22 March 2007
We went to the Occupational Therapist this week. She is a new one to Raenie and her name is Sarah. Sarah decided that first of all she wanted to review Raenie's progress. However, she does things in such a different way to Kate that Raenie wasn't impressed at all - he hardly looked at or spoke to her. Personally I thought she was a bit unprofessional.
She asked me in front of Raenie if I had any concerns about him. I felt uncomfortable talking about him as though he was not there - Raenie is nobody's fool – so I said as quietly as possible that he still wakes very, very early and he is currently having 'meltdowns' after school. He also hits out, mainly at me, and throws things. She then asked Raenie if he hits me. I was quite shocked at this. He just shock his head to say no. I think he was upset about it as he thought she was going to tell him off. She suggested a personal chill out zone for him, but again Raenie was not impressed. When she asked him what relaxed him out he replied, "my Playstation."
Sarah said that it’s better to have to have a calm place with soft lights music and cushions. I said I would buy him a pop up type tent. Sarah said that would be fine, but it seemed all she really wanted to do was discharge him. She asked me what I thought about that. I said I will feel a little alone with no help or advice, but inwardly I was quite annoyed. OT's can help with school problems, for example, help the child to de-stress or give teachers advice on how to cope with children with disabilities, etc.
His old OT Kate was a great help to us, yet now we will have no support.
Sarah said he can go back to the doctors and be referred again. I guess we shall have to wait months for him to be seen. What happens when he goes to the next class and suddenly he can't cope?
After this fruitless appointment I took him to Ikea to buy the pop-up tent for his 'chill out zone'. He seemed ok, but didn’t talk much. I asked him what he thought of Sarah. He said he didn’t like her – there’s nothing else Aspergers tell it like it is!
We were paying for his tent and he asked if he could have an ice cream. I said yes, so he went with his sister Elle to buy one. Two minutes later they came back, but he wouldn't wait in the queue with us. He then started to get very angry so Elle took him outside while I paid.
When I went to meet them I could see from a distance that he was being difficult. He tried to push me and then Elle. He wouldn’t get in the car and pushed and kicked it. Elle and I got in the car and Raenie would not. I pretended that I was going to drive away, but he just stood there looking through us and then waving as if to say goodbye.
Finally, with great difficulty, we got him into the car. He would only get in the front seat and as I was driving he put his feet up onto the dashboard. He was trying to get a reaction from me so that I'd stop the car and tell him to take his feet down. He knew I was getting cross, but we got home without further incident. Now usually, he'd not get out of the car, but he did, thank goodness. And so our day continued in this manner simply because his day was different.