Wednesday, November 14, 2007

hairspray

Rang up the doctors and was told to come straight in.
i talked to the doctor and he said she is clearly not autistic from what he observed, he said a autistic child would go stand in the back corner of the room and not make eye contact or engage socially. He agreed that its probably just tia behaving badly, he said he could refer me to get her tested but said he didn't see any need to. I asked about her speech problems and he checked her ears (all fine) asked about any ear infections (nope) and gave me a referral to get her hearing checked, results will take a week and then to come back and talk further about speech therapy.
I have had a fair idea what i need to do with Tia, e.g spend more time with her and have more routine BUT i get lazy, distracted or busy (and sometimes all 3) i still need to learn how to prioritize! i know! I know all about consistency, she doesnt have much fear of me(discipline wise) (dont know why. other than most things e.g barking dogs, she thinks shes invincible!!)altho fear isn't a great motivator for anything.. i just need to spend more focused time with her.

ah, relief! Went to the cinema's to find out we missed a movie time, went and did more shopping and checked out other deli's, fruit shops, butchers etc down that side of town (outside the shopping centre) and returned back to see hairspray! I thought the movie was great, certainly a movie that leaves you on a high! i found it hard to stop looking at john travolta in the fat suit playing a woman, times i forgot that was a man, times i thought wow that fake chicky singing sounds bad! There were some funny moments, some 'enough with the evil bitch' moments.. 99% singing & dancing! ^^ good thing DH wasnt keen on going, im certain he would need some sort of therapy afterwards.. if he had



2 comments:

Shar said...

That is great news Tiffany!

Just a little something to add to your comment re behaviour. Children 'do' need their parents time and attention as you mentioned, but at this age they also crave security, generally in the form of boundaries. Often children will 'test' their boundaries (read 'bad behaviour) that's why the consistency that you mentioned is really important. Routine often works really well for children of this age and 'changes' can often impact on behaviour. My husband is currently overseas, he left in August. The first month was horrible with Lilli, so I really tightened up on routine, kept it as similar as possible in the weekend and the improvement was dramatic. We still have crap days and moments, but it is much better.

Sorry if I am telling you what you already know - in fact I am sure I am - quite like a podium monent with no-one to interupt me! ;-). It's funny though. I spent many years teaching early childhood, telling parents similar things, but when you become a parent yourself man! it's hard to push through the tiredness, stress and emotional feelings related to your child to see a situation/behaviour for what it is.

Here are a couple of my fav authors on behaviour management. Dr Louise Porter, Steve Biddulph, Thomas Phelan (1-2-3 Magic)

Good luck Tiffany.

maria said...

I really, really struggle with musicals. I couldn't bear "Dreamgirls" for this reason.. I had to stop watching it one hour into it.

I almost went to see Hairspray with a fellow WW buddy..but she backed out half an hour before I was due to leave and meet her. I read in a review it was mostly singing and dancing and I couldn't bear it for that reason.. just my personal tastes. Though I'm very curious about John Travolta's acting in this!

Excellent comment from Shar by the way!! When Jenna and I moved to our current address.. Jenna's behaviour changed for the worse. She was far more relaxed and happy to be out of a stressful environment - but indeed she tested boundaries.. she was so disobedient that I'd end up in tears..and she's 12. I've had another Mum tell me about how kids don't consciously do this.. it's like their natural reaction.. maybe it's their subconscious way to feel more secure..?? Test the boundaries? I'm doing the parenting pre-adolescents course..but the 2.5hrs on a school night is stressing me out..and I'm unwell at the moment so I'm seriously considering whether I can handle it. I don't want to be seen as copping out.. I can still ask for the sheets/handouts I guess.. At the end of the day too.. it's probably not going to be right for me... (thinking aloud here..working my life out here on your blog..hehe)!!

I also totally get the not spending enough time with your kids.. I'm a bit of a shocker there. My girl is constantly asking me to play games with her.. and do stuff with her. I do try where I can.. ie. the bike riding..and will sing on the SINGSTAR..but my hubby is the one who plays on the PS2 with her mainly... I'm not as 'hands on' as I'd like. But oh well..

I wish you the very best. I also read somewhere in a blog comment that you are anxious.. Are you still feeling that way? I hope you can get rid of that feeling... thinking of you xoox