Well....How About That-eh?

Today was our weekly visit with the in- home behavior helper for Stinger. There was an unexpected visitor with her this time. I had met him once before when I had gone to pick up Stinger at social group-so he was familiar to me.
I guess there has been some festering going on at Mental Health abt concerns and questions I have been having with the whole social group issue with Stinger and how is it helping him, can we have a smaller class so it is somewhat positive for him, etc?

Well low and behold I guess its been bugging them too as they have come up with a new plan-which I am excited abt-whoot! Which is why we had the added visitor today. Here's the new and improved plan for Stinger:

Teacher/Helper( the visitor)will visit with Stinger once a week-do things he enjoys here until Stinger is comforteable, then they will branch out and do things in the community together-at his home, or out and about and introduce Stinger to another child who shows traits of Autism as well. Someone Stinger can relate to and possibly feel understood with etc.

I got to know this visitor pretty well today-Ill call him Mr B.He has adopted 3 children and one shows traits of ASD, one has Adhd symptoms etc. He has 19 years experiance working with special needs children outside of his own family and me asking questions I was amazed at how informed he is abt OCD issues and ASD issues-not doctor( cant understand) things, but personal experiance type-dealing with the food issues, the bedtime issues, the weight issues, the routine issues, the gastro issues. I was just amazed at the understanding that was there-it was soooo crazy to actually talk to someone who could give me advice and totally see where we are coming from here. It was NICE-to say the least. Someone I could ask " What do you do in this type of situation?" type deal. And to have someone reply "Yes we have seen this, we have experianced this -and this is what helped us" :)

So anyway Mr.B. wanted to talk it over with Stinger. Stinger would have none of it. Flat out refused to come upstairs. I finally coaxed him to just come say hi and bye and he peeked up the stairs and ran back down....So we all went down to him-and low and behold he had vanished...LOLOLOLOL. After searching for him I found him right under our noses under the weight machine. Wouldnt come out from under the sheet, wouldnt talk or say anything. So I asked Mr B if he would just like a moment to talk with him as maybee he would open up to him if we left. Mr B says that he doesnt want Stinger to feel intruded on, yet I push him and Mr B stays and I hear them talking when we all go upstairs. Bailey was yelling-"NO!" "No-Im not going to go anywhere with you" .....

So Mr B comes back upstairs-more unphased that me by the whole thing and says it will just take time. Its all something new and it will just take time.

When they left I went down and explained things to Stinger and he is happy not to go to group anymore and is willing to get to know Mr B better. Stinger said he is kinda like Mr T-but Mr T is better. ;) LOLOLOLOL-but WOW-eh? to compare him to Mr T( was the spec ed teacher at his homeschool he really liked)is BIG-really BIG. So he is willing to give it a shot WHOOT!!!!!

I think it sounds like a MUCH better deal for Stinger-a social situation where he isnt intimidated so much by other kids with different issues and feels understood finally and is with someone who actually knows and understands him and is willing to work on what STINGER needs*very rare to find out there when it comes to helpers*

I still cant get over how Mr B gets Stinger-and he doesnt even know him all that well yet...crazy.....crazy, but COOL!!!!

So thats the BIG news! Im excited. What do you all think of this new plan? Im open for any and all comments :)