Group

Nate started group at therapy yesterday. I stayed to observe the first several minutes while I fed Lucy her breakfast. We walked in (right on time, but people must get there early), and Nate saw the 15-20 children sitting in the circle; he walked right up and sat in the circle next to Will, his former in-home ABA therapist who is now Nate's "shadow" for group. They all sang five or six songs, and Nate joined in on the ones he knew and tried to do the motions, too. Toward the end, he started crying because 1) I was still there and 2) I think he wanted to go on the slide or something. But he got over it. After the song time, they all split into smaller groups to do what seems like a station schedule: Nate and two or three other kids went into a small room to do some sort of work, while another group went to do "gross motor" (the obstacle course/"fun stuff"--slide, ball pit, balance beam, etc.), and another group went into a different room, etc. Nate did gross motor later, too, and Will said he liked it but didn't like the taking turns/waiting for the person in front of you to go first thing. He'll catch on to that very quickly, though. Overall, I'm very pleased with this new setup for Nate and look forward to his getting adjusted to it.