a plan and some progress

After weeks of trying to sort out all of the different therapies available for the Bear, we think we have decided what we're doing.

The plan, at this stage, is to continue with speech therapy, and to send him part time (five day fortnight; ie two days one week and three the next) to an autism specific centre that caters for 2 1/2 - 5 year olds.  It's about 20 minutes from home.  We need to make an appointment to see the centre and meet the staff, but it seems the way to go.  The centre (it's one of about half a dozen in the state) has glowing reports from everyone who has any contact with it.  In fact, I've not heard a single bad report.  It won't be cheap, but you do what you have to do, don't you?

I'll let you know how we get on when we visit the centre.

In other news, the Bear is really coming on.  For months Pacino has been trying to get the Bear to wave goodbye to him in the mornings.   Last week he finally did it!  And this morning, he actually said "Bye" as he waved.  We were beyond excited.

And this morning, while playing with a toy car, he said "car"!  Again, this is really exciting.  He's been saying Car (pronounced Har) for a while, but only in relation to the big silver thing in the garage that we ride in.  Today, he generalised his knowledge - a car can be big, and we can travel in it, or it can be tiny and I can play with it. 

A third milestone was that this morning, for the first time, he rolled some playdough with his hands.  Granted, he still took quite a few big bites and ate a lot (I'm so looking forward to tomorrow's nappy), but he also played with it appropriately. 

So lots of very significant things are happening with our little Bear, and we are over the moon.  He's come a long way in a relatively short time.  I can't wait to see how this new program benefits him.