A quick introduction

Hi, I'm Janine. I have 3 beautiful kids on the Autism Spectrum. All very different. This blog is about the challenges we face day to day and what goes on in my head as I face it head on.
My oldest son, Bman, is nearly 17. He was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at the age of 3. At that stage he was not verbal, not in the true sense of it anyway. He would say not much at all, a few nouns, but he couldnt ask for anything and certainly did not articulate in any meaningful way. He had hugely challenging behaviours which included enormous anxieties towards most everyday things, a fascination with his own body excrements and used to bolt away at the drop of a hat. With a lot of help from family and of course us, he is now a highly articulate, extremely clever 16 year old with friends and prospects of a pretty productive life and career. Who would have thought that he would have come so far. Our challenge now is to encourage him all the way and to continue to fight for a better world for him.
Stef is a beautiful young girl, now aged 11 nearly 12. Stef is non-verbal and has a tested mental age of around 3. She has extremely challenging behaviours. Her life evolves around satisfying her need for sensory input at all times. She is an extreme challenge. Our challenge is to find a way for her to communicate her needs and wants in a meaningful way and to try to get her to become as independent as possible.
Jack is a wonderful little boy, aged 9. He was diagnosed last year with Aspergers, Anxiety disorder and a high level of ADHD. He struggles at school work due to a poor attention span and fine motor skills deficits. We struggle to teach the teachers about autism and the manifestations that it causes. It can be so difficult as attitudes towards these kids by teachers is that they know everything.....we have had some great ones, but mostly, especially the older teachers have no idea and treat him like a naughty child all the time. They just make our life so much more difficult.
Anyway, onward. I work up to 25 hours a week, take roles in the community and try to maintain my own sanity as I too have ADHD. Sometimes I see the ADHD as a blessing. I have huge amounts of energy.....for me the challenge is to channel it, concentrate on the tasks at hand, and just not get sidetracked.
This blog is about the constant challenges we take, and how we try to keep life on an even keel in what is essentially difficult circumstances.