Sitting in Church

Yesterday was a great day in church. For the first time in two and a half years Samuel sat in church for the entire duration of mass! I cannot believe this happened, I had no plans to try it when we entered church yesterday morning.



It was seven months ago now that we stopped sitting in the cry room at church. Since then we've had good weeks and bad weeks there. Most weeks we stayed in the church for a little over half of mass, then Samuel would be too restless so we would go to the vestibule area, where other restless children and latecomers would sit or stand. In the last month Samuel has been a bit more restless in church. In fact, just a few weeks ago he screamed and we almost left. He had not screamed in many months, maybe since early spring.

Yesterday, Samuel was very quiet in church. I didn't even start to give him Skittles (his reinforcer to keep quiet) until we were in the there almost 10 minutes. I'm sure another reason he kept quiet was that he was very tired. I put in lots of verbal reinforcing praises and hugs and pats on the back between the times I gave him a Skittle. It really takes a long time to reduce a negative behavior by praising him for the times he shows good behavior!

I was so happy when we left at the end of mass and made sure I told him so. We followed by doing one of Samuel's favorite things, eating a donut at the "HandyMart" and taking a walk over to the bankrupt motorcycle shop to read their closing sign.