Just a dog named Ruby.

This is a story about a dog named Ruby - a stubborn but caring English Bull Terrier.

Shortly before L was due to arrive earth side in 2012, Daddy Superhero spotted a notice on his then work online notice board of an English Bull Terrier for sale. He has always had English Bull Terriers as family fur members, so we just had to have a look. The Bull Terrier was a rescue pup and in her first year of life had been through four owners, this intrigued us. We were told that Ruby had only just turned one.

I took O along with me (because Daddy Superhero was working) to meet Ruby and her former owners and immediately fell in love with this goofball puppy. We were told by her then owners that Ruby was stubborn and hard to control (ummm, she's a Bull Terrier, aren't they all stubborn??) and that she wasn't great with children. Her then owner explained that they were Ruby's fourth owner but she was just too boisterous and stubborn for them and Ruby's previous three owners. This really broke my heart, this beautiful brindle English Bull Terrier had been passed from owner to owner because they didn't understand the nature of the breed.

When O and Ruby met, they sat down on the grass side by side and O started giving little sticks to Ruby. Ruby took every single stick very gently from O's hands. O was only two and a half years old! Not good with children? Really?

O and I decided on our way home that we just had to have Ruby as our family fur member. So after speaking with Daddy Superhero, Ruby was collected and brought to her forever home.

 

From day dot, Ruby acted like she had always been with us and she was just marvellous with O. They became best buddies within days of living with our family. Whenever O was outside in our back yard playing, she would usually end up sitting on Ruby's bed or in Ruby's dog house getting puppy cuddles. When Ruby sneaked inside, she would end up in O's bedroom. They were the best of friends.

Ruby did think that she was part dog, part rabbit and part lorrikeet though! She would happily share her dry food with our pet rabbit and when Cutie (the rabbit) was out of his hutch, Ruby would go into the hutch to eat the dry rabbit food and rabbit poop!

Then L arrived earth side. Ruby was equally as loving and caring with L as she was with O, she had a new hooman child to look after. From the very beginning Ruby has instinctively known when either of the little superheroes has needed assistance. 

If either of the little superheroes were having a rough day, Ruby was there comforting them. Ruby used to sleep under the window of L's then bedroom.

 

The big boisterous, stubborn English Bull Terrier was the calming family fur member that both little superheroes needed. Back in Perth we used to say that Ruby was an untrained assistance dog. Ruby would never pass the public access test because she loves meeting new people and can't help herself when it comes to food, but she always knew exactly what to do to calm her hooman children.

And if there was any mischief being had, Ruby was usually in the thick of it!!

Ruby used to let the little superheroes get away with things that others wouldn't. Ruby would let L take food from her mouth. Ruby would let both little superheroes sit on her.

 

  

Ruby even featured in a photo shoot that the little superheroes were asked to appear in. The photographer wanted little superheroes and their pets!

When we made the decision to move from Perth to Queensland, it was a no brainer, Ruby was coming with us. We had to make the incredibly difficult decision to rehome our pet rabbit, both little superheroes were just devastated but unfortunately rabbits cannot be kept as pets in Queensland without a lot of modifications to their hutches.

The look on both little superheroes faces when they were able to give Ruby pats and cuddles at our new home in Queensland was wonderful. Ruby was exactly what both little superheroes needed to make our transition into life in Queensland easier.

This year Ruby turned twelve years old. Due to where we are now living, Ruby lives with the little superheroes grandparents. As L says "Ruby old now so she live with Grandma and Duddud cos they old too!" We visit Ruby several times a week and she does come for the occasional sleep over but her old bones struggle to get up our stairs.

We discovered late last year that Ruby has the same heart condition that our previous Bull Terrier, Ranger, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from shortly after O was born. Ruby's heart is literally too large for her body and her system struggles to cope. Ruby is on some pretty strong heart medication to help slow the heart disease down and we know that one day, we are going to make the incredibly difficult decision to let her go peacefully.

She and Henry are great mates and while Ruby still believes that she is a puppy, her old bones struggle to keep up with Henry's energy.

While we had a Bull Terrier named Ranger when O was born, Ranger unfortunately passed away within a few month of O arriving, so Ruby is the first fur member that O can remember. When we visit Ruby, she follows O around because in Ruby's mind, O is her hooman child. When the day comes that we let Ruby go, both little superheroes are going to be hit hard but especially O. 

This stubborn bull terrier who we were told was not great with children and who had a rough start to life being handed from home to home, has proven that she is the best fur friend that we could ask for. And Ruby still knows exactly how to calm both her little superheroes.

What does an Occupational Therapist do?

As I sit here in the reception area of L's therapy provider, I've been pondering - what does an Occupational therapist actually do?

I will be the first to admit that prior to gaining L and O's diagnosis of Autism, I had no idea what an Occupational Therapist actually did! I know now first hand just how incredibly important and beneficial an Occupational Therapist can be. L's Occupational Therapists over the last three and a half years, have been instrumental in the dramatic improvements that L has made. And the same can be said for O's Occupational Therapists.

So how does an Occupational Therapist actually help?

If you have ever sat in on an Occupational Therapy session, you may have noticed that a lot of play and a lot of talking occurs during the session. To the outsider it may appear that there is no benefit of this to the child but there certainly is.

Let's go back to basics ...

An Occupational Therapist can help children, and adults, with a variety of issues from cognitive skills to physical and sensory skills to motor skills and much much more. Occupational Therapy deals with fine motor skills, visual-perception skills, cognitive skills and sensory processing difficulties among others!

But when you hear the word "Occupational," you tend to think of adults. Adults after all have an occupation, or paid work, and yet children do not.

However while children may not have an official occupation, their goal in life is to play - yes play is an occupation - and to learn. Children need to practise skills and learn new skills to assist them later in life and the best way to do this is through play.

When it is simplified, Occupational Therapy is all about making sure that people can do the "occupations" that are important to them. For children - their occupation is to play and learn! If play is fun, children tend to learn and take in more.

Occupational Therapy can benefit individuals who have been diagnosed with Autism, those with sensory processing difficulties, individuals who have sustained traumatic injuries, individuals with developmental delays, individuals who have learning difficulties, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Dyspraxia, Cerebral Palsy and many more difficulties. Occupational Therapy can basically assist an individual who has difficulties with functional skills.

For a child, the first few sessions with an Occupational Therapist is all about assessment. The Occupational Therapist will assess and evaluate (through play) the child's current skill level and may compare their current level to the developmentally appropriate level for their age. While it sounds odd that child's skills are assessed, it is vital that this assessment occurs. Based on their current skill level, a plan can be put in place as to where the child needs to be. 

Both O and L's Occupational Therapy plans are based on where they both currently are and where we want them to be in twelve months time - we want them both to be able to self regulate their emotions. We want them both to be able to recognise their own and others emotions.

Throughout both O and L's Occupational Therapy sessions, assessments are made on a continual basis against their goals. This is to ensure that the goals are being met but also so that the goals can be updated when needed. Every twelve months we sit down with the therapists and reassess the goals.

The great thing about the Occupational Therapy sessions is that neither O nor L realise that they are learning new skills. They both think that they are just having fun! L makes me giggle quietly on a regular basis when he decides that he needs to go to Occupational Therapy instead of school because school is too hard when in actual fact he is working harder in his Occupational Therapy than he is at school!

During L's Occupational Therapy sessions he is working on …..

• Developing his fine motor skills which assist him with his hand-eye coordination and his pencil grip for school. Fine motor skills also assists with developing L's play skills (hitting a ball with a bat,) buttoning up clothes, being able to do up a zipper. Up until a few weeks ago L struggled with zippers and would not even attempt to do one up. He now has the confidence to try to do up a zipper without losing his cool!
• L is beginning to recognise the internal (interoception) feelings of his emotions.
• L is working on his turn taking and sharing skills.
• L has learnt and is continuing to learn how to interact socially with his peers.
• L is learning how to regulate his own emotions. Learning how to stay calm and brave when things get a little hard.
• L is strengthening his proximal stability.
• Everyday life skills and much, much more!

I have a lot of respect for all of L and O's therapists. Occupational Therapy has given L and O so much hope and has increased their confidence that they are able to overcome challenges that they both come across in life.

Proximal Stability before Distal Mobility .... What????

*** I am not a medical professional, all of the content in this post is based off of our own experiences. If you feel that your child would benefit from increasing their proximal stability, please consult a trusted medical professional. ****

I think it is truly amazing that no matter how far we are along our autism journey with O and L, we never stop learning. There is always a new facet of autism to learn about and last week was no different.

L has mentioned on numerous occasions over the last few weeks that the reason he doesn't want to go to school is because his hand starts to hurt when he has to do a lot of writing. We've also noticed at home, both recently and over the past few years, that he tires very easily when he is colouring or painting. In the past we've always put this down to L becoming bored of the activity but little did we know, it had more to do with his muscles tiring than with being bored.

When we mentioned this to his Occupational Therapist recently, she said it all had to do with L's proximal stability needing to be further developed before we could work on his distal mobility.

Huh??? I really must work on my stunned goldfish look!!

Prior to beginning our autism journey I had never heard of proximal stability or distal mobility.

So let's first talk about the first part of this statement - what is proximal stability?  Well, prepare to be enlightened!

Proximal stability refers to the chain of muscles that start at our core and go out towards our extremities. When we use the tiny muscles in our hand to complete fine motor tasks, we must first have a stable chain of muscles that run from our core muscles to our shoulder to our elbow, wrist and then to our fingers.

If that chain of muscles beginning at our core is not stable and strong, then it will be very difficult for us to hold a pen or pencil for a long period of time. Without good proximal stability, we also may have difficulty in maintaining an upright seated position when seated at a desk throughout the day.

And therein lies the issue for L. As his core is not as strong as it should be, the chain of muscles leading to his fingers are not as strong as they should be and hence his hand hurts when doing writing.

The second part of the statement, distal mobility, refers to the functions of our hands and our feet - or our fine motor control. To have good distal mobility we first need a strong chain of muscles or a strong proximal stability. 

In other words before we can have correct and effective function in our hands and feet, we need to work on strengthening the chain of muscles starting at the inside and working towards the outer muscles.

Proximal stability BEFORE distal mobility!

A simpler way to think about this concept is to think of it in terms of a baby learning to move around. Babies generally have a lot of mobility, L certainly did anyway, but not a lot of stability to begin with. A baby will develop their head and trunk control and strength long before they learn to sit up. A baby needs to develop their head and trunk control and strength in order for them to be able to sit up. Head and trunk control really are the building blocks for other physical movements for children.

Another way to think about this concept is when babies and toddlers are learning to draw or paint. When first learning to draw or paint, a child will use their entire arm to scribble or paint on paper or walls or furniture or whatever other medium that they are decorating. As the child's skills develop, they begin to rest their forearm on the table and then the movements are narrowed further to develop their fine motor control.

So it makes sense then that if a child is struggling to control a writing utensil or if they require constant assistance for other fine motor tasks, then they may lack the core stability or the stability along the chain of muscles required to do the fine motor task.

This concept makes a lot of sense for some of the things that O struggles with as well. O struggles to hold herself up when she wheelbarrow walks on her arms or when she tries to hang on the monkey bars. She lacks the strength along the chain of muscles to complete these tasks.

Both O and L tire easily when walking and riding their bikes or scooters. Again we always thought that they were simply running put of energy, but no, this also has to do with their proximal stability and the chain of muscles leading out from their core.

It is important to keep in mind that strengthening this chain of muscles from the core out takes time. At times it is important to shorten the chain and work on a small section at a time so that the child doesn't tire too quickly or become frustrated when they struggle with the task. If they are able to achieve a small task then the chances are that they'll more likely want to participate in future activities.

And as our Occupational Therapists have said on numerous occasions, they will often focus on the working on the building blocks before they work on the end goal for O and L.

If proximal stability and fine motor control were represented as a brick wall - proximal stability would be on one of the bottom rows of the wall and fine motor control would be towards the top of the wall. If the bottom row of the wall is not stable, the upper most rows will not be stable! There is no point in developing fine motor control if L is struggling to hold a pencil for a long period of time.

So how can we strengthen this chain of muscles or a child's proximal stability?

L and O love rolling over their peanut ball. I will put toys or other objects on the floor that they have to reach out to get from the peanut ball. The idea is that they have to lie on the peanut ball and use their hands to "walk" towards the objects. They then have to pick up an object and "walk" back on their hands to the start. This strengthens their core as well as their shoulder muscles.

We do a lot of activities and games with the little superheroes lying on their tummies as this helps to stimulate their core muscles and strengthen their shoulder muscles as they hold their head and shoulders up to complete the activity. We also encourage them to sit in different positions such as long legged sitting or on a wobble cushion as they play as this also assists in strengthening their core muscles.

During therapy sessions, L will stand or kneel to write or draw on the vertical whiteboards in the therapy rooms which assists in strengthening his shoulder muscles. Kneeling and standing stimulates different muscle groups along the chain running out from L's core and as such both actions help his muscles to become strong and stable.

We encourage O and L to climb on play equipment or trees when we visit our local parks as this helps to strengthen their core muscles and the chain of muscles out to their limbs.

We also do activities to strengthen L and O's muscles in their hands. Their most favourite activity is the monster tennis ball. These are very easy to make - you simply need to cut an opening into a tennis ball making sure that it is wide enough to open to represent a mouth but not too wide that the tennis ball splits in half. The idea is that the ball is held between the thumb and pointer finger and you use these two fingers to squeeze the ball to open to put small items into the monsters mouth. This action of squeezing the tennis ball open, strengthens the muscles in the hand that are used for fine motor control.

There are many other options for strengthening a child's proximal stability. The one point to remember is that proximal stability needs to be strong before we start working on fine motor control!

Proximal stability BEFORE distal mobility!

Why are you so creative?

I am often told "Gee, you are so creative with your children's therapy," or I am asked "Why? Just do worksheets with them, they're much easier!"

To put it simply, children learn through play. Children learn when the play or therapy experience is fun.

Play is fun. If play wasn't fun, then chances are that children would not want to actively participate in the experience.

When we do therapy at home, my mindset is the same as it is when I am creating play experiences in the early learning centre that I work at. If play experiences are not fun, then my charges will not want to participate in them.

The same goes for therapy activities. If they are not fun, I would have buckleys to none at all chances of getting my little superheroes to actively participate.

L would simply dig his heels in and flat out refuse to participate.

O would begrudgingly participate but the session would end in lots of noise and lots of tears on her end.

If therapy at home is fun, then both O and L are going to want to participate over and over again.

To keep therapy activities at home fun, I have three very simple rules.

Number One .... Think outside of the box. Like way, way outside of the box! Sit on the edge of the precipice and ponder just what you could do. Can you incorporate an element of therapy into a household chore? L loves to help to dry dishes so we use the opportunity to practice crossing his mid-line. O loves to help with the vacuuming, so that is the opportunity for her to do some heavy work activities to further develop her sense of proprioception.

Number Two .... Look at the toys and games that your children currently play with, can you incorporate them into a therapy experience? L has more toy cars than he knows what to do with, so we've turned quite a number of them into a literacy game for him. And you know what, it works. He loves "playing" with his letter cars and yet he's learning at the same time without actually realising it!


Number Three .... Whatever you do, don't tell your child that they're actually, shock horror, learning! We've made this error several times with both O and L and the result is groans of "Do I have to? Don't want to! No!" Whereas if you ask your child if they want to play a game, you may very well get a different reaction!

I could easily just use worksheets or force my little superheroes to do therapy but I honestly doubt I'd get very far! Having fun makes therapy a much more pleasant experience for everyone!

Child's Play. Therapy at Home!

I have mentioned several times in various posts that I am able to turn almost any household chore or child's game into a therapy activity.

In my experience with working with children in early learning settings, through my previous jobs as an Education Officer and even with my own two little superheroes, I have found that children learn best when they are playing.

Children, including my two little superheroes, seem to be more willing to take part in an activity when the activity is fun and enjoyable. They seem to learn best when they think that they are just having fun! If only they knew the truth that, shock horror, they were actually learning and practising new skills!

When an activity is fun and it is purposeful, this can be a huge factor in determining how successful the activity will be and how long a child will willingly participate in the activity.

When L started in his early intervention therapy last year, we wanted to give him the best opportunity possible of succeeding with the new skills that he was being taught.

So Daddy superhero and I decided that we would attempt to turn everyday household activities and chores into therapy activities.

Home really is filled with endless opportunities to teach our children new skills and to allow them to practise new skills.

So here is my list of the how, and the why, to turn household chores into learning opportunities.

But, and there is always a but, before I go on ALL of the following activities are based on our families experience and should NOT be considered medical advice. If you feel that your child lacks in any of the areas that are included in this piece, please consult your GP or paediatrician.

Crossing the Mid-line.

First up, what is the mid-line?

The mid-line is an invisible line that runs down the centre of our body and divides the body into the left and right. The ability of being able to cross the mid-line is not something that babies are born with. Children develop the ability through "normal" childhood development. But it is an ability that babies and children practise every day through play - reaching for toys, playing with their toes, exploring objects with their hands and so on.

Being able to cross the mid-line is an important skill to develop - we use it when writing, reading a book, tying our show laces, sitting cross legged on the floor, doing puzzles, hitting a ball with a bat, catching a ball and the list goes on. Any time your right (or left hand) crosses over to the opposite side of your body, you are crossing your mid-line.

Some children struggle to cross the mid-line and L was one of these children. His lack of being able to cross his mid-line was evident when he was drawing or painting. When drawing or painting on a piece of paper, if he wanted to draw or paint on the left hand side of the page, he would turn the page on the table to get to the spot that he wanted to decorate. L was physically unable to put his hand across his body to the left hand side.

When L was in kindy he was desperate to be able to write his own name, but crossing the mid-line can be a pre-cursor to be being able to write from left to right on a page. Mmmm, what to do.

He was practising crossing his mid-line at the early intervention centre through play, and at home through the following activities.

• Drying dishes - One of L's favourite household chores is drying the dishes - one day, his future partner is going to love me! We have a small child's table that we use for various reasons in our house. I seat L at the table, put the dish towel in his right hand and the wet dishes on the left hand side of the table. Through the action of reaching across the table to the wet dishes he was crossing his mid-line each and every time. 
• Painting - I'd always put the paint on the opposite side of the table and ask L to try and reach the paint without moving his body. Again, every time he reached for the paint, he'd have to cross his mid-line.

• Car letters and numbers - We have created a game board for L to practise his letter and number recognition skills. I have put letter and number stickers on the top of toy cars and have laminated words that L wanted to learn how to spell. L sits directly in front of the board and we put the cars that he needs to his left. Again when he reaches for the cars that he needs, he has to cross his mid-line!

Every time we were assisting L to practise these skills, either myself or Daddy superhero would model to him how to do the skill. This helped tremendously in L being able to successfully complete the skill. And when he became frustrated, we'd offer him reassurance and encouragement!

Proprioception Input.

Earlier this year I published a post on Sensory Proprioception. Put simply, the sense of proprioception is little known but it is very important as it is responsible for our body awareness and position. The proprioception sense tells us where our body parts are in relation to each other, it gives us information on how much force we need to exert in certain activities, like when hugging someone.

Prior to L starting early intervention, I can honestly say that I had no idea what this little known sense was responsible for. When one of his therapists explained the sense, it was a "aha moment."

We then had to start incorporating activities into our day to day routines so that L's sensory proprioception input was increased which in turn assisted in further developing his sense of proprioception.

We did this by:

• Getting L to assist in carrying the shopping into the house from the car. By carrying bags of differing weights he was able to get a feel for what different weights felt like.
• We'd get L and O to help with "heavy work" activities around the house - helping to pack away toys in the house, helping to put the washing into and out of the washing machine, watering the vegetable garden with a full 3L bottle of water, moving child's furniture around the house. The possibilities are endless!
• We'd do some deep tissue massage by squeezing L's arms and legs when he was agitated.
• We'd encourage L and O to play with different fidget spinners, playdoh and other sensory toys so that they could work out what level of force they needed to manipulate the tools.
• We have an endless supply of different types of pillows and blankets that the little superheroes can stack, climb on and hide under.

The possibilities for increasing a child's proprioception input really are endless!

Fine Motor Control.

Fine motor control really is a no brainer - we need this skill every day to tie shoe laces, to do up buttons and zips, to write, to read and so on.

Fine motor control is defined as the coordination of our small muscles usually in synchronization with our hands, fingers and eyes.

There are many ways in which a child can practise these skills.

• L loves to help hang the washing out and take the washing in - in particular he just loves playing with the pegs! I'll put the peg basket down at his level and let him play with the pegs, but the deal is that he has to pass me pegs when I need them. We have a game going where he pegs them onto the side of the basket and I take them from there. When we first started playing this game, hanging the washing out dragged on and on as L struggled to clip the pegs onto the basket. He would usually end up needing to use both hands to manipulate the pegs. Now, he manipulates the pegs with one hand with ease.

• Prior to going on a family holiday to Queensland in 2016, I created a pencil case of different letter recognition games. L loved "playing" with each and every one of these games. From my point of view, every one of the games helped with his fine motor control - he had to use pegs to clip onto the correct number on some games, he had to pull velcro pieces on and off of other games and all of the games assisted with his number recognition skills.
• Drawing and painting - we'd encourage L to use the pencil grip to hold whatever he was using to draw or paint with.

• We have a puzzle board with various clips on it. L loves playing with this and as every clip on the board is different he uses varying degrees of fine motor control to open and close the clips and puzzle pieces.

Again the possibilities for fine motor control activities are endless around the house.

Emotional Regulation

Put simply emotional regulation is the ability to recognise and respond to our own emotions as well as the emotions of others.

Emotional regulation is an important skill for ALL children to learn as it assists them to not only recognise and respond appropriately to their own and others emotions, it can also assist with their overall behaviour. It is thought that emotional regulation is linked to how well children manage other tasks during childhood. Through successful emotional regulation, children are more able to manage difficult and stressful times that occur as part of life. And as a child learns how to self regulate their own emotions, their concentration ability, turn taking and sharing skills are also improved. 

L has always struggled with his own emotional regulation - it was one of the big tell tale signs of his autism from an early age. L rarely responded appropriately to the emotions of others.

We try to incorporate emotional regulation into our daily routine, especially when reading books with L and O.

While reading, we talk about how L and O think the characters are feeling during the story. We talk about why the characters might be feeling that way - what is happening in the story to make them feel that way. We talk about how the story makes O and L feel.

We read books on emotional regulation, such as The Monsters Inside, during which the story gives L and O ways in which they are able to self regulate their own emotions.

Talking about how different characters are feeling also assists in developing my little superheroes theory of mind skills - but that is another blog post!

When deciding on what area of therapy an activity or game would slot into, I think outside of the box. I take a good look at the how and why of an activity. 

Do you have any activities that you do regularly to assist your child's development? I'd love to hear all about your ideas.

*** Theory of Mind - You may have seen this written as ToM. Theory of Mind is the ability to attribute your own mental states (beliefs, intents, desires, emotions and so on) not only to yourself but also to others. It is the ability to place your self in the place of others to try and work out how they may be feeling at any particular moment in time. It is also the ability to understand that others may have different perspectives than your own. Quite often theory of mind has not fully developed in individuals who have autism and as such they will struggle to understand how others are feeling.

Music is the Universal language!

When I was a child I loved music. I started playing the Alto Saxophone at the age of 11 and by the age of 18, I was in numerous concert and Jazz bands. I'd travelled overseas with the Jazz band and I'd also performed as part of a concert band at numerous concerts, festivals and stage productions and at an international school sports competition.

Music was one of my escapes. I found that when I was playing music, my anxieties disappeared, I was able to think clearly and I was relaxed. My worries disappeared and I was able to be me.

And it would appear that O has inherited my love of music, in particular a love of singing. When O is singing, her anxiety completely disappears. Like Mother, like daughter!

I've known about the benefits of music due to my own experiences with music but it has only been since both O and L have been diagnosed with autism that I have begun to look into just how beneficial music is to children.

When children, special needs or not, engage in musical activities, their brain is changed for the better. 

Through music, children learn to communicate and cooperate with others, they learn to problem solve and begin to focus better on the task at hand. Children gain immense confidence by participating in musical experiences. Music also provides lessons in perseverance and discipline. All of these are essential skills that are needed by children to be happy and successful.

Playing a musical instrument can assist in the further development of fine motor skills and fine motor control. 

Instead of using words to communicate, children can use a range of musical activities to communicate with others - singing, playing a musical instrument, improvising to music to name a few. Through these activities, children learn to communicate with others, they participate in social interactions, they can practice eye contact and turn taking with others.

O has mentioned numerous times that she would like to learn to play the piano or the violin or the flute or the ........

The instrument keeps changing but she is adamant that she wants to learn to play an instrument of some description!

From a very young age, O has always loved singing. When O started at the school that she currently attends she found out that the school had a choir. And since that very first day she has been desperate to join the choir. On the first day of school this year, O said "I'm in year 3 now so I can try out for the choir!"

The day the choir try outs were on, she wanted to be at school nice and early so that she wouldn't miss it. O made the choir and she hasn't missed a single choir practice all year.

Just recently her school choir participated in the Schools Make Music 2017 Concert Series at the Crown Theatre here in Perth.

The choir has performed at school assemblies throughout the year, but the Crown Theatre was going to be the largest venue so far that they had performed at.

Prior to the concert O was an absolute mess. From the minute I collected her from school to the minute we arrived at the Crown, her anxiety was very visible.

However as soon as her teachers collected the choir in the foyer of the Crown, O became as cool and calm as a cucumber.

From where I was seated in the theatre, I had a clear view of O on stage and not once did her anxiety show through.

Her choir was one of the smallest in numbers to perform, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in their combined voice. They sang beautifully and very loud!

Apart from O's school choir, there were two other performances that really stood out for me due to background of the students in the performances.

The first was a 5 piece all girl band who performed their own song with an underlying theme of depression. They looked and sounded incredibly nervous but the song was quite powerful and the fact that they got on stage in front of hundreds of people and performed was incredible.

The second act that I thoroughly enjoyed was a drum line of students from a special education unit. You could see the pure joy on the students faces as they performed on stage. It was wonderful that even though their act was quite simplistic, they were given the opportunity to perform at the concert. It was just a shame that others seated around me, could not see the performance for what it was. Students enjoying making music. I was horrified by some of the comments that were being made throughout their performance and I made sure that those making the comments knew that I wasn't impressed - lots of glaring occurred!

The concert really did show that music is a "universal language" and that it is something that everyone can participate in and enjoy.

There was a wide diversity of students involved in the concert and their abilities ranged from beginner students to students who were very obviously quite advanced in their music ability.

The concert showed that music is a beautiful way to open the door to a greater understanding of the world around us and of each other and to connect with others.