Meeting the professional

At 11.30 yesterday I suddenly remembered that Duncan had an appointment with the clinical psychologist at 1.30. The paediatrician we saw last year suggested it and we agreed thinking we should get ‘on the books’ of a few people here in Northern Ireland. So I took Lady and Thomas to their Grandma and went to the hospital with Duncan. It’s been at least 6 months since we went there but of course he recognised the place immediately and wanted to go up the stairs to play with the ‘red train’. So he was a bit put out when we were asked to wait in another room. We went in to see the psychologist soon after. It was a strange session. To be honest the only reason I went is because I’m filling Duncan’s disability living allowance (DLA) form and it always helps your case to have some professional or other backing up your claim, particularly since I’m now home-educating him. So I decided I would just make sure I got all the ‘difficulties’ we have with Duncan down on paper, I mean, all the extra effort we have to put in to keeping things ticking along. None of this is bad or hard to deal with, it’s just how it is, but I know the DLA money could come in useful for him later.

Anyway, I just talked to her about what we do and the things we have to deal with and how. I told her about Duncan’s complete lack of road sense and how if I have the 2 boys out, it’s Duncan’s hand I make sure I hold onto at all times and not his 3 yo brother. I talked about his bed wetting and how he gets really upset when he wants something and doesn’t get it. I also talked about the solutions I’ve come up with to deal with these things. She obviously had to recommend something so she advised me to use cards symbolising ‘quiet’ or ‘stop this tantrum’ or something when he gets into a bit of a strop in a shop. And she had some idea about making a game to try to get him to eat more varied food. It was a bit of a drag. It actually went on for nearly 2 hours. Who on earth is paying for this woman’s time? She just sat there and let me witter on and on. She arranged for us to meet up again in a months time (blimey!) to see how things have progressed. I’ll have to get on with finishing this DLA form because I really don’t want to darken her door again. (She also used the expression ‘these children’ twice or so; I really hate that one).
The other interesting thing is that while he was in her office, Duncan was an absolute angel. He got bit fed up toward the end, understandably, and wanted my attention. I couldn’t see either of my other 2 children managing to amuse themselves with a box of manky toys and a paper rocket I’d made earlier for such a long time! When we were finally leaving, he asked to take a ‘James’ train home with him. She said it had to stay in the box for all the other boys and girls to play with. I told him I could draw a picture of James with the driver at home and he was perfectly happy with that.

Today we had a nice chilled sort of day. The children did what they enjoy; played on the computer, drew pictures, read, told stories, watched cbeebies and helped to make pancakes. Lady has continued her arithmetic practise, focusing manly on multiplication and division. She went to Rainbows too having missed a few from being away or someone being sick. She’s been told she can join Brownies if she wants so next week she’ll start that.

They’re all asleep now and I’m enjoying the quiet, a Magnum ice-cream and a supremely cheesy TV show called Hotel Babylon. Happy days!