Is it possible that a few days in a different environment can make a difference in your child? Son started Kindergarten (again) last week in a general education classroom with a special ed TA just for him. As I write this, I am struck, once again, at how incredible this is. And I feel compelled to jot down the changes that I've noticed in Son in just the last week.
Son has typically developing friends at school! Perhaps Son had friends in his previous school, but I didn't know who they were because we lived so far away, but I do know that Son interacts with his peers in a completely different way. Instead of playing on his own, or just with his sister, he now initiates contact with his peers. He did so before, but only with children that he knew well. Today, on the playground, I saw him playing in ways I hadn't before...standing with a group of boys, waiting to see what they would do next, climbing with them, running around with them. Of course, it's not all perfect; he zoned in on one kid and followed him around everywhere, chasing him, engaging him. That kid may have gotten a little sick of that...
The most mind blowing to me is that in this new environment, in this new school, with children he didn't know before, within the first days of school, Son is requesting to go to the bathroom. Any parent of a typically developing child may be shocked that this is mind blowing to me, but I am telling you that Son spent two years at his previous school having accidents and never requesting to use the bathroom. At home, accidents were a rare occurrence, but at school - pretty common. So it is mind blowing to see this change in behavior, and continues to lend support to my theory that Son was unhappy at his previous school. And I am grateful beyond grateful to know that Son is part of the North Shore school district. They have been amazing so far, and I see Son going far here. He is already leaping forward from where he was.
