We have to know him better than anyone if we want to help him and taking input from others that are prepared to share is not only enjoyable but much appreciated.

There is great joy in helping anyone that needs it. Helps keep us motivated and continually moving forward to give our son, and others like him a better life

I took my 2 year old son to our local Health Clinic for speech therapy sessions on around 4 occassions. The last was disastrous and the speech therapist, who is actually a lovely lady, kept telling me that I really need to be accessing a Professional Body like Building Blocks because in her words “they are not really trained to work with children with Autism”. I finally got accepted into the Home based programme with Building Blocks for speech therapy and have another lovely young lady who has just come straight out of a clinic environment. How ironic is that? I guess we will have to wait and see what progress is made before making the decision to enrol for another term. I guess the bottom line is don’t just assume that the professionals working with your child are experts in the field of Autism. I am finding more and more that because of the new Facsia funding that many Austim providers are putting on lots of new staff to meet demand and these new staff may not have had much training/experience on dealing with children with Autism. Ask lots of questions about what experience they have had and then make your own assessment at the end of your term. Just because parents are not paying out of their own pocket for the Facsia funded schemes doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be shopping around for the best value and service provider the Facsia funding can provide. Good luck!

What a wonderful concept conducting a session on a platform swing!

I just wanted to share that our son Henry had 6 months of speech therapy and we saw No results at all.

I feel it is because his therapist did not develop a connection with him and unlike yourself seemed very unwilling to treat Henry as an individual with his own needs so stuck to a one size fits all method of teaching.

Henry is a sensory seeker so expecting him to sit and attend for 45 minutes with hindsight was really alot to ask of a two year old non verbal child

I have found giving him his sensory input as a diet through out the day has helped tremendously and he actually seeks the movement alot less than he use to.

Now he has moved onto visual stimuli so we have found ways to introduce that and it has helped with his self stimulatory behaviour by providing the input in more interesting fun ways.

His communication generally has improved greatly and his vocalisations have progressed from groaning to distinguishable babble he even takes turns with me when I echo back to him what he is saying :0)

I have found your folder and dvds very helpful and it is great you remain in touch with extra ideas you truly are wonderful at what you do and I hope that more therapists take on ideas such as yours in the future people need to recognise that Autism really is a spectrum disorder.

Wishing you and all the families the very best.

Jenny (Henry’s Mum)