Auntie on board!

Hi all, 

I'm proud Auntie to a 4 yr old non-verbal autistic boy who I will call Tigger here (I'm a big believer in not identifying people without their consent). I'm trying to offer support to him and his family wherever possible and am keen to learn from others with lived experience. 

I gush a lot about both my nephews so please excuse me if I come over as soppy. 

Tigger is generally a very happy and healthy child. He attends a really good special school near his home and seems to completely love it, including the bus trip home, though he does NOT like being woken up in the morning!

For the time being we've given up on potty training, which is frustrating as I think he's really not liking nappies any more, but the school has suggested waiting until he's a bit further on with PECs and that seems to make sense. 

His sleep and eating are a bit of a nightmare. He can't be allowed to go to sleep until 10:30pm at the earliest or he's up at 5, though the routine of school (which thankfully looks like it will continue through lockdown) seems to be helping with this. He is forever throwing food on the floor and eating bits from there, sometimes food that's been there a while. I have never been able to figure out why he will eat the food next to a plate rather than the food on it. It's not the colour or the material of the plate, he avoids utensils but the type doesn't make much difference... Anyway, now he's a bit bigger he's finding it much easier to ask for what he wants, including getting it and giving to us to open, which is great. 

He loves to bounce and to watch trees in the wind. He likes objects he can twizzle, particularly if they're a slightly complicated shape he can look at from different angles. Everything goes in his mouth, but luckily he doesn't swallow things that aren't food (though we try not to test that too much). 

Of course it can be tough, particularly as his little brother (typically developing) has quite a different personality so they have very different needs. There are also other complex needs in the family so we often have high stress, which Tigger actually copes with better than the rest of us a lot of the time!

So that's why I'm here. I look forward to chatting =)