Observing Brian @ School

This morning I snuck over to Brian's preschool before work so I could watch him for 15 minutes without him knowing. They have a therapy room adjacent to the classroom that has a window to peek through. I, originally, thought it was a two-way mirror and I ripped open the curtain only to find one of Brian's peers looking directly at me lol. I quickly closed it and hoped that I hadn't disturbed the class too much! I watched through a little sliver and found Brian doing some stamping with his one-on-one. After a few minutes she guided him over to a leaf-rubbing activity. While at the activity I watched another one-on-one guide her boy over to Brian (it's an inclusive classroom with two autistic boys and a few others with speech delays- the rest "typical") and she said "Say hello to Brian"- at this Brian turned his head, looked at the other boy, and said "Hello" without his one-on-one prompting him. That was so amazing to me! Though Brian has made leaps and bounds with interactions with adults- interactions with kids are still very hard for him.
After that he was asked to point on his supertalker what he wanted to do next- he picked the writing center. At that center his one-on-one was doing her technique to get him to write his name- making one line of each letter one at a time saying "Do this" and then he'll repeat the one line (or curve or whatever). I watched him make the B and the R in this manner. Well when it got to the "I", he finished putting the last line all by himself before his one-on-one even had a chance to do it! He remembered all by himself! I am so proud of his progress!!!! Last year at this time we were removing him from the inclusive program as he just couldnt' handle it- he was being removed from the classroom every 5-10 minutes because he was just tantruming too much for the other children. Now watching him, I could just cry, he was blending in with all the other children there! I am soooo proud of him!


The picture above isn't from today but at his registration day at the preschool. He was busy putting the numbers in the correct order, as they NEED to be according to him :)