Persistence and patience is key

There have been a couple of break-throughs over the last week or two.

Firstly, Amy has shown some independence on the toileting front. For many, many months we have been "habit training" Amy which has pretty much entailed placing a potty under her at particular times of the day and waiting for her to wee. Athough she'd had a patch of using the toilet; we were forced to regress back to the potty for quite some time as the pressure to sit on the loo was too much for her.

But something has clicked. She has started saying "I'm busting!" (words given to her by us to describe needing to go to the loo) when she needs to wee. She has grasped the concept of emptying her bladder and now clearly has the ability to decide where to empty her bladder. A lot of the time she chooses the toilet! This is huge progress in this household!

There were even two poos in the toilet on Sunday. I missed it because I was at work but Amy was certainly as proud as punch!!

Amy will be four and a half next month. So as far as average ages for toileting and all that goes; she's on the later side of achieving that milestone. It must be a good two years, if not more, that we have gently worked with her around toileting. So imagine how relieved we feel as parents to see that our daughter is gradually moving out of nappies! To be honest, I was worried about her being in nappies at school-age but I think we can safely say that won't be the case - even if she saves her poos for when she gets home.

Another incredible achievement this week has been around gymnastics class. After several rough sessions in which Amy was obviously sensory-overloaded/confused, I wrote a four page social story about gymnastics. This has helped so much. Amy now understands that she has one teacher who she needs to listen and follow during class. If she listens, she gets to have an after-gymnastics play before home-time!! She was amazing on Tuesday. She watched her instructor the majority of the time and was even able to copy her without my input! I was one proud Mummy!

Persistence and patience are key when parenting/working with kids on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes progress is painfully slow; but the break-throughs are worth every ounce of time and energy taken to achieve desirable goals.