Coming full circle

Thomas had off of school today for a teacher-in-service day, so he had to come with me to drop of his brother Liam at preschool.  Liam now goes to the same preschool that Thomas used to go to.  The same place where we discovered Thomas had selective mutism, the same place where he struggled immensly and had some of his most difficult days.  The school is great and we love the staff, which is why Liam goes there now; however going in there still reminds me of those two very tough years when we were struggling to understand what was going on with Thomas and watching him have so much trouble in preschool.  The two years Thomas was at this preschool were our hardest years to date, as we began our SM treatment and had so many questions.  Thomas had not been there since his last day of preschool when we got his "awesome" memory book, (See June 18, 2014 post) so I was really nervous, but excited to bring him back there.

Thomas was excited to go.  He was so young that luckily he doesn't remember much of his time there.  We talked about the questions he might get asked by the director and his old teachers so that he would be prepared.  I wasn't sure what to expect, as he had never really talked inside those walls and he would be getting a lot of attention today.  When we walked in this morning, we were immediately greeted by the director who was so excited to see him.  They made such a big deal about how big he had gotten and asked him how old he was and what grade he was in.  He answered EVERY question!

Then we went to Liam's classroom and although he didn't really remember it, he was talking to me and pointing out things on the wall that are also in his classroom, like the weather chart, alphabet, etc.  His old teacher's aide is now Liam's teacher's aide and she couldn't believe how well he was doing.  She was his safety net and Thomas spent most of his time by her side.  He was a little more hesitant answering her questions, but he did answer most of them.  I was so proud of him.

It was so great to show these people, who witnessed day after day complete muteness when he was there, that he could now talk!   I still look back on Thomas's preschool days when he was completely mute and struggle with the sadness of those times.  Today I truly feel like we came full circle with this and now really feel a sense of closure on this chapter of Thomas's life.