Our
children have named him Ludo – it is the one board game that they all play
together and so has a special association to them. We wanted a name that meant something to all
three children and it has taken a lot of suggestions from Ruckley (our eldest
son plays rugby and is learning to ruck at the moment) to Scrabble (our
daughter loves this game) before we settled on Ludo.
The
first 24 hours of Ludo’s life with us has been a whirlwind. He arrived at 6.30pm last night after my
husband had driven a 5 hour round trip to collect him. It was not ideal timing as our youngest son
has his swimming lesson at 7pm on a Friday, so I went out with all 3 kids
before 6.30pm to ensure they all met Ludo at home at the same time, rather than
our two eldest children getting to spend some time with him before our youngest
son came home from swimming. I’ve never
seen such a determined face on our youngest son during his swimming lesson as I
did last night, he did everything he was told to so that the lesson could
finish on time and we could drive home.
Ludo
was quiet and nervous when we walked in the door. I had told the kids to be quiet so they
didn’t scare Ludo – not an easy task for 3 excited children. All they wanted to do was scream and shout as
they finally had Ludo at home with them.
Our youngest son has been marking off his countdown chart each day for
the past two weeks, since we chose Ludo and had a huge smile on his face when
he walked in the door.
The
children went out in the garden to play with Ludo. He was more interested in exploring the
flower beds and trying to jump up on the trampoline. He seems to have a fetish for feet and wanted
to nibble our daughter’s shoes. She
screamed and started to run around the trampoline which Ludo thought was an
exciting game and so he ran faster to catch up with her!
When
we decided to put Ludo to bed in his crate, so that he could go to sleep after his
stressful day, the children went up to their beds without any fuss. Something that can be unheard of in our house
– they must have listened to my social story of telling them that they need to
be upstairs before Ludo is put to bed.
Although we had prepared them that Ludo would cry, as he would be
missing his mum and siblings, we hadn’t mentioned he might howl. They were all distressed at the noise Ludo
made when he was put in his crate and wanted to rush downstairs to see what was
wrong and thought I was being very harsh when I said we must leave him on his
own. They paced up and down the landing
for 10 minutes until quietness fell and Ludo had gone to sleep. When he started howling again at 4am to say
he had been to the toilet, no one heard him but me!!
Today
our eldest son decided a trip to Pets at Home was in order, as Ludo did not
have enough toys. He’s going to need his
own toy box at this rate!! The rest of
the day has been spent playing with Ludo in the garden, telling him to go to the
toilet to avoid too many accidents happening indoors and this afternoon the
children built an assault course in the garden comprising of a skateboard ramp
for Ludo to launch himself into a paddling pool and posts to weave in and out
of on the grass. They have decided
amongst themselves that today has been day one of Ludo’s training to be the
next winner of Britain’s Got Talent, just like Pudsey the dog did a couple of
years ago. The fact that Ludo is still
learning his name, has no idea what the commands ‘sit’ or ‘stay’ mean does not
matter. In their eyes, he is going to be
a national treasure next year and they will get the chance to appear on
tv. Although our youngest son has made it clear
that he will be standing in the wings, as he does not like any attention on
him.
Tonight
they have sat down and written a training programme, as well as a set of ‘Ludo
Rules’ just like we have ‘Family Rules’.
Dogs
are said to be calming for children with Autism and maybe Ludo will prove to
have this effect. He should give us the
chance to go out and do things as a family as we can all take Ludo for a
walk. We will take each day as it comes
but so far it is a positive start. Our
three children are working as a team, which is not a mean feat in our house
with two ASD children, who generally want things on their terms.
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