Autism Awareness Month with Pablo

[AD/Gifted - We received the books mentioned in this post in exchange for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

April is Autism Awareness Month and it is one that is close to my heart. My eldest child, C, is autistic and when he was first diagnosed. We had a lot of mixed emotions. 

Not long after C got his diagnosis, we heard that a new TV show called Pablo was due to air on CBeebies and not only is the main character an autistic boy, but the production company, Paper Owl Films, are based in my home city of Belfast. Double excitement for us.

Pablo really quickly became a favourite children's show for us because we were eager to show C someone who represented him. We have always been open with C about his autism and at the age of 8, he is well aware of it and understands what that means.

When we received these two books in the post - Pablo Picks His Shoes and Pablo's Feelings - C was delighted. He said "Pablo is autistic and I am autistic. He goes on adventures in his head and maybe that is why I can't turn my brain off at night." He then went off to read them straight away.

Upon reading Pablo's Feelings, he shouted to me, "Oh, Pablo's face sometimes forgets to show what he's feeling. Maybe that is what happens to me!" It was like a light had switched on in his head. He completely understood that and resonated with it.

I knew exactly what Pablo Picks His Shoes was going to be about before we'd even opened it as it is something that C has trouble with himself - making decisions. Pablo is choosing which shoes to wear but is afraid he will hurt his other shoes' feelings. For us, C is always afraid that he will make the "wrong" decision, no matter how many times we tell him that there is no wrong choice. He is worried that the choice that he doesn't make will be better and he will have no way of knowing what would have happened. I think it was nice for him to read about someone else having this issue too.

These books are fantastic to read with any child, not only autistic ones, to help them understand a bit more about how autistic brains work.

You can purchase these Pablo books from Penguin.

Thames & Kosmos 'The Colour Monster' Game - Review

[AD/Gifted - We received a copy of the game for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

When we were offered the chance to try out the new 'The Colour Monster' game from Thames & Kosmos, I jumped at the chance. It is based on the popular children's book of the same name and although we aren't familiar with it (although I'll definitely be buying a copy now!) the premise of the game really appealed to me, especially with having an autistic child who sometimes struggles with emotions.

The Colour Monster encourages discussions of emotions and how to help children understand them. 

Inside the box you get:

• a game board
• dice
• Monster figure
• child figure
• 2 x shelves
• 8 x jars
• 5 x colour tokens

Before you begin, you need to build the two shelf units and place the jars circle side facing out. The Monster and the girl figure will both begin on the pink splash of colour on the game board and the colour tokens will go on the relevant splashes. Each colour represents an emotion; pink is love, green is calm, blue is sadness, yellow is happy, black is fear and red is anger.

Each player takes turn to roll the dice and they can the move the Monster or their friend (who is there for support) across the game board. 

Once you have stopped on a colour, you must tell everyone something that makes you feel that emotion then you pick a jar to put the colour token into. Each jar will have a colour on the back so you have to guess the right one to get a match. Three of the jars have mixed emotions. If you get the right jar, you slot the token in. If you get the wrong jar, you must put the jar back. If you choose a jar with mixed emotions, you must turn it around so that the colours are on display. If all three end up being turned around during the same game, the Monster will be confused and overcome with emotion and need to go to bed. You win if all the tokens go into the correct jars without the Monster becoming confused.

Both C and E absolutely love this game and have even been asking Daddy to play it with them while I've been at work. It's not like any other game we have played before and it is so nice to encourage a discussion. It made me realise that I very rarely talk about my own emotions with the kids so doing that for a change was refreshing and it is lovely to hear their thoughts and feelings too - some of which did surprise me a little.

The drawings are stunning and it's just a lovely family game that will grow with us and be played a lot. It's recommended for children aged 4+ and retails at £38. You can find out more about The Colour Monster at Kosmos Games.

Best Board Games for People with Disabilities

My six year old son C was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder ten months ago. It's still a massive learning curve for us, we are still learning how to cope day to day as we go along and have been attending workshops to teach us how to best deal with his behaviours.

As much as I still don't even like to admit it, it is a disability, and we do have to make some adjustments for him as he processes things differently. We know what to do and what not to do as we know what will cause a sensory overload and subsequent meltdown. Although we do need to make these adjustments, we also try to treat him as normally as we possibly can because I don't want to use his autism as an excuse for "naughty" behaviour that has nothing to do with the condition. 

C struggles mostly with social situations and empathy and imagining how others are feeling. Taking turns and waiting are hard for him too. He likes to be in control of situations so he knows exactly what is going to happen. He cannot cope with the unknown. Waiting is a struggle because he prefers to physically see how long something is going to take as he can't imagine what five or ten minutes looks like. 

For as long as I can remember, we have had a family game night. It's something that the four of us can do to spend time together and have fun. There are a few that I don't think he could cope with such a Monopoly simply because of the duration of the game - there's no way he'd sit that long! - so we tend to choose games that are short and hold his attention.

C is a typical six year old boy and loves a bit of toilet humour. I know that these types of games will make him laugh and he actually wants to play them because he finds them so funny. Gooey Louie - who knew that a game where you have to pull bogies out of a giant nose would be so fun? Although there is the unknown aspect of when the brain will squeak and pop out, he got used to it quite quickly and anticipates it. We do make a minor adjustment and remove the black coloured one as it frightens him.

Poopyhead is another one that C really enjoys. He is really good at remembering sequences and the aim here is to place cards in order; toilet, poo, wipe, wash hands. The loser has to attach a rubber poo on their head. This game helps his memory, having to remember what card comes next, but adds the funny aspect with the poos.

Pull My Finger is probably C's ultimate favourite. Each player spins and pulls the monkeys finger. It's bottom will expand then fart unexpectedly. Again, he anticipates this and it is a little better as he can physically see the bottom getting bigger and so knows when it is going to happen. This one is great as it is fast paced but also encourages him to take turns and wait for others to have their turn.

Disney Guess The Film is one that is not only great for C but for the whole family. We are massive Disney fans and this game shows a little part of a scene and you need to guess what film it is to win a point. C can recall things very quickly with precision (I feel like he may have an eidetic memory) so he always excels at this one.

5 Second Rule is a fun one that even trips me up! Each player has five seconds to name three things from a category that is chosen such as "3 things you see at the beach". It encourages C to think logically and quickly. Sometimes he does give a bit of a silly answer under pressure but rather than getting annoyed, we've found that he finds it quite funny instead.

Finally, Jenga is a game that I originally thought might be hit or miss. It's a classic so I'm sure it needs no introduction but C takes his time to properly think about the consequence of his move and it proves to work well for him!

As he gets older, I would love to introduce more grown up games to him such as Cluedo or even Chess to see if he enjoys those and how we can adapt them to his capabilities. Board games can be great for people with disabilities and can help with the brain. I have focused here on our experiences with C and ASD but board games can help many people with different types of disability, some of which can be seen on the Bathing Solutions blog.

(This is a sponsored post.)

 

Summer Infant Slumber Buddies Deluxe Puppy - Review

Back in February this year, my eldest child C was formally diagnosed with autism. I've written about the possibility of his diagnosis in the past and I will go into more detail on receiving his diagnosis in a separate post soon.

C is very much a sensory seeker meaning that he loves different textures, sounds and lights. I was recently offered the opportunity to review a Slumber Buddies Puppy from Summer Infant and although that might seem a little strange for me to accept for an almost six year old, I felt that it would be something that he might enjoy and may give him that sensory stimulation that he looks for.

  The Summer Infant Slumber Buddy is effectively a sleep aid for babies. The one we received was the Puppy but it is also available in a range of different animals from dinosaurs to bunnies. As well as just looking like a puppy soft toy, you have the plastic "shell" on its back with cut outs of stars, moons and planets with three buttons at the bottom. The first button shines a coloured light through the shapes, projecting them on the ceiling and walls. If you continue to press the same button, you can switch the colour (red, blue and green).

  The second button plays a sound. There are five different ones that you can flip through from heartbeat, lullaby and nature. C tends to always opt for the nature sounds as I think they can be more calming for him, especially when he is starting to feel himself getting upset or angry. The final button is just three different volume controls, we tend to keep ours on the lowest to make it more peaceful.

  C took to the puppy straight away, mostly for the light aspect. He is very aware of feeling himself getting angry or upset and recognises that he needs to take some time away on his own. He's been taking his puppy to his bedroom and burying himself under the duvet, playing a sound and light of his choice. Usually this does help diffuse his bad mood and he gets a lot happier faster - it definitely cuts down on meltdown time!

  Recently he had been a little bit afraid of going to bed and would come downstairs at least four times a night, in hysterics, and we found it difficult to calm him down. I started leaving the Slumber Buddy next to his bed with the light and sound already on, hoping that it would make him feel 1) sleepy and 2) safe with the lights. There are three settings inside the puppy where the battery pack is where you can choose whether to shut it off after 15, 30 or 45 minutes which is great as you don't need to worry about it being left on all night and wasting the battery. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but we have had no issues with sleep since!

I think this is absolutely amazing and it surpassed my expectations. His little sister E loves it too, the fact that it is cuddly is a massive plus! We have been using it all through the day, not just at night time. It's great for anyone with sensory issues and I can definitely see it being brilliant for smaller babies too.

The Slumber Buddies retail at £24.99 each and you can find out more at the Summer Infant website.

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Mrs Wordsmith Social Journey Subscription Box - Review

I am fortunate enough to be able to bring you a lot of reviews from toys to homeware products and very rarely do I come across something that I fall in love with instantly, but that's exactly what happened with Mrs Wordsmith's Social Journey.

Mrs Wordsmith Social Journey is a subscription box suitable for children aged 2-5 years old and its aim is to develop deeper social and emotional intelligence through introducing new vocabulary on the basis of words that the child will already know.

Instantly, anything with the word "social" in it, and I am like a moth to a flame. One thing that I haven't written much about on the blog yet is the fact that C has been officially diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder which really affects his ability to interact socially. Before receiving our one month's subscription to the Social Journey, I thought that it would be a great way to help him add to his vocabulary (even though he is at the higher age range and will be 6 next month) and maybe help him verbalise his feelings and emotions better. I went into this review with positive thoughts and it has completely blown that out of the water and excelled my expectations.

Inside your box you receive:

• Instruction booklet
• A Picture Book
• Word of the Day Activity Book
• Word of the Day stand
• Word Cards

The first thing that you are instructed to do is read your picture book. Inside that book there are five sets of words and for this month's box, they were: Self-awareness - hungry words (hungry, peckish, starving and thirsty), Resilience - eat words (eat, nibble, gobble, gulp), Creativity - make words (make, invent, design, concoct), Communication - funny words (funny, silly, hilarious, hysterical) and Community - share words (share, collaborate, include, together). Each set of words begins with a short explanation of the types of word you are going to learn about then each individual word has its own short story and beautiful illustration. You are also prompted to ask your child a relevant question at the end of each story.

C absolutely loved the illustrations and found himself in fits of giggles at some of them (mostly the bubble beards in the 'Hilarious' story). The stories were well suited to his age and he understood them all. It was really lovely to see the same characters throughout the book as it held it all together. Involving your child at the end with a question is a great idea. A lot of the time, C would just say "I don't know" but once I pushed a little more, he really thought about it and gave me some great answers. For example, in the 'Invent' story, you are prompted to ask your child what they would invent if they could invent anything. After a few seconds of thought, C replied, "A robot that would do all of the things that I don't like doing."

Once you have finished your picture book, next up is the Word of the Day Activity Book. This book contains a sheet of paper focusing on each of the 20 words that your child has been introduced to in their picture book. You place your activity book on the stand with the first word displayed for a day or two so that your child can soak up the meaning.

Each word has three activities: Say It (where you will read the word aloud and encourage your child to repeat it, focusing on the pronunciation), Trace It (having your child trace around the outline of the word. This is configuration and will help your child become familiar with it and be able to recognise it when it's in a longer text) and Pencils At The Ready where you rip off the activity sheet from the book and do one of four activity types.

• Letter jumble - circling the letters which appear in the word to recognise letters and identify letter shapes
• Colouring - colouring the illustration to boost the retention, develop fine motor skills and improve concentration
• Free writing - practising forming letters independently
• Drawing - encouraging your child to engage with and interpret their newly learned word

This is a great way to get your child learning. C has had so much fun doing these that it doesn't even feel like he's learning. After we have finished our word for the day, we put another up on display until the next morning, where he can't wait do his activity sheet. The fact that it's one a day for 20 days is a good thing as I feel like he has enough time to take in and remember what he's learning, rather than being bombarded with a lot at once.

Finally, the Word Cards. These come in their sets and, as you can imagine, each of the words that your child will have learned previously has it's own individual card with the word and accompanying image from the picture book. There are different tasks that you can do, depending on how difficult you want it to be.

• Peek-a-boo - look at the card and read the word aloud. Cover the word and see if your child can remember the word based on the picture.
• Storytime - see if your child can tell you a story based on the picture and you can help by asking a question that is relevant.
• One player game - set all the cards out and see how fast you can put them in the right category
• Two player game - place the cards in a pile face down, each player draws one card each then race to see who can get their card into the correct category first.

I loved doing these with C and truly felt like it was a little bit of a bonding moment. One thing he really struggles with is losing a game so the two player game is definitely one we will be playing a lot of to try and get him used to it and not have a meltdown. I've also discovered that he has a eidetic memory and the covering of the words is simple for him!

I honestly cannot recommend this enough and I would go as far as to say that it is probably my favourite thing that I've reviewed to date. For someone like C with ASD, visual stimulation and learning is fundamental but your child doesn't need to have ASD to really benefit from this. It will be amazing for starting school and if you begin this early on, they'll be flying when they do eventually go into school. I've since overheard C ask his little sister if she is feeling peckish and telling her that he is starving. It is really nice to hear him using his new words and putting them into context.

The Mrs Wordsmith Social Journey is £21.95 per month but you can choose one bulk payment of £233.40 which works out at £19.45 a month and they also ship throughout Europe and the US.

You can find out more about the subscription at the Mrs Wordsmith website.

(We received this subscription for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Is My Son On the Spectrum? An Update

Way back in October, C was two months into preschool and I wrote a blog post entitled 'Is My Son On the Spectrum?" At that time, the preschool leader had spoken to me about some concerns that she had about his behaviour and I was due to have an appointment with the GP. The past nine months have been a constant stream of appointments, meetings, forms and letters so I just wanted to write a bit of an update on where we are now.

At the GP appointment, she said that she couldn't see any behaviours that would worry her but she gave me a Autism Assessment self referral form. I was pretty annoyed as how could she see what C is really like in just 20 minutes and by just talking to him, not doing any tests? I filled in the form stating what behaviours and concerns I had, sent it off, then I received a letter in February saying that I would get an assessment date through in four weeks. I thought that was a bit soon as usually the waiting lists for this type of thing are months/years long and here we are in July and I'm still waiting.

In the meantime, the preschool leader suggested applying for our local Children's Interdisciplinary Schools (CIDS) Team to come out and assess him. The way this works is a few different people come out and undergo some tasks and activities with the child and if they meet more than three of the criteria, they will give the child some help to make sure that their needs are met in their educational setting. I was worried because C has very good speech and language so I knew that that would be one criteria that he didn't meet. After all his tests, he didn't qualify for help and was discharged. In our discharge meeting, they mentioned that it definitely was a positive thing that we had put it a referral for an autism assessment and the preschool already had in place the things that CIDS team could help with such as a quiet room and his own box of fidget/stress toys. They did give us a few leaflets on things like Heavy Work, how to build confidence and self esteem, managing his behaviour, ideas of play and how to make friends - all because his issues tend to be emotional and social based.

After this, I sent a letter to the Education Board asking for C to be assessed for statementing. A statement is basically a formal document stating a child's learning difficulties and the help that they will receive. I have asked for this because I know that C will need one on one help in a formal learning setting as even in preschool where it was mostly free play, he was very dependent on his keyworker. I'm really lucky that C goes to a great school who are wonderful in dealing with children with special educational needs and the principal sent a letter too to sort of back us up. The Education Board replied saying that they would assess him and shortly after, we met with the Educational Psychologist. She told me that she thinks C will have no trouble when it comes to learning and will probably take to Primary 1 quite well, but does agree that from her a point of view, a one on one would be beneficial for him. She has also put in a request for an occupational therapist to see C as he struggles with things like zips and buttons as well as a behavioural specialist.

These meetings all took place at the preschool and right now, we are into summer here in Northern Ireland so I'm really just waiting on letters for more assessments to be done.

When I wrote my original post back in October, I have to admit that I wasn't completely convinced that C did have special educational needs or that he could possibly have ASD but now that I'm in the midst of these tests, hearing from professionals and looking up his behaviours myself, I do believe that we will get a diagnosis of mild autism or Asperger Syndrome when our official assessment time comes. All I can do right now is help him control his emotions and build his confidence. I've bought him his own fidget toys for home, a communication fan so he can explain to us how he's feeling without lashing out and some books to explain feelings and how to tackle them.

Behaviour is still one of the biggest issues because he doesn't know how to convey them properly. I'd be lying if I didn't say that every day was a struggle. He needs to have a set routine and the slightest thing can set him off. We have to use "First..., then..." daily. He doesn't really know boundaries when it comes to what to say to other people. He can be a bit full on and share whatever comes into his head at that moment. His mind is wonderful and I am in awe of it. He is very clever and great with logic - the educational psychologist actually suggested explaining everything logically to him because he is more than capable and would probably understand things better that way. For example, he is a very fussy eater and sticks to what he knows. She recommended that when I give him something new, tell him that his brain and taste buds don't like it right now but we need to teach them to like it because the calcium is good for our bones (just as an example!). His preschool leader said that he is "scarily good with numbers" and right now he is teaching himself to read. He's not even 5 yet! My very own little Matilda.

I will do another update when we know more - wish us luck.

Is My Son On the Spectrum?

This is a post that I wasn't really sure if I would write, or if I did, that I would publish. I tend to keep everything here lighthearted and upbeat and not talk too much about the serious stuff that's going on in my life. I started writing my blog so I could read back about our lives so it seems really stupid to leave this out as it's the biggest thing that's happening with us right now.

My four year old son, C, started preschool at the beginning of September. Around three weeks in, the preschool leader asked if she could have a quick word with me. She told me that she had a few concerns about his behaviour, touched on them briefly and recommended that I book an appointment with his health visitor or GP. I have to admit that I brushed it off a bit. I have a little bit of experience with autism (although she never actually mentioned that word, I guessed that it's what she was getting at) and C is so different from what I've seen in other autistic children, although I do know that the spectrum is broad. I sort of thought that three weeks was very quick for her to come to me with these concerns as preschool was a totally new experience for him. He had never been to any sort of playgroup, he'd just be at home with me, his daddy and sister so being with 24 other children every day was a massive change but then again, she had worked with lots of children.

A couple of weeks later, I had my settling in meeting with the preschool leader where she explained in more detail the things that were worrying her. C has been quite sensitive with noise. On one particular day, the children were playing with dry pasta in the water tray and making a lot of noise. C covered his head with his arms and said, "It's too noisy! I want to go home." As time has progressed, his key worker can see the signs when something like this is going to happen again and takes him out of the room just to get a couple of minutes away. They have also made him a countdown rocket to help him calm himself so he can see the numbers and count down from five to one.

At story time at the end of the day, they found that he wouldn't sit to listen to the story so they made him up his own little box with weighted toys and things that he can fidget with as he listens. Since they've introduced that, he'll sit quietly but she thinks that he can't focus unless he's keeping his hands busy.

When it comes to snack time, the children are told to wash their hands, grab a plate, pick their toast and fruit then pour their milk or water. One day, C spilled his milk as he was pouring it and got really upset. He didn't even calm down once they'd cleaned it up. They then realised that he wanted to go back to the beginning of the routine and wash his hands again, pick his toast again then pour his milk again. It was like he couldn't get past messing the routine up. Also, if he wants to play with a toy, let's say dinosaurs, but it's snack time, he needs to have a visual. His key worker has made a "Now and Later" sheet so they would put snack time in "now" then dinosaurs in "later". This way, he knows that he is still getting the dinosaurs whereas beforehand he would just take it as a no and get upset.

The biggest thing (something which I have actually noticed too) is not being able to express himself when he's upset or angry. He lashes out and hits. Interestingly, he understands other childrens' emotions and asks if they are okay when he sees that they are sad, but he can't express it when he feels it himself. We've since put in an application for CIDS Team - who are specialist workers and psychologists - to observe him in class so we are waiting to hear back from them.

I have to be honest and say that I felt a little bit like my heart had been ripped out as she was speaking to me and I did have a cry on the way home. I know that if we do get a diagnosis that it's not going to change who he is. He will always be the same C that he's always been. We have our behavioural appointment with the GP tomorrow morning and my stomach is in knots. One step closer to finding out, eh? Wish us luck!