Fire!!

There was a fire at the back of the shops where we live, one morning. Kyle couldn't wait to get to school and tell everyone about it. We were evacuated and there were major disruptions with the traffic. I think he enjoyed the attention and the fact the other kids were listening to him for a change, instead of taunting him.

Tears and Tantrums

The boys are pretty emotional. Kyle has always thrown tantrums, and I mean BIG tantrums. These often involve, crying shouting, slamming doors, kicking walls and doors, throwing stuff and hitting his brother. I don't know anyone else who's ten year old does this. The smallest thing can set him off, like making a mistake in his homework or not getting his own way.

Sometimes he can go for months without having a big episode and other times it's a daily occurrence although "moody strops" are constant.

This is Kyle crying because I wouldn't allow him to eat some Lucky Charms cereal, which I'd ordered with the grocery shopping. After reading a warning on the packet saying that they could cause an adverse reaction to children's behaviour, I decided it wasn't a great idea, to give them to my already hyper kids.

Aiden gets upset and inconsolable over things like, his team (arsenal) losing or not being the best at something. Aiden has to be the winner. he's a very sore loser. He's not great at the whole team playing thing, which is a shame as he plays for a local football team. He likes being in goal the best, and we figured out, during his assesment that it's because, he can focus on his achievement rather than the team's. They play a match every Sunday and Aiden often stands on the pitch sobbing, as they're often losing. We keep threatening to stop him from playing but he loves it.

Here he is with his football cards. He has hundreds of them! I'm not sure what all the crying about here. He probably couldn't find a player he was looking for.

Breakfast

This can be a quite time or a time of conflict and war. Kyle and Aiden don't get on. Sometimes they start arguing before they've even got out of bed. Sometimes, I don't think they've even opened their eyes and a fight has begun.

Three

I'm keeping this blog to try and make sense of it all.

Meet the kids. From left to right, there's Nancy (1 year), Aiden(6 years) and Kyle (10 years). There's THREE of them. I remember turning around one day when Nancy was a couple of weeks old and thinking, Oh my God, there's three of them, I'm officially outnumbered!!

Aiden has just been given a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A few years ago, they would have called it Aspergers, but this term is no longer used. He's highly intelligent but his social skills are not as they should be. He also has lots of other strange little quirks and habits such as a compulsion to put things in his mouth. Shoes, toys, mud, you name it he'll eat it. He once chewed through an electrical cable! Things like this, you get used of seeing and it becomes normal. 

It wasn't until his year one teacher raised some concerns, over this particular behaviour, that i thought "Oh, OK this isn't normal". She reported that he would often take his shoes off whilst they were sitting on the carpet and lick the bottoms of them. On another occasion, she caught him eating glue! I spoke to my doctor and he referred Aiden to the Child development centre at the Hillingdon Hospital. After many questions, observations, there and in school and a three hour interview with 300 questions asked, we got the diagnosis of ASD.

Kyle is currently being assessed at the same place but he was originally seen by a counselling service as his problems seemed to be more emotional. My main concern was his highly charged emotional and sometimes violent outbursts and "tantrums". His teacher reported that he was unable to concentrate in class and often makes inappropriate noises during lessons, which disrupt the class. He also has poor social skills and is often bullied at school. He says he has no friends. 

Nancy seems to be "normal". She makes sure she's not overlooked with her own little tricks of dancing, chit chat and if she's desperate, she'll just scream for as long and as hard as possible.

This is a rare quite moment at home, thank god for the telly :)