I wanted to blog about the Voice and Movement Drama Classes Annie has been doing.  A friend sent me an email about Voice and Movement last year and I kept it in my file of all things relating to Autism and didn’t think about it again until Annie’s diagnosis.  At that stage I was going through my file trying to work out what we were going to do for Annie and these drama classes struck me as a perfect therapy.

They are FANTASTIC.

We have just finished our 10 individual (one on one) sessions that each child must complete before they move on to the group sessions. The cost of the individual sessions is $75 each which is still less than our private speech therapy sessions.  The group sessions are $25 each which is much more bearable

During the individual sessions Annie has been given a work book that the teacher writes down what they have covered that week. This is handy for parents to reference at later points, particularly if you can use it in real life situations. It also helps to communicate with teachers and other professionals involved with your child.

The first few sessions concentrated on Greetings, how to say hello to someone, the body language you should use, length of greeting, and what to do after the greeting.

Then they covered playing games, how to be a good loser, how to be a good winner.  Also how to play someone elses game – ie not being in charge. Giving instructions for your own game that are not too complex and making sure others who join in are having fun.

The classroom has two interlocked circles marked out on the floor with masking tape.  At first I didn’t know what it was for – turns out they use these circles to indicate the distance you should stand from various sorts of people that you are talking to.  If you are outside a circle then likely you wont get the other persons attention. If you get too close the person will be uncomfortable and not listen to you because they are bothered by the proximity.

Volume of your voice, how to speak quietly to a person sitting next to you, how to yell for a teacher if you are in trouble. What voice do you use when you need to say “Stop it. I don’t like it.” when kids at school tease you.

Charades where the teacher and student take turns making facial expressions while the other guesses what emotion they are expressing. Mirrors in each classroom can be used for the student to mimic the teachers expression if they are having trouble.

What sort of comments will ‘build up’ a person and what comments ‘bully’ and the sort of situations you would use ‘build up’ comments. Like if a friend lost a game, how instead of saying ‘your a loser’ you could say ‘you will have better luck next time’.

Annie’s school teacher has asked me to copy out some of the notes into A3 size wall posters for her classroom, particularly one which is a hand with 5 steps for dealing with teasing in the school yard. Each step is written on a finger so children can easily reference their own hand to learn and remember the steps.

1. walk away/ignore

2. tell the person that what they are saying hurts you (for if a person was aiming for friendly teasing and missed the mark)

3. Say loudly ’stop it I don’t like it’.

4. Say you are going to tell a teacher

5. Tell the teacher.

Hopefully most teasing would be resolved by step 1 or 2 but it is a good logical process.

I’m so thrilled we made the investment in Voice and Movement, Heidi is booked in to start next year after she turns 5yo (kids can’t start until they are 5yo). Annie will be moving onto group sessions now we have finished the individual sessions.

Sure going to Mont Albert every Saturday morning is a bit of a drag and the cookies are darned expensive but I think this one hour a week is far more important than all the full time schooling Annie has been doing.

If you have a child with social skills problems then I can not recommend this service highly enough.

Please note the people at Voice and Movement do not know I was planning to review them on my blog, they have not provided me with any sort of reimbursement (monetary or otherwise) for this review. I simply wanted to let other people know my thoughts on Voice and Movement as I found it so hard to find feedback on various therapies we have looked into.

Lets get this out of the way first – it is hot here, very hot. Some once in a something years heatwave or so people tell me.  I dunno, its just hot, not unbearably hot thankgod because we are doing a lot of walking.  See our car is at the mechanics, what was supposed to be a quick windscreen replacement is turning into the 3 day saga of the dodgy rear vision mirror. ::sigh::

This afternoon I have the big interview with Annie’s teacher and school principal about an integration aide for Annie probably for 2011 because major screw ups mean we’ve pretty much missed the cut off for 2010 funding

My mum used to make mashed potatoes using a hand held electric mixer.  I’d never seen anyone use a potato masher until I met my husbands family. Now I mash by hand also.  Saves on electricity.

Mum also used to mash eggs with butter not mayonnaise.  I much prefer the salty more savoury taste of eggs mashed with butter.  My school friends used to comment that my Mums egg salad sandwiches tasted different from their mums. Now I know why.

I’ve been vaccuming our kitchen floor and loungeroom carpet almost daily of late.  Husband and I have transitioned to only using real ground coffee – I figured if I could only have two cups a day then they were going to be good.  But making coffee first thing in the morning with coffee grounds is messy, hand eye coordination is at its worst.  Yeah it could be prepped the night before but that doesn’t always happen.  And emptying out the expresso machine thingy to refill also messy.  There are coffee grounds everywhere and the bench where we make our coffee has streaks down the doors and sides from spilt coffee and milk.  So frustrating.  One day when we have money I’m going to buy a Nespresso Capsule coffee system.

My family had ice cream and jelly for dinner last night.  It was too hot for anything else.  Lucky for me Cottees make jelly with no artificial colours or preservatives.

I went shopping for icy pole tubes today.  Our car is at the mechanics so I couldn’t get the already frozen icy poles, had to get something that would survive the hot walk home.

All of the products on the shelves had artificial colours in them.  What most disappointed me was Berri Quelch which is advertised as being 99% real fruit also had artificial colours.

So once I was home and rehydrated from walking in the heat I fired off an email to Berri

I was really disappointed to discover the Berri Quelch products contain artificial colours.  Please consider only using natural colours that don’t harm our children.

This customer is one that will not be purchasing Berri products again until the artificial colours are removed.

I was shopping with my sister in law yesterday and she commented on how hard it is to find a summer dress with sleeves for herself.

A bit later I was walking through the same shopping centre carpark and overheard a couple of women who were leaving, one was saying to the other that she couldn’t find a dress with sleeves for summer at this particular shopping centre and the other lady suggested shopping online.

My mother rang from QLD concerned about some dresses she was planning to buy for Annie and Heidi, ‘I can’t find anything with sleeves’.

Now I know there is a simple solution – wear a t-shirt underneath, but sometimes it is just too hot in summer to wear two layers of clothing. Even the t-shirts I can get for my girls only have half or quarter length sleeves.  If I want a full length sleeve I have to get them shirts from the boys section.

It has been 3 years now since I wrote to several department stores and our local paper complaining about the lack of sun smart clothing available for girls.

Skin cancer is the most common cause of cancer in Australia.

It makes me sad that summer clothing keeps getting skimpier and smaller in seeming opposition to the recommendation to wear sun safe clothing.

I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Kelley as I’m struggling to keep up with my reader without NaBloPoMo adding to the madness.

I’m trying to make Christmas ornaments for my girls teachers.

I started off with this little ornament made using Sullivans Counted Cross Stitch Ornament kit. I used the 14 count Aida provided and the not very good thread/yarn. But it turned out okay.

Then I thought I’d have a go using the same pattern but on Evenweave – my first attempt at Evenweave and I love it!

I used DMC threads 208, 210, 726, 727, 892, 894, 904, 906 and of course my good friend 310.

I enjoyed stitching on the Evenweave so much that I took 2 days instead of over a week that the original kit had taken me. Then I got excited and did my first ornament finish on the Evenweave pattern, I found some quilting fabric from the quilt I never started and used it to back the ornament. Ripped open a new pillow and pulled the stuffing from that to fill the ornament.

I think the second turned out better than the first and possibly a third attempt will be even better than the other two. If I did a third I can practice that final finishing stitch that closes the gap after I fill it.

Later today I thought I’d try out something to follow up on this tweet / facebook status update. I had this concept that I could make hand shaped ornaments using felt and I would stitch on one side ‘thank you for the helping hand’.

Sadly in execution it looked more like an amputated hand, sorry about the terrible picture, I took it late at night.

Yesterday was a bit of a mess up.

It started on Monday with a phone call asking if I wanted to buy a school uniform for Heidi because the uniform shop would be open at the Pre-Prep school on Wednesday morning. ‘No thanks’ says I, ‘we are getting hand-me downs’. I think it was nice that they rang but glad I don’t have to drive out of my way to pick up the uniform and isn’t it nice that it is such a caring school Heidi will be at next year.

Later on Monday I did the girls 3 week picture schedules up, checking my Google calendar to see what was on when so their schedules could be accurate.

I told my husband he could take the car to work on Wednesday thinking that I just needed to walk Annie to school and Heidi to early intervention and then preschool – all three places are very close to our home.

We had our usual morning disasters on Wednesday morning, but managed to get to school on time despite the arguments and distractions. I’m standing up at Annie’s classroom talking to the other parents when another Mum asks ‘is that Heidi running out the gate’. Yes, yes it was. Heidi was determined to go to her hydrotherapy session at early intervention and if I wasn’t going to leave straight away then she was going without me. :: sigh :: Thankfully my yell of ‘Heidi stop’ worked and she came back.

One of the Mums asks when Heidi will be doing her Pre-Prep transition. I’m not sure I say but it is soon… and I make a mental note to check my Google calendar later to find out when.

Annie’s teacher was on yard duty so I felt comfortable leaving before the bell rang and went with Heidi to walk to the early intervention centre. We took a slight detour via the grocery store to get Mummy a Pepsi Max, caffeine being the cure for all ills, including absconding children and breakfast for Heidi being that she had refused to eat earlier, but all she wanted was a lollypop and mean Mummy said no. We walk on to the intervention centre with Heidi being very upset about the lack of lollypop breakfast.

Get to the centre, Heidi is excited about the hydrotherapy session (she loves swimming) and even though we are early the staff are in the pool area getting ready. Except the teacher looks at me with surprise… ‘Is Heidi going to her Pre-Prep Transition session this morning?’…. Ummm thats not today is it.. panic as I try to access my google calendar through my mobile phone… yes it is today. I look at the time, 30 minutes until it starts.

Despite all the reminders and prompts – the phone call from the school about uniforms, the schedule making/calendar checking, the mum at Annie’s school asking about transitions, I still hadn’t remembered.

Right I gather Heidi and bags ‘If we leave now we can get the train and hopefully make it on time, only 1 stop after all’. No no, the teacher shoots down that idea, I will drive you over… above and beyond, always above and beyond with the early intervention centre staff, amazing people one and all. Heidi is excited to be driving in a different car and I try to verbally prepare her for going to transition class, making sure to emphasis it will be quiet as the last pre-prep session we attended was very noisy and has made a bad impression on Heidi.

Once at the school Heidi plays quietly in a room she is familiar with from previous early intervention sessions there. She happily finds her name tag and puts it on, I get her settled in the classroom and tell her Mummy is going for coffee and will be back soon – our little ritual with occasions like this.

Off I wander to local coffee shop and enjoy a skinny latte and slice of mudcake (850 calories OH MY GOD! I ate salad for the rest of the day). I work some more on my new cross stitch project – Evenweave! what a lovely stitching experience that is, I’ve started my secret stitching project on Aida but once that is finished I’m all Evenweave all the way baby.

but I digress… and get sidetracked and all that jazz.

90 minutes later and it is time to collect Heidi, back to the school and Heidi is very glad to see me. I tell her we are going to catch the train home and I will get her McDonalds for lunch. ‘The outside one’ Heidi asks, ‘yes the outside one’ I say…sidetrack again…. .the inside McDonalds is in the shopping centre food court and it is always very noisy, we like the outside one best because it is quiet, has a smaller, safer (ie less children) playground….

One of the other mothers overhears and offers to give Heidi and I a lift back to the McDonalds so we don’t have to catch the train. Heidi’s escape out the school gates at Annie’s school is still vivid in my mind so I gratefully accept the offer because absconding children and railways are not a good combination.

For the next 15 minutes all Heidi does is repeat ‘the outside one?’. We arrive at the outside McDonalds and the other mum drops us off. Inside Heidi starts listing what she wants, nuggets, chippies, apple juice, toy. I order her a happy meal and Heidi stands at the counter listing what she wants until the meal (and toy) arrive. We go sit, Heidi eats, I assemble the toy which was far more complicated than my brain was prepared to deal with by that stage. The toy keeps falling apart, Heidi is finished eating and wants to play in the playground but also wants to lie down in my lap. Time to go home and find some sticky tape to stick the toy together as Heidi is sure it will work then.

Back home and I call PreSchool and tell them Heidi wont be there for the afternoon session. I’m conflicted about that decision, perhaps the routine of PreSchool would have eased Heidis anxiety but then maybe the social stimulation would have been too much when she was already overwhelmed… so far we have avoided tears and screams and the harder to control physical stims and I wish to keep it that way. I worried on that all night until I took Heidi to her PreSchool session the follow day (today) and found out that her regular teacher is away and their is a different / new teacher in the classroom. So glad then that I had kept Heidi home.

But back to the afternoon at home, we watched Pokemon (first movie) twice. Heidi wrapped in her blankie, chewing her fingers again, wanting milk and cuddles. Not much talking.

We get Annie from her School at 3.30pm. Heidi sticks close to me the whole time, anxious on the walk there that we will get lost, despite walking the same way every day this year. One of Annie’s classmates runs off down the oval instead of walking to the car with his Mum, Heidi gets distressed that he will get lost. We walk home – after making sure the classmate was in fact going to his Mum. Home, more clinging.

Bedtime and Heidi is a baby, ‘I’m not a school girl, I’m a kinder girl, I’m a baby”. This was a very very bad week to decide to try taking her out of pull ups at night and into underpants…. although so far successful. 10pm Heidi is still awake, her bed is too squishy, too cold, she needs more cuddles, wants to sleep in our bed. Eventually she falls asleep in the corridor, wrapped in her blankie, close enough to see the lights from the loungeroom without us spotting her.

1.30am, Heidi awake and going to the toilet, even in her sleep haze ‘I’m a baby, not a school girl’. 6am baby Heidi is in my bed, headbutting me and talking in baby babble, not words.

Now she is at PreSchool, with the different teacher but I’m hoping that being at PreSchool, being the Kinder girl today will help. Would yesterday have been different if I’d remembered earlier about PrePrep transition, I’m not sure. Somethings would have gone more smoothly, we would have had the car instead of my husband, but I don’t know if Heidi’s anxiety levels would have been less or not.

I’m trying to find fun ways to integrate a little home learning into our lives.
Like this Shoe Survey that Annie and I did. Getting the concept of counting, categories, more / less.

Snippets of stuff from my life.

I’ve been keeping up the 3 week picture schedules for the girls. Last night I realised we’d reached the end and I needed to make new schedules so I took the old ones down planning to make more today. This morning I found Heidi standing staring at the spot where her schedule was looking very sad ‘its gone’. I’d never even seen her look at the schedule… had assumed she mostly ignored it but kept making them for her anyway… so it was a rather nice surprise to know that she does refer to her schedule.

We got Annie the 4th Rainbow Fairy book on Thursday night. It had taken her a week to read the 1st book, half a week to read the 2nd and a day to read the 3rd.

So I didn’t give her the 4th book on Thursday night fearing she would be up all night reading. Instead I used it as incentive for her to get ready for school Friday morning.

7am Friday Annie woke up, by 7.30am she had eaten breakfast, was dressed and ready for school so I gave her the book. School starts at 9am, at 8.55am I was dragging Annie out the door to school with only 2pages left in her book.

I gave her the last 3 books in the series to read over the weekend, she finished one yesterday and started another last night, finished it and then the final book this morning. Kid sure does love reading.

I’m hoping while the weather is cool to get some cookies baked for teachers Christmas gifts. Was going to give book vouchers all round but I simply can’t afford to do that. I can bake cookies now and freeze them ready to package up and distribute in December (when it is far to hot for any kind of baking).

Today I’m gardening. Reclaimed half a meter of courtyard space from the ivy that was creeping over it. Going to try potting some plants that I found had started to grow between the paving stones.

Finished a cross stitch Christmas ornament for Annie’s teacher during the week. Have started on another cross stitch ornament, not sure who it is for just yet. A friend said her mother wants to get back into cross stitch and do the ‘Last Supper’ cross stitch. Her mum hasn’t stitched for a long time so I gave my friend a spare ornament kit i had in my bag, it had thread, needle, pattern and fabric and was a very easy kit. Nice feeling to help someone get started on recapturing their stitching mojo. I’ve got a bunch of little ornament kits that I’m going to try and stitch ups for Christmas gifts.

We had a glorious thunderstorm last night, don’t seem to have many thunderstorms anymore and I do so enjoy them.

Heidi and Daddy enjoying some cuddles and quiet time at Joey Scouts.

From October 2009