Helping Archie
Archie is now 5 years old and has a diagnosis of autism. The Learning to Live Appeal is a fundraising initiative to raise money for the support, health care and education he needs to make sense of the world around him.
We are so grateful to everyone who has supported Archie's Learning To Live Appeal. Your support has truly made a huge difference to our family, and especially to Archie.
We are currently working on sensory integration, Archie's 'sensory diet', and using lots of repetitive exercises to stimulate neural development and speech pathways.
Amazing progress this year!
All of our fundraising efforts to date were working towards our trip to the USA to Growing Minds Autism Programs. At the beginning of our time there we wrote a list of what we would hope to achieve - on that list were that he might say 'Mummy' in the right context, that he might learn some way to let us know when he needed the toilet, and other simple targets like those. One of our main hopes was that we could develop his relationship with his Sister, who seemed invisible to him.
The team at Growing Minds were nothing short of brilliant, and tailored our programme specifically to our family. It seems amazing now to look back at that list and see where we have got to since we wrote it, (only a few months ago)!
Just this week, Archie mastered a SIX WORD sentence 'Give me a crisp please daddy'. He is now using the sentence with great effect to get lots of different things from lots of different people! He is trying really hard to use language in all situations now, and though he is having some challenges with the motor requirements of complex language, he is striving to make all the sounds he can. As I write, he is saying 'Scooby Doo' to get a change of game on the computer!!
He is now not only acknowledging his sister, but they are also playing some simple games together, with our assistance - like bean bag toss, word bingo, and marble run. Recently he has been asking her to chase him, much to everyone's delight - I can't tell you how wonderful it is to hear their laughter about the house together.
We still have a long road and alot of work ahead of us, but what has happened in the last few months has filled us with hope for what we might be achieved together in the future.
Archie is now at a Special School where he has settled really well. They are thrilled with the start you have helped us give him, as he is demonstrating good skills that seemed impossible only months ago - like sitting at the table, paying attention, looking at the teacher, making sense of the daily routine, coping with the sensory environment. All things we take for granted, but that he has had to work really hard to achieve - WOW!! Well done Archie.
A Happy 2009 to you all x
Photographic images kindly donated by Jerry Fenner Photography
View the rest of the photo's in the photo album, and read about the photographic session!
We buy our printer and laser toner cartridges at great prices from www.Internet-ink.co.uk
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