Yes that's right, we are both Mums and smiling as our kids have gone back to school! *only kidding!......kind of*
DS is very typically autism, he doesn't like change and can struggle to adapt to it so after getting use to being off school for 7 weeks I was very thoughtful about how I was going to approach the fact that the school holidays were coming to the end.
Knowing that DS was not just only going to return to school, he was going to return to a new classroom including a brand new teacher and some children in his class he probably didn't really know so this was huuggeee! Therefore it was really important that I prepared him, kept his anxiety as low level as I could and most of all I had to get this right for his sake! *pressure! pressure!*
I think its very fair to say that I know DS better than anyone including any professional in the land! I've always trusted what I call my 'motherly gut instinct' with him and have spoken up and disagreed with professionals if I've thought what they were proposing wasn't right for him. So many parents feel they can't or shouldn't do that with someone who is a 'expert' in a particular field but I feel that as you are the parent you are your child's 'expert' in them! You spend 24/7 with them, you play with them, you communicate with him (verbal or not) you know them inside out, you are their voice and the best advocate they will ever have so if you don't agree with something relating to them then its your job to speak up and say what you think is best for them as all children are different and what may be right for one will not necessarily be right for another but hey that's another post altogether!
So yes as I know DS extremely well shall we say! I knew that its best not to start talking about school too soon, maybe a day or two before would be good.
I did attempt to get a picture of his new classroom and teacher but that didn't quite come off *shucks* so instead I very casually and happily mentioned that it was time for school in two more sleeps, DS took this in and concentrated on processing this information.
The next day I mentioned it again in the morning, gave him some time to process it and in the afternoon I started talking about school in more detail. I talked about what to expect, his teacher's name etc - it all seem to be going well.
The night before school, I reminded him again that in the morning was school. I then laid out his uniform for him to see as a more visual sign.
The next morning I got him dressed for school which he let me *hurdle No 1* and happily jumped into his school transport *hurdle No2* and went off which was fab! My prep for him seemed to be spot on! *punches the air with glee*
To be honest I expected a meltdown from him that evening and not any normal run of the mill meltdown, I expected a major house shaking meltdown where the cat runs for her life (I would sometimes go with her if I could!) because he would have endured so much change in one big whammy and possibly too much of a overload for him but to my surprise no. There was no meltdown at all just a very tired little boy.
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