me & mum

This is Braiden with his mother joy.He absolutely loves her,this pic was taken on holidays a couple of weeks ago on white haven beach in the Whitsundays.We all had a great time,especially the kids.We also took my sister in-law who is visiting from the Philippines.It was the first time for her to visit this part of the world,however my kids are spoiled,this is there third time there.

Actually I really like taking the family there,its so relaxing and the views all around the islands are great.Braiden was actually swimming by himself in the pool without his floatation vest,it was so exciting for his mother and myself to see this,considering his never had lessons.

Obviously he wasn't at Olympic standards,but it was good enough for us,and he was also excited to be able to swim unassisted.It goes to show that he really does mimic what he sees.He had seen us swimming on the past vacations we had taken,and he got the confidence to try it himself,just by copying what he saw.

Happy Birthday

Its my birthday. I am 5 today and I am so excited . All I wanted was a chocolate cake and that's what i got.Three of them to be exact. One for playgroup, one for home and one for pre school 

Well it was Braidens 5th birthday today, and we are so happy to see him enjoy himself. This year is probably the first year he has had any concept of his age, even though he is not completely up to speed with the concept, he does try hard, and certainly understands party and birthday, just not in relation to him.

All the gifts he got from his cousins and us of course, leads this little boy down that very spoilt life we give him.

Along with love  and care , we are guilty of spoiling all our children not only Braiden, but he does seem to get the most attention. However he really does need it .

Lots of fun was had at the little BBQ we had for our few close relatives.He got to play with at least six of his cousins all ranging from age 7 till 9.But there all little girls,this doesn't seem to faze Braiden,he actually enjoys the company of girls ,I think because there not as rough as little boys tend to be.Like I said a good time was had by all,and I'm sure now we will start teaching him a little about Easter,I think he's got the gist of chocolate Easter egg mmmmm.......

Bath time

This is young Braiden on holidays last year on Hamilton Island,well he is having a bath with his sisters and cousin,you cant see them but they are there. He loves having bath time,but sometimes it can be a chore trying to get him there,especially if he is watching T.V at the time. Like most children with Autism, they are people of habit,he must have his routine,to change this can sometimes be disastrous..

Our Son Braiden

On the 19th of March 2003, like the song says, a beautiful beautiful beautiful boy came into our world. Braiden Joseph was born in Camden hospital by c-section on a sunny afternoon, and our lives were changed forever. There was nothing unusual about the delivery, I as his father was there and couldn’t help but shed a tear at seeing this perfect little boy. He had the most perfectly proportioned face and as parents we were excited and relieved that we had been blessed with a healthy beautiful baby.

Over the proceeding months we cared and nurtured our baby boy as any loving parents would. We watched him grow, play and eventually start crawling. It was all very exciting and the joy Braiden bought to our family was immense.

By the time he was one he was already walking, he was a handsome baby who was so pretty he was often mistaken for a girl.

As the first few years of his life passed us, we were so consumed with braiden as any new parents would be, but by the time he had hit 3 we were a little concerned that his speech had not progressed as we would of liked. We didn’t think too much of it, hearing stories of children who didn’t speak until 5 or other people saying as soon as he starts pre school and starts socialising with other children he would start talking. However we also noticed that braiden didn’t socialise with his cousins or with other children as we thought he might. With his communication skills low and his social skills none existing we thought a trip to the paediatrician would be the way to go.

After seeing the doctor and asking for his diagnosis he was a little hesitant to say much with out further testing. So we took him of to have his hearing tested, everything was fine there. So the next step was to have what they called a Griffith test done. We took him along to the place where they had everything set up for him. Being a little shy and somewhat anxious little boy, this was making him feel uncertain and in feeling this way, us as parent became anxious for him. 

He did the test is was putting block together and making puzzles etc, we thought he did ok. Some tasks he was asked to do; he didn’t complete, as he has a short attention span, and gets bored quite easily. However they were tasks we thought on any given day he would complete easily.

 A week or so later the psychologist gave us the results, explaining what they mean and how it was a good test but needed further testing to confirm her initial results, which were Braiden was speech delayed and bordering on Autism. In fact that was her diagnosis. 

We as parents were shattered, not knowing exactly what it meant, but had a general if not naïve idea about autism. 

Back to the paediatrician we went, him wanting to do a blood test to check if there was, well I don’t know exactly what for, but we refused to put him through that anyways, knowing how anxious he would be. So he referred us to a specialist team at Campbeltown hospital in Western Sydney. 

This took nearly 6 months to finally be seen by a professional group of medicos, consisting of; psychologist, speech therapist and other people specialising in the diagnosis of childhood needs. Needless to say the diagnosis was even clearer. Not only was he Autistic, it was moderate on the scale, so in the middle if you like. 

He is always loved and even more so now, if that’s possible. This site is something, which I am doing as a father for my sweet gentle little boy, to show the world and hopefully inform them and myself along the way how precious our children are. I don’t know if I will ever be able to have a constructive conversation with Braiden, or will we speak in single word sentences for the rest of our lives, I don’t know how many times he will feel ostracised by ignorant people or how I will act in these circumstances as a protective father. 

All I know is I love him more than anything else in the world and he brings laughter, love and a naïve playfulness to our whole family, and we LOVE him........