Settling-in and turning things around

In Cynthia’s second blog post she talks about how she started to make her foster child with autism feel at home and help him reach his potential.

The settling-in period was as stormy as the first day and every other day and no two days were ever the same. I started to notice cords had been pulled out of sockets, dents started to appear in skirting boards, holes were dug out in walls, curtains had been painted, light switches no longer worked, toilet seats became lose, furniture was damaged, parts of floorboards went missing with no explanation for their whereabouts, wallpaper torn and artwork pulled of the walls.

He has changed a great deal since coming to stay with us. He used to be very defiant, which we worked hard at turning around. Every day I would have to remind him of some very basic expectations, i.e. not deliberately thumping and stamping feet or banging doors really loudly, all of which he has stopped doing.

When he first came to live with me his vocabulary was non-existent. He could hardly string a few words together to make a proper constructive sentence. However he was inquisitive and used the word “why” repetitively and habitually for the sake of it. He would ask questions that seemed to have no end.

Every morning the household was greeted by a stream of profanities as soon as he eyes were opened, we could hear him rehearsing the words and shouting them out, sometimes laughing as if he was having some kind of fun saying it.

His receives specialist help for his autism and emotional difficulties, which in times past used to be quite severe. For example, dark clouds and rain falling would often trigger him into having mood swings which used to bring on feeling of anger, causing temper tantrums and other challenging behaviour i.e., lashing out, kicking over furniture and generally being out of control. Thankfully, he has managed to overcome this. 

My foster child is doing well in all aspects, socially, educationally, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, has settled in really well, is in a very good routine, is reaching all of his targets at school, and has achieved educationally.

In March 2013 received an award for outstanding educational achievement at the “reach for the stars” event and the same award at St Christopher’s fostering agency award celebration.

I am proud of what he has achieved so far and my next blog post will look at giving rewards for the right reasons.