches the game with Madans turn once to be sure its safe and then he gets the confidence to try himself . In some way Madman is his guinea pig. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing yet but its all trial and error!

They remind me of coyote and roadrunner at the moment. Diddles being the roadrunner and Madman being Coyote. Diddles runs back and forth for his usual sensory stimulation and Madman thinks this is a game and follows him back and forth. Madman bless his cotton little socks is just never fast enough to catch Diddles. He thinks his big brother is the king of chasing. They seem to have simultaneus bruises lately, both running and one will fall and then the other. Brotherly love ay!

The games have brought out some spontaneous speech with Diddles. He wakes me up in the morning with "Good Morning", he says "I want some juice please" instead of "Juice please"and Madman is copying everything he's really trying his best. We're making progress slowly but surely! They never cease to amaze me!

The last few weeks have been a tad hectic. Diddles school had their official open day for the new autism unit. His teacher nabbed me the day before as I was collecting him and asked that I say a few words on behalf of all the parents. I am soooo nervous when it comes to public speaking. The minute she asked me this I felt my heart in my shoes!! She had mentioned the week before that if none of the parents came forward and volunteered that she would have to nominate someone. I am guessing she picked me because lately the mention of the word Autism and I can not shut up! Its like a chemical reaction in my brain, all the researching and studying of it just oozes out of me and after waffling on for about ten minutes realise that the person who asked me how Diddles was getting on was in fact only being polite! I agreed to say a few words not realising that the Mayor of the town and local priest and parents and teachers of the infant classes would be there also. I had myself all convinced that I would be fine, not a bother. However when the morning came as most parents know the morning you really want things to go to plan they absolutely NEVER do!

The Boys woke up at about 8am as both of them had been awake several times the night before, one of them teething and the other asking for rice crispies and thomas the tank engine (as you do at 4 in the morning). I had their clothes ready to go, I just had to get them dressed and fed and in the car to be at the school for 9:30. Simple yes?? ha one would assume but one would be wrong! I try to keep to a routine with the boys in the mornings but after a long night they are not always willing to co-operate (nor am I if I'm honest, just 5 more minutes please. I wish!!)

By the time I got to the school I had developed a twitch! His teacher came rushing out to me to give me a hand with the buggy, I had a feeling she was trying to judge whether I was going to speak or not and right up until the moment she asked me I had intended to do it but I could feel the flash of nerves over me and I knew there was no way in hell I would manage to speak infront of a crowd with out bursting into tears or fainting or something. It worked out ok she said a few words for me. I managed to cut the ribbon! I'm surprised I remembered how to work a scissors! Only photo of that moment is of me with my back to the camera haha typical! Oh well if you can't laugh about it you'll cry as they say!