Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Bedwetting






Kojiq was properly toilet-trained at age 6. It is one of the most challenging things we've had to do todate. Because an autistic child has no control over his body functions, and cannot relate the 'gotta go' feelings with his body function. Further, he cannot vocalize how he feels, and wouldn't understand why his mom screamed at him when he simply 'let go' on the living room carpet.






AlhamduliLlah his mom succeeded in toilet-training him within a period of six months. Yes, six months! It was imperative to do so, as he was starting school the following year, and he must at least know how to tell his teacher when he needs to go to the toilet. Plus, we were running out of diapers - the kid's diapers couldn't fit him anymore, and the adult diapers were too big for him (even the S size).






However till now, occassionally he would have an 'accident' in his sleep. Pelik jugak, sebab biasanya dia akan terjaga dan masuk ke toilet sendiri atau kejutkan mak dia. Kenapa plak sekali-sekala jadik 'accident' atas tilam?






Bila fikir2, baru kami perasan. Selalunya kalau dia kencing dalam tidur, maksudnya siang tadi mesti dia dah kena marah kaw-kaw dengan someone close to him. Kadang-kadang dia merajuk, tapi biasanya kita tak perasan pun sebab budak autism tak pandai nak tunjuk emosi. Maybe bedwetting is a tension-release mechanism ke? Anyone out there have similar situations?






OKlah since kita dah faham, so kita takde la marah2 dia lagi, cuma tegur je to make him understand he must always shee-shee in the toilet only. Tapi dah 2 malam ni dia asyik ter-shee-shee je, first night sbb kena marah ngan papa dia, second night sebab kena marah ngan speech therapist dia sebab tak fokus dalam kelas. Yang jadik mangsa - adiknya Enysh yang tidur sekatil - pepagi bangun dengan pakaian lencun, tapi bukan air kencing dia sendiri. Eeeewwwww....!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

An Update...finally!

Much has happened for the past year and a half, since my last post. Not all has been rosy, but plenty of happy moments nontheless.

Rasanya baru saja aku cium dahi adik aku dan ucap 'good luck' masa dia disorong masuk ke delivery room. Diam tak diam, Kojiq pun dah 8 tahun usianya, dan Enysh adiknya dah 5 tahun. How time flies! Ayong jugak yang masih perasan dirinya muda hehehe :-)

Anyway.

Kojiq is no longer on the ABA programme. Sayang sungguh, coz masa tu yg paling banyak improvement. But we had to discontinue, mainly because it got so expensive :-( His therapist was coming 3-4 days a week, and the consultant once every fortnight.

Total expenses for Kojiq's therapy (Kindy, ABA, Speech and Occupational) came to about RM2,500-3,000 a month! So we had to do the next best thing - cut down on his ABA hours to 2-3 times a week only. But I guess the therapist wasn't too happy about it. Yelah, itu periuk nasi dia, kan? Then start la buat hal, datang lambat or tak datang langsung walaupun ada appointment, which later on she admitted that dia dapat client baru, anak tokay apa ntah, yang mintak dia datang 5 kali seminggu. So dia tarik diri from Kojiq.

Kojiq's mum cried buckets and actually pleaded with her to stay, but she was adamant to leave, saying something about commitment. We were so disappointed, and Kojiq's mum never quite get through to finding another ABA therapist. Later on bila ada terserempak masa pegi seminar, dia lari-lari. Kitorang pun buat dek je la, tapi aku tau hati adikku memang terguris, dia rasa disisih dek minah tu sebab duit. Tapi itu benda yang diluar kawalan kita, kan?

Anyhow, Kojiq's mum took a 6 months no-pay leave, semata-mata untuk toilet-train Kojiq sebelum dia mula bersekolah di sekolah biasa (Kelas Khas). Banyak saat yang frustrating, memang susah sangat nak toilet-train budak autism, nanti kita bukak topik lain on that.

AlhamduliLlah, settle semuanya sebelum Kojiq mula sekolah. Tahun ni Kojiq dah 8 tahun, darjah 2 jika sekolah biasa. Tapi di kelas khas, mereka diletakkan dalam kelas mengikut kebolehan, bukan umur. Kojiq sekarang dalam kelas pertengahan. Tapi di Kindy, dia dah mula masuk kelas akademik beberapa bulan lepas, syukur sangat! Maksudnya belajar membaca, mengira macam budak lain, tapi pada kadar yang sangat perlahan la.

Aku sendiri dah mula nampak tanda-tanda kematangan Kojiq berbanding dulu. He is less restless dan kadang2 lebih well-behaved dari adiknya Enysh! Kalau pegi ke mall pun, dia dah tak berlari macam dulu, in fact tak perlu pegang tangan dia all the time bila berjalan di tempat public. Dia juga dah mula initiate interaction, having short 4-5 words conversation. Dan dia juga dah boleh bermain bersama dengan Enysh, walaupun selalu gak la diorang me'lepuk' each other bila berebut mainan.. like other normal kids, alhamduliLlah.

OK, will write more soon, insyaAllah. Till then, thank you for reading (ada ke orang baca???), semoga Allah memelihara kita semua di dalam baraqahNya!