Well, here I am again with some more of my latest news.  We had some new additions to the household a few weeks ago.  Craig has wanted to get kittens for ages and we saw an ad in the local shop for some so off we went to have a look at them.  There were 4 left from a litter of 9 - 2 girls and 2 boys.  One of the boys was tiny, the runt of the litter, the other boy was smaller than the two girls as well.  Of course, Craig couldnt choose between them and took them all.  So we now have 7 cats!!!!  The kittens are lovely but they are hard work!!  Our other cats are not at all happy about the new arrivals and spend most of their time away from the house.  Hopefully they'll calm down about it soon and come home a bit more often.

Ever since M was a baby we have been convinced she has some form of autism.  Not full blown, can't function on a day to day basis autism, but somewhere on that spectrum.   I've asked school before now what they think and they've always said they didnt think she did.  Well, last week they had what they call moving on day, where the children spend a morning in their new class to meet the teacher ready for September.  In the afternoon we got a phone call asking if we could collect M because she had got so distressed about the changes.  Well, that was the icing on the cake for us - surely this was confirmation she is autistic if she can't cope with something like that?

The learning mentor rang us on Thursday afternoon and asked if we could go in for a chat on Monday which we did.  We'd done a bit of reseach over the weekend and were more convinced we were right and went in with a view to having to convince her of our opinion if necessary.  I decided we should ask if the SENCO could attend as well, but when we got there we were told she'd like to come in if it was ok.  Of course it was!!

They went through what had happened on Wednesday - her new teacher hadnt been briefed on the ways of M so didnt realise how carefully you have to tread with her and had managed to set her off and couldnt calm her down.  He'd had to call in the SEN staff to try and settle her but she was past being settled.

She was still unsettled on Thursday and had gone off on one then as well but they managed to defuse the situation and she was ok for the afternoon.

With a serious, and almost worried look, the learning mentor (LM) asked what our opinion of the situation was and I told her we were convinced she has either autism or aspergers.  She looked very relieved - that was their opinion too and they always worry about having to tell parents, especially if the parents then claim there is nothing wrong with their child.  So, we are now in the process of getting a formal diagnosis.  We're going to the GP on Monday to ask to be referred to a paediatrician and the LM has written a letter to take with us backing us up with their concerns.

I'm so pleased that we are now taking a step towards getting her diagnosed and hopefully some help for her.  I know she wont get a lot of help, whatever she gets will be whatever the (very busy) SEN staff at school can make time for, but it will be so nice to be able to say that she's not a naughty girl, there are reasons why she behaves the way she does.  I know she's not naughty for being naughty sake, its just the way she is and she cant help doing what she does.

I will keep you posted on that one.

They gave us a "fiddler" to give to M to fiddle with in class instead of sucking her thumb.  She had it at school today and came home with it in pieces - she'd decided to take it apart instead of twisting and turning it.  I had to laugh because that is so typical of her. I bet she sat and arranged all the pieces into colours as well!

So thats it for now.