Teacher playdate

We are soo incredibly lucky to be in a school system this fall with wonderful teachers who will go above and beyond their written responsibilities.  As part of our therapy, it was recommended to have a playdate or two with his teacher prior to the start of the school year, so that he could build rapport and comfort before working with her in the classroom.   We asked if he could come visit her classroom this summer to meet her, but she did one better and offered to come to our house.  Amazing! 

Thomas met with his teacher for the fall today at our home.  She came over for her first "playdate."  She brought a few games, but he did not want to play.  We got him to engage with her a little by talking about trains.  He started to play trains with her, but then suddenly had a panic fit where he was screaming for me to hold him.  His separation anxiety seems to be getting even worse.  He wanted to hold my hand in the playroom the whole time and even was so upset when I tried to walk over to get a new toy out of the bin in the same room.  This has never been an issue before and in the past month and a half, it has been all the time.  He eventually warmed up and whispered that he wanted to show her his can of nuts that a snake pops out of and also wanted to get dressed up in his scuba diving play gear and show her.  Overall, not a bad first meeting.

When she left, he told me it was a “little scary” on his chart.  We talked about her being his teacher next year and how he was special because he was the first to meet her.  He agreed that he would like to have another playdate with her and I have already been in contact to set up another one.