Heaps of News!!

Becca's Birthday

Rebecca had her 1st Birthday on the 28th. We had a party at home with the relatives and she was spoilt rotten. Lots of new clothes, some toys, and a funky My Little Pony cloth nappy! (that was from us). Can't wait to put it on her!

Great News!

We had a meeting with Matty's teachers at AEIOU today. They have recommended that after the Easter holidays that he move to a part-time placement at AEIOU of 3 days a week, and to a mainstream kindy for the other two days! They said that the progress he has made is just amazing.

Another thing that they said - apart from his speech, which obviously needs work, he really has no other autistic traits. In fact, they said that were he to be assessed today, they seriously doubt that he would be diagnosed ASD at all! It is true that the other kids there are a LOT worse than he is. His teachers have said that what he really needs now is to be mixing with neuro-typical kids so he can observe behaviour and speech and hopefully learn from them. He'll still go to AEIOU 2.5 days per week to access the speech and OT, and the other 2 days to get interaction with NT kids. He's just outgrowing the other kids at the centre, they said!!!!

Well, this is the whole point of AEIOU - to get the kids into mainstream!!!

So excited for him!!! We have 2 kindys in mind - one next to the school where Chris starts work after easter, and another one that we looked at last year which we also like. We've got an appointment on monday to go to the one near Chris' work.

Chris' New Job

Other exciting news: Chris got a job! It's only casual, but its a job! Its a crossing supervisor at one of the primary schools. Not just any school mind you, but the one that we are hoping to send Matty to! They have an excellent rep for dealing with special needs kids, particularily kids with Autism. In fact, their rep is so good that the ECDU (Early Childhood Developmental Unit) moved premises to be closer to the school.

More importantly than the money though (although that is great!) is the confidence boost that Chris has gotten from getting this job. He is just over the moon.

Finally things are starting to come together!