Home

Photos

My Contacts

History Page

My Favourite Websites

Guestbook

22-4-09

INFORMATION EVENING ON OUR PROGRAMME FOR LOGAN

DATE Tuesday 28 april

WHERE 7 Geehi place Amaroo ACT

TIME 7.30 pm

CONTACT Jason on 0437890875

bookings essential gold coin donation for nibblies

UPDATE ON LOGAN 24-11-08

It's been a while since Logan's website has been updated so we have plenty of news with regards to what is happening with Logan and the McCarthy family.

As some of you are aware we have had some great news with regards to Logan's sonrise programme. We have an outreach facilitator coming to help us on the 8th and 9th of December from 9-3pm on both days. This will be great timing coming into the Christmas break where we can spend more 1 on 1 time with Logs. Next year Kellan will be in childcare 4 days a week which will give us more time to programme and get back on track with Logan.

Logan has made some amazing changes over the past few months, he now understands language and requests so much more like "brush teeth" "wee wee" "sit down" and many more. His requested eye contact rate is probably a 4-5 out of 10 rather than 1-2 out of 10 which was just a few months ago. He sometimes even requests our eye contact to tell us what he wants. He is more verbal now and we understand what he is trying to tell us with his very limited vocabulary. Something that really sticks out was Logan and Jason had their first conversation. It went like this

Jason "Did you have a good day with Kylie today?"

Logan "YA" while looking at Kylie smiling

Jason "that's great"

Logan "Yeah!!!"

Our first conversation loops how cool is that

Logan still sees Dr Underwood in Sydney specialising in natural therapies for autistic children. The last visit was very successful as Dr Underwood had some blood results back and Logan's zinc-cooper balance has levelled out. All the other elements are good as well except Iodine for his thyroid function so he is now having drops. The doctor has also prescribed Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid which will help with Logan's vocalisation, unfortunately as we are still getting the balance right, Logan is getting frustrated which in turn causes melt down, but we are sure this will improve. The melt downs prove to be a challenge for us as on occasions Logan has hit his head hard enough to give himself a nose bleed and has managed to get blood all over him, the rug, the sofa and Lucy. Logan also has been known to throw furniture and scream so loud that it upsets Jenna and Kellan. He also decides to have meltdowns at 2am when all we can do is put him in the shower then have him in bed with us, snuggled in a towel. Quite often Logan will go back to sleep but we are wide awake.

As you are aware Kellan joined our family in January 2008. Both of us have had concerns that we may have to go the same road as we have with Logan but we are happy to report Kellan is developing well. He wave's bye, points, says hello, mum, dad, Jenna, and dog. He is also trying to crawl which means TROUBLE!!!! He imitates us in every way and gets very upset when one of us leaves the room. It is great to see our baby boy developing which puts our mind at ease.

Once again we would like to thank the volunteers who come in every week to help with Logan or Jenna and Kellan: Kylie, Rosemary, Barbara, Beth, Beata, Faeza, Honor, Hannah, Ngairie and Jan. Also we would like to thank the fantastic Nanna Margaret, she is a grandmother to the children and a fantastic mother to us who we can talk to about how we are feeling. We would not be able to run this program without these special people in our lives.

Hi Everyone

It has been a long time since we checked in with the church group. We are roughly spending 15 hours a week in the room with Logan. We would love to spend more but with Kellan now in our family it is getting more difficult. We are putting another call out for volunteers to help with everyday things like shopping, cooking, gardening, walking the dog, having Kellan or Jenna for a couple of hours. If you would like to help with any of these please contact us.

Logan is doing really well, he has certainly made progress. He now has roughly 200 words, he is starting to do puzzles. Logan is a lot more interactive with us he likes to join in songs and games. The biggest achievement this month is he is starting to recognise when he needs to go to the toilet. He goes first thing every morning; part of the attraction is flushing the toilet and washing his hands.

We have been given a vitamin program for Logan. This has really settled him down, he is not as edgy and does not ism as much. We travel to Sydney once every 3 months to see Dr Underwood who is very supportive of the Son-Rise program running alongside the Vitamin program. He has commented on the progress he has seen with Logan since we started in August 2007.

We would like to thank our wonderful volunteers, Barbara, Beth and Rosemary who come in once a week to work with Logan, they now have a great relationship with Logan and he is always very happy to see each and every one of them. We also have two other volunteers that come in to work with Logan who are still building the relationship with him. Logan has a way of winning people's hearts with his very warming smile.

We would also like to Thank Jan and Ngarie who are always willing to pick up Jenna and take her to Sunday school. Jenna loves this and Lucy quite often gets in trouble for not taking her! Jenna also has joined a group SibsClub it is for children with siblings of autism. Jenna gets to enjoy activities such as bowling that she wouldn't normally get to do. Jenna also gets the opportunity to talk with other children in a similar situation as her.

We received an email today from a Son-Rise Facilitator who is coming to Australia in November 2008, we are hoping that she will schedule in a visit to see our program, train our volunteers and give us some advice on how to continue and develop our program. This is a costly exercise but we have decided that it will be worth it for the future - we will keep you updated on how this progresses.

Once again Thankyou to all of you that have supported us over the last few years.

Thankyou to a GREAT VOLUNTEER

Kathy worked with Logan for over 12 months Her Energy was wonderful to watch. Logan looked foward to Kathy's time every week. Kathy you truly have made a differance in Logans Life and we can never Thankyou enough for that. Good luck in your new Job and we will keep you updated with Logans progress.

5-6-08 SNAPSHOT OF LOGAN AND HIS FAMILY All is well in the McCarthy household things have settled down after the birth of Kellan and we are settling back into some programming and intensive work with Logan.

Logan is doing wonderfully well at the moment his favourite words at the moment are "poo Yuk" especially breakfast with all his vitamins in his cereal. Logan lets us know when he has done a poo now we sometimes say to him "have you done a poo Logan" his answer is usually "yeah, poo, yuk" he now brushes his teeth on his own, tells us when he wants to go to bed, he likes to share more now, only yesterday we shared an apple in his play room and he also helped me wipe my face after the apple. Logan is genunially a lot more happier now we are back into a bit more of a routine, he now spends three whole days and two mornings at school, his school run an intensive programme and he seems to be benefiting. One of Logan's teachers came over and watched me in Logan's room, watched a video on son-rise and learnt more about the programme. It's great to see some of the teachers showing a real interest in what we do. We are close to 20 hours a week with Logan in his playroom again which is almost where it was before Kellan was born.

Lucy is now back at work full time, missing the kids but enjoying work at the same time. Lucy's nights and weekends are fairly full. Monday its swimming lessons with Jenna, Tuesday is our date night we usually do boxercise together and go down by the lake and eat a pizza and have a couple of beers together.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Miriam our Respite career. Miriam has been looking after the kids for the past two years, on Tuesday evenings, unfortunately Miriam moved to Qld last week. Thankyou Miriam we will miss having you and your charismatic Brazilian personality around the house.

On Wednesday Lucy does Girl Guides with Jenna and after that One of us does Puppy training with Simi. Thursday I am at Touch football and Lucy is at home with the Kids. Friday I finish work at about 7pm and we all cook dinner and spend the evening together. Our weekends are pretty full as well Jenna does gymnastics and spends the afternoon with Ngairie Ingrid and Eamon so Lucy can do some one on one with Logan. There is not a weekend that goes by where there isn't a birthday to go to or Jenna going to one of her friends houses to play.

I still teach Disability swimming on Sundays and other children Wednesday to Saturday I still love it and it still inspires me. Its a great feeling when I bump into the parents and the kids at school or down the street and see their smiles and hear their positive feedback its just good to make a difference in a Kids life.

Lucy and I really feel a part of the community, there so many people who are aware and show an interest in Logan and Autism now its great to see that Logan has built a community of people around us.

Kellan is growing every day he has now rolled over and smiles all the time he does have his bad days, he is allowed to, he is our beautiful baby boy. Its funny we are always looking into Kellan's eyes and say good looking just out of habit Kellan must think we are bloody mad sometimes on the upside Kellan is learning to interact with us from a very early age. I think Kellan being our third child the late night feeds and crying are much easier to cope with; in fact sometimes we pinch ourselves because we feel so blessed.

3-6-08 THE INTRODUCTION OF SIMI

The short story that inspired us

I will share the events leading up to and the acquiring of our labradoodle dog Simi

Eighteen months ago we had some new neighbours move in next door we knew they were a really lovely family but little did we know they would do some things for us that would change our lives forever. Warrick and Ruth are the parents of 4 wonderful children Naomi, Hannah, Caleb, and Josiah. The family found out Logan was Autistic and started to show a real interest in Logan and the type of programme we were running for him.

One morning Ruth came over with an article from a Readers Digest about a boy with Autism who had a dog called Henry we all became interested in the concept of a dog helping Logan to interact more and to learn through a therapy type dog. Another friend of ours Emma found the book written about Dale and his dog Henry. Em purchased the book and posted it down to us both Lucy and Ruth read the book and from there it became Ruth's mission to find us a dog.

Here is an Exert from the back of the book.

The book "A friend Like Henry" is the inspiring account of a families struggle to break into their son's Autistic world and how the dog made the real difference. Dale was still a baby when his parents realised that something wasn't right. His mother Nuala took him to see several doctors before finally hearing the word autism for the first time in a specialist's office. Dales Autism was severe and violent and family life was a daily battleground.

But the Gardner's lives were transformed when they welcomed a gorgeous Golden retriever into their family. From taking a bath to saying I love you Henry helped introduce Dale to all the normal activities most parents take for granted and set him on the road to leading a full and normal life.

It is an account of how one little boy conquered his autism with the help of a devoted family dog.

After trying several therapy dog organisations to no avail Ruth stumbled upon the 'Tallai Labradoodle Family'. (A wonderful couple called David and Carla who breed Labradoodles.)

We arrived home late one Sunday evening after spending the day with relatives in Cootamundra, we were all very tired, Logan and Kellan were starting to play up and needed to go to bed when the door bell rang, it was all we needed at the time. It was Ruth brimming with excitement and busting to tell us the great news, we all stopped and had to smile (including Logan) to join her happiness. "I found a breeder who wants to Donate Logan a dog" Yes Ruth's hard work paid off. After several phone conversations with one of the Dog breeders David Simmons we decided to wait for the next Litter until Kellan was a little older and things got back to their routine a little more. Three weeks later David came clean, he already had a chocolate Labradoodle chosen for Logan. David characterisers his dogs with Winnie the poo characters and this one was mostly Poo Bear with a little Tigger perfect for Logan. So we decided, lets bite the bullet and get this Dog and SIMI (named after Andrew Symonds the cricket player, find a picture of Simi and you will know why) became part of our family.

Our Neighbours work didn't stop there they raised over $3000 for the upkeep of Simi and puppy lessons.

Simi has already been a positive on our lives especially Logan they interact so well together, both are learning quickly how to play with each other Simi even waits at Logan's door for him to wake up, he gets excited when Logan's bus arrives or leaves he now, sits, lies down, looks into our eyes when we say eyes. Accidents in the house are getting rarer each day and he only wakes up and barks when Kellan wakes up for a feed so we put Simi out for a Wee and then get on with feeding Kellan (I think I will be the only person in Australia to miss IPL cricket at 2am in the morning)

David and Ruth especially we thank you So much for the gift of SIMI

There is a link to Tallai Labradoodles on this website

On the History page we have Logan's progress & a story about Jason and Lucy's Son-Rise trips.

Email:

jamm1967@bigpond.net.au