School Visit #2

Since Blake had such a negative reaction to visiting the school, I decided to leave him with my dad for this visit. I know he needs to visit too, but I am thinking it may work better if we make separate trips until they get more comfortable with it.

Yesterday, I printed off the pictures we took at the school, and also the picture of McDonalds. I wanted to remind him of Tuesday's reward for doing so well. I let him look at the pictures and I told him how cool it is to go to that school.

I reminded him that if he went upstairs, we'd go to McDonald's for lunch. He's been afraid of stairs for a long time, and this was a major concern for us. His classroom is upstairs. The school has an elevator which he can use, but we want him to get used to going up and down the stairs like the other kids do. While we were at the Fragile X conference, my mom and dad got him to conquer his fear and go up and down their stairs. We just needed to transfer that courage to the staircase at school.

He stood outside the doors for a couple minutes, and I enticed him to go in by using my name badge, which unlocks the doors. (I am a school employee) There is a sensor with a red light on it, and when held my badge up to it, the light went green, and Drew opened the door. It worked pretty slick, actually.

We headed for the hallway with the stairs and had to pass the elevator. Of course he noticed it right away and wanted to go on it. I told him that if he walked up the stairs, that we could go down the elevator. Here are some pictures of our progress. He walked up by holding onto the steps instead of the handrail. I was just happy he went up. We'll work on using the railing next time we go.

I took pictures of his classroom, the lockers, the boys' bathroom, the computer lab, the library, the cafeteria (where I'll be) and the elevator. He remained calm the whole time. We'll keep going back and see if I can get him through the front doors a little easier. Maybe the name badge turning the light green will be successful. His aide will have one she can use, too, so that could work for her as well.

Now we just need to try to get Blake okay with going.