Progress
My youngest is doing so well at the church we started attending in July. There really aren't all that many kids there, it is such a great environment for him because about half the kids there are on the ASD spectrum, and there are several others with other special needs, including several with Down Syndrome and a couple with other issues. That covers about 3/4's of the kids there. The adults that do Sunday School are amazing with them.
In just a few weeks of attending, he looks forward to going to Sunday school, and even learned one of the teacher's names in only three weeks (it took nine months of Preschool to get him to acknowledge that the teachers even had names to be learned).
And here is the really exciting thing, Halloween they had a small party, and he was playing tag with another boy his age, and taking turns, and not being rough. There are so many elements there! He was acknowledging the other boy, admitting that they were playing a game, not scripting the game, not having a meltdown when he got tagged it, not hitting when the other boy got into his personal space, not being bothered by the other people that were around and the new decorations going up.
He did spend the rest of the night huddled up on the stage inside watching MineCraft videos with another autistic boy on the boy's iPad instead of going around outside for candy or games, but there was no meltdown during the evening.
Anyway, I've just been really excited about him getting along so well up there and taking turns and just several things here lately. He's gotten to liking the library after several months of screaming bloody murder if we so much as drove past it (I took pictures of the inside and made a picture book social story for him). He's been playing with his dad and even gave his dad a hug the other day with no bribery or trickery involved. (He likes to pretend he is going to hug someone and then scissor kick them and flail about and say he's giving a "fish hug" or "monster hug", etc. He even went through a phase for a while where he'd sneak in a hard bite or two and say it was a "zombie hug" and be totally mystified as to why he was in trouble)
He did spend the rest of the night huddled up on the stage inside watching MineCraft videos with another autistic boy on the boy's iPad instead of going around outside for candy or games, but there was no meltdown during the evening.
Anyway, I've just been really excited about him getting along so well up there and taking turns and just several things here lately.
Awesome news! Go you! Go him!
And nothing wrong with Minecraft, btw. He was happy, the other boy was happy. It's all good.