Hello to all, hope you've had a good half term. Ruggles does your DS start at his new school next week? Really hope that goes well.
Been ages since I posted anything but I've been lurking and enjoying reading about everyone's news. Taking inspiration from Badvoc I think I'll try to give up being so sporadic at posting for Lent (and onwards)
I think there was a mooted meet-up for Easter, I'd love to be involved with that. It'd be lovely to chat to people who understand the weirdness/witchcraft (can't remember who said it, but I LOVED that description!) of stairs and spinning etc. I've got my parents staying at the moment and even though they understand we are doing a 'programme' for ds I still feel a bit self-conscious about cajoling ds to find items in an Usborne book (thanks for that recommendation, ladies) while a PC screen flashes away to his left.
We go back to Robin next month, not long after ds turns 4. Very much looking forward to seeing him and getting the next stage of our programme.
It's been a good 2013 so far: ds has been given a statement and granted full-time classroom support for when he starts school in September. With ds having such good support at school and TH at home, we are so hopeful about his future.
Two weeks ago we had a meeting with ds's ASD preschool and they said he'd breezed through loads of his IEP targets. His motor skills, although still behind, are improving all the time, and his language is absolutely flying. He can now write loads of words and draw representationally (the latter with a bit of a push, he'd rather write his CVC words!).
Unlike many of you, we've not had concerns about our ds's reading, initially because he was so young when he started TH but now we're pretty sure there are no dyslexia issues here - in fact he's blasting through the Oxford Reading Tree and decoding words in his general reading books. If anything he's possibly inclined towards hyperlexia rather than dyslexia.
I hope this doesn't sound horribly show-offy or anything, from what I can tell hyperlexia is just a different type of 'glitch' in the wiring. (I would SO settle for average!)
Also his social skills with other kids are still really delayed. He's getting SO much better all the time with me, dh and adults in general - he's a different kid when it comes to things like sharing stories about his day, and we're starting to see lots more 'joint attention' eye contact which is amazing. And he's definitely playing with his little sister more. But there's a long way to go with peer play in general, which is my biggest worry for school. Then again, perhaps if we don't have as much to 'fix' in terms of his reading, we can start to really focus on the bits of the brain that help with friendships, empathy etc... Fingers crossed.