We are back for round 2, honouring Mr Levi ❤️
Last year I signed up to run 70km in October to honour Levi and raise money for Autism Australia which provides support to families struggling. This actually all kicked off my love of running and this year I’ve decided to push a little bit harder with my efforts and run a total of 100km during the month of October and set another goal of $1000.
Levi has recently received his formal diagnosis for ASD Level 2, it has been a long journey full of countless medical appointments, a year of therapies including speech and occupational therapy and EDCP (an inclusive government funded program for preschoolers with delays), educating others on neurodiversity and a lot of self learning about the type of parent I aspire to be to ensure I can support and show compassion and empathy to Levi when he is struggling. Being autistic means this affects his behaviour, his executive functioning and how he processes information.
Although our challenges are very prevalent with repetitive behaviours and ritualistic routines which if not followed, result in utter chaos for Levi’s brain and Levi still having significant social challenges, and mood regulation issues which result in major meltdowns, we do not want this to overshadow the amazing progress he has made in the last year.
Levi is so incredible, at the age of 4 he is already reading books and identifying these same sight words in every day life scenarios eg reading and identifying road signs and their meanings, his memory recall is insane- remembering mine, Corey’s and my brothers number off by heart and also now even managing basic text messaging skills. He also is passionate about how objects work and operate, and I’m sure if it was allowed at his age, he would already know how to drive a car 🤣
Levi has also made significant headway in his ability to build rapport with others and build friendships. He is adored at his kindergarten by his peers, often being invited to parties and play dates, or receiving secret admirer messages from girls in his kindergarten tray 🤣 it is a reflection of Levi having deep empathy, love and affection instilled in his heart. It is beautiful to see that even though Levi is different, he is truly embraced and included which is all we would ever want for him as his parents.
This year, I have created a page where you can join Levi’s team and join me and log your runs too to contribute to the amount of Kms I’ve set as a goal. Thank you for joining for levi, or also for your own reasons as I know a lot of us have loved ones with autism. Autism doesn’t always have to be seen as a negative disorder, it is just a different neurotype ❤️
