New School, new Teachers, new Kid’s

September 5, 2010December 29, 2019 Amy Sheridan

A quick post about Nate’s 1st day of school. New school, new teachers, new kids, new after school program. It was an amazingly huge amount of NEW to deal with for my guy. He handled it like a ROCK STAR. No phone calls, no notes home, no picking him up in a sobbing hysterical heap of sad panda face. We celebrated by having delicious pizza and watching “Dog The Bounty Hunter”.

I am astounded by his resiliency right now. I admire his efforts to keep him self calm and focused when everything is unfamiliar. I think I had more anxiety than he did, but I had taken steps to process all the NEW first in order to be an oasis of tranquility so that he could feel regulated and safe.

I think that aspie kids, like infants, can “read” you before you realize that you’re in a state of sweating panic. (Yeah, sweating panic-ers! Testify!) I continually try to learn new strategies to help guide Nate through these difficult times. I admit I’ve been a little hovercraft-ish these past two days, but I am learning to let go and giving him a chance to use his social skills first. If you teach them skills, but don’t allow them to put them into action, they don’t get used. And then they’ll cling to you more and do less for themselves, which defeats the purpose of teaching them these independence building social skills.

So, in brief, he’s adjusting very well and is being a social ninja, putting his mad skills to work. He is happy, smiling and talking to me about his day. I am so proud of him I could literally burst.