Marshall has officially started at Next Step.
Monday to Friday and his time slot
for the remainder of summer is from 10:30-12:30pm.
His interventionist is Warren.
I took Marshall in last Friday, as recommended by Janel,
to get familiar with the space and some of the
faces he would be seeing.
Next Step rents 2 classrooms out of Terry Fox school
here in Abbotsford and it is only 10 minutes from
our home which is great.
One classroom is the PLAY room
and the other is the WORK room.
For this week, the main goal is to get Marshall
familiar with the space, and to build
a relationship with Warren.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 1.
I brought Marshall into the school and he didn't want to
go into the classroom.
He was crying a bit but of course, i brought
him into the room anyways.
Warren walked into the room with a Shrek toy that
was still in the box.
Marshall saw this and got off my lap and
went over to Warren and to the toy.
We helped M open the box and he pulled out a big
Shrek head and started to play with it.
Warren started to play together with him.
It was the perfect opportunity to slip out,
but at Next Step, it is manditory that i say proper
goodbye's to Marshall (which is a good thing to learn)
and then leave.
So i said "bye-bye" and gave M a kiss.
He kinda looked at me but kept on playing with the toy
so i got up and walked out the door.
I heard no screaming or crying.
Great!
I came back after two hours and Warren looked
overwhelmed. lol.
I asked him how Marshall was and he said that it was a hard
day and he had a lot of trouble with transitions.
Warren said that Marshall soon realized that i'd left and
then spent the next 10 minutes crying for me.
He cried/screamed on and off the whole 2 hours,
but after the 10 minutes his tantrums were
only about a minute each time
as Warren was able to distract him.
Patti, another interventionist was there with us and she
chimed in and said that Warren is still fairly new
and that he has never had a child from the first day,
so he is still learning and therefore today
was a lot for him. Poor guy - lol.
Patti said that Marshall had a pretty normal/typical
first day.
Phew.
It was hard, but not too extreme... i can live with that.
Now the big question was,
How will Marshall feel about staying tomorrow now
that he knows what's going on?
I was not hopeful. lol.
Leading up to this program starting, i have already
shared that i have had some anxiety about it.
Feeling like it will be the hardest thing to
leave Marshall behind screaming for me... not knowing
what is going on there.
Well, i don't feel like this anymore...
and i'm happy to say that!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 2.
This morning as i was getting Marshall ready,
i said a few phrases a few times:
"Marshall, are you going to school?!!"
"Are you going to play with Warren?!!"
I don't know if M knew what i
was talking about, but he seemed to know and would
smile and was happy to get his lunch kit ready.
Out the door we went and into
the van. I drove into the parking lot of Next Step
and was waiting for a reaction...
it didn't come.
Marshall was eager to get out and hold his
Toy Story lunch bag.
He jumped out of the van but right aways wanted
"up", so i carried him to the school.
He wouldn't let me put him down once i entered
the classroom, but after a few minutes
he got down and went over the to
kitchen play area.
Warren said that they spent quite a bit of time there
the day before looking at all the food.
I let Marshall play for a bit and then W and i went
over to him.
I told Marshall my goodbyes and he started crying and
tried to climb onto me.
Warren took Marshall gently by the shoulders and guided
M back towards him.
I said "I love you" and goodbye again,
and then i walked out of the room.
I could hear him crying as i left, but i was ok.
I like Warren - i get a good vibe from him.
I went to pick Marshall up after his session and when
i walked into the school
Marshall came running over to me all happy :)
Warren was all smiles and said to
me over and over,
"It was a really good day... Marshall did really good!"
I have to laugh about it to myself
as seeing Warren's face and watching him light up
and look much less overwhelmed than he did the first day.
I praised Marshall like crazy and kept saying,
"Did you play with Warren?"
"You were a good boy Marshall!"
Marshall was in his glory and looking bashful at my
words of praise :)
For the rest of the day, Marshall took to some phrase
i haven't figured out exactly,
but i'm sure it has something to do with my saying
Did you play with Warren? Did you have fun?
comments,
He was saying over and over,
"..... (insert jibberish here).... Waaaen"
so, it goes... 'something something Warren'
lol.
It's so cute, and he keeps saying it and he waves his
hand in the air whenever he says Warren's name.
I am SO happy to see Marshall building a great bond and
trust with his interventionist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 3.
We just got home from Marshall's third day.
This morning i told Marshall we were going to go to school
and play with Warren and he seemed
happy about the idea.
We got in the car and as soon as we got out of
the van, he wanted "up" again.
I'm not sure what this carrying constantly thing is
about all of a sudden, but i guess
he's adjusting to the new environment so i won't
fight him on that right now.
Marshall was fine to go into the classroom
but wouldn't let go of me.
I managed to get him off me and sat to play with
him for a bit. Once he was content
and Warren was with us,
I said my goodbyes.
This time Marshall came over to me for a hug,
a sad half-crying hug :(
I said goodbye and i love you and have fun,
and Warren took hold of Marshall gently again.
Marshall didn't scream.
He teared up and seemed sad.
I tell you, it was much harder to leave him sad-crying
as opposed to mad-crying! lol. aww..
Anyways, i left and i could hear in his voice that he
wasn't going to escalade the screaming.
I picked him up from school and Marshall was happy,
and again, Warren was happy!! Yeah!
Warren said that they had another really great day.
Marshall ate his snack well and played
well and didn't cry :)
Warren took Marshall outside to the playground
today and M came back inside when he asked
him too! wow!
Warren stated that Marshall has really good
fine motor skills... it doesn't take long to
figure that out with our active son! lol.
It really is something to be thankful for though.
At our first visit to the school last Friday,
there was one boy there who stepped up into the coat
rack area which is only a few inches off the ground.
His interventionist had to coach him as
he struggled to get back down from the small
step. She also spent time coaching him as to how to
sit properly on the floor so his feet were positioned properly.
There are 4 kids ranging from 3-6 years old in each
class. This day i was able to observe the
other children, and we really have soooo much
to be thankful for in regards to Marshall.
One of the little girls came into the
classroom with a fully drool-soaked tshirt and she
appeared to have no language.
Another boy who i know from playgroup was there
and a year and a half ago he had no language,
and now seeing him again,
realizing that he still has no words.
I don't know these children's severity of Autism,
but man, we need to be thankful that
we are in a sense,
dealing with peanuts in comparisson
to what some of these kids/parent's struggle with.
Quite humbling actually... i got off of my
'poor me, poor Marshall' train pretty
quickly after that half hour in the classroom.
Praise the Lord for the hand we have been dealt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So this is what our first 3 days has looked like at Next Step.
In my opinion, very successful!!
Next week Warren will start getting Marshall into the
WORK room, which may change a lot of the
happiness currently being experienced. lol.
We shall see!
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