Setting up the blog

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog!

Very excited to be here.

I am a complete technophobe so please bear with me whilst I try and set up, I am sure that as I go along, things will change and look more professional. However I just wanted  to start writing and the fact that the blog was not looking pretty enough was stopping me so am just gonna go ahead and post anyway and it will be a learning curve as we go.

Sooooooooo, following on from the positive comments I had from Facebook when I did a daily awareness post about Dyspraxia, I felt spurred on to continue this and bore you even more!

The boy is now 13 years of age, he was diagnosed as Dyspraxic when he was about 7 and this followed a rather turbulent toddlerhood and preschool years. When he was 12 he was diagnosed with Aspergers as well. I will write about the early years in the near future, so much to say about them and I guess what each diagnosis has meant for him and us.

Today we went to see his doctor who diagnosed him with Aspergers and depression last year. The boy has made a significant improvement since he last saw his doctor and I wanted to see if his anti anxiety medication was still necessary as I felt that I was managing Dyspraxia/Aspergers symptoms rather than those of depression. Bearing in mind the last time he saw the doctor, he hid in his room and barely talked to him, today we attended the clinic and he engaged really well.

Talk turned to socialisation, or the S word as we home eduactors like to call it and first we discussed the other teens in the homed educated group that we attend. The boy stated that he felt they were too "alternative for him". When explored further we ascertained that the teenagers were happy to play in a park and climb the equipment whereas the boy felt that this behaviour was too immature and not cool. However he then talked about school kids and the hierarchy of who has the best phone, most girlfriends etc and I think he also felt out of place there. So I guess he still has not found his tribe. I expressed to the doctor that the boys who have Aspergers that are home educated do not come to group because of their own reluctance to socialise. I on the other hand have insisted that the boy attends these groups to increase his social skills. I just refuse to be ruled totally by the boy's anxiety as in order to have a job later in life, he will have to TALK to people so lets make this feel less uncomfortable in a managed safe environment to gain experience. He does go off with them happily and participates in activities but I doubt  that I will be having anyone over to tea as yet.

The doctor felt that when and if (oh please when) the boy starts sixth form college, he will meet other people that are like him there. This I have often expressed to him, indeed, I loved the 6 th form when I was younger because all the annoying, class disrupting kids had left and we could learn in peace. So we watch and wait.

The boy is to stay on his medication for a bit longer, and to review this in the new year. The doctor also felt that the boy may need specialist help in the future to help him cope with making changes but this would need to be expressed as a need by the boy and not me/us. I agreed. He and us are all comfortable at the moment and we are apprehensive about re-joining the rat race again. Currently I feel that by giving him space and time the boy will progress and catch up with his peers. I can not force him. It needs to come from him.