#13

24 Aug #13

July has been another healthy and happy month for our family. Lachy’s having fairly intensive therapy focusing on his head control and the use of his switch to communicate. I can see improvements in both, particularly his use of the switch. The switch is a button that is on the side of his head rest. I, and his therapists, record instructions and / or answers into the switch so that when he deliberately uses his head to press the switch, a vocal response is heard. For example when I have bubbles and say “ready, set”, he presses the button which vocalises “go”. Another example is singing Old McDonald and he presses the switch when it’s time for “E, I, E, I, O”. He’s getting so good at this song that he anticipates the part of the song that he has to press the switch and, about 2 words before it’s due, he’s pressing it then so the song can keep flowing without pause for his turn. It’s amazing. It’s Lachy talking and singing. It also shows that he really does understand so much more than I realised and just how clever he is. So much so that the therapists are now making the choices of anticipation more complicated, confident in Lachy’s abilities to achieve. As am I. Being healthy plays a huge role in Lachy’s social and communicative gains. Fills my heart!

With regards the team unlockthelachs.com in the Take a Hike initiative to raise money for the children and families of A.E.I.O.U. which supports Autism, our team is doing wonderfully with fundraising to date of $2,755.00. A huge thank you goes out to Rosalie & Danny Brooks (Rosalie being one of our hikers) who went to a great deal of effort at the Tackle World Race Day in Townsville recently and was able to raise $1,400 for the day. For that matter though, thank you to everyone who has donated. Your generosity in supporting this worthy cause is greatly appreciated. A huge thank you also to Ben McCarthy (& Kristy) from Snap Fitness for your fabulous & free training sessions to prepare us for the 40 klms walk. We know what your time is worth and we appreciate you spending it helping us!