I am on the beach with my beloved family and I'm watching the sea and the kids are playing. It's in our blood to be by the sea as Jake was brought up there and so was I from a young age. It's not an unusual day but we're quite peaceful as Joel is always calm and happiest by the sea.
Suddenly Holly runs up to me shouting 'mummy mummy come and see Joel' and then we run to see him and he's talking and he's being normal and being a sweet little boy to his brother Max and he is not surprised when he looks up at us. Just begins to chat as if nothing has ever happened. As if the autism he had has just been dropped and he's the boy he's meant to be. I am so happy. We all are. It's a simple dream but it's the only thing in the world I wish for. I would happily trade in anything I could for Joel to be like this. I have never known anything quite so painful as seeing a child in pain, frustrated and trapped in his own body trying to get out. That's how I see him. Locked there somewhere and trying to find the key is an ongoing task. I have never seen pain written so clearly over those that love him too. He really does knock you for six. It makes every day simple things when you're not with him seem quite surreal as you're not having to be hyper-vigilant every second about where he is, what he's up to, what destruction is he causing now. Because it's rarely ever constructive.
Yesterday the university of Western Ontario made a breakthrough with being able to read the mind of a man severely paralysed and in what they thought was a vegetative state and they could look at his brain patterns and discover he wasn't in pain and that he was imagining playing tennis which is when the patterns in his brain went nuts. www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20268044
I didn't know if that was a cruel question or not but at least they could see his brain was responding. I wonder if they'll come up with something like that for kids or people with autism who can't talk. Joel is talking a bit. It's mostly getting his needs across but that's a start so we'll keep going with all the help we can get him. We're currently looking into Talk Tools programme for Joel which help some children talk especially this amazing boy who's mother is an ABA therapist and has helped him to speak. She was an inspiration to me and is on you tube as RISCA27. Here's an example of how far she's come with her child with Talk Tools and ABA therapy :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YadwN77KYQs
This therapy requires more funding though for Joel and we're waiting to hear from the Local Authority to see if they will fund Talk tools for Joel as I think he'd really benefit.
This AMAZING Welsh lady Risca Solomon is one of the unsung mothers of this world if you can see this clip it brings me to tears. She is working tirelessly for her son and other children like him and I am so moved by her attitude. I think it's the Welsh spirit or grit and determination in her too, which I I like to think I have a bit in me too from my father's side.
We were at her day course at the Healing Autism conference earlier this year at Brunel University.
http://autismtherapy.co.uk.s88828.gridserver.com/meet-the-team/risca-solomon
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| Risca Solomon - an unsung hero and mother and tutor to Dan her son |
There are people out there who have the same dream as me and are living it like this lady Risca. She is getting there. People like her deserve medals from the Queen. Not for how many TV programmes they have starred in. There are amazing people working tirelessly for this dream and I'm not giving up as long as they are out there showing me the way.
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