A Nice Evening Out with Samuel

Last week I started participating in an autism support group that is being held in a nearby town. The group is called Essential Pieces and has existed for a few years now. They hold support group meetings in 8 week sessions. I first found out about this group some time last year but this is the first session that I have been able to participate in. As a preview to attending this group, I attended a conference they held last October about Sensory Stories. I found it to be a very professionally run conference and thought the topic was terrific. I'll talk more about Sensory Stories later..

During the parent meetings, some interns from a local university conduct a social group for children with autism and their siblings. I decided to take along Samuel and his younger brother to participate in this. The first meeting Samuel was not able to go because he had an eye infection. Then, this past week his younger brother was ill, so I took Samuel alone.

I was so impressed by Samuel's behavior the entire evening! We had to park in a parking garage and walk about a block to the meeting location. He stayed with me nicely, no having to worry about him running away! He also left his videos that he had brought along in the car without a problem, even after he had asked if he could bring them and I said, "I think it will be better to keep them in the car, then you won't lose them." I had told him ahead of time in the car where he would be and where I would be, and about how long I would be at my meeting. He seemed excited and interested and did not have any problem saying goodbye. Even though he is a bit older than the other social group participants (most of them look to be somewhere between 4-6 years old), he seemed happy to be there.

Our walk back to the car went great. He asked for a treat on the way, which was fine because we had to stop at a pharmacy to pick up some Pedialyte for his younger brother. Samuel was even well behaved at the pharmacy! He likes to look around stores and I had been worried about him getting into the DVD display. He found it and was able to look at it as I paid for my purchases and accepted the time limit I gave him very nicely! I let him listen to the "Cars" soundtrack on the way home.

Later that evening I thought about how nice it can be to take Samuel out now, after all the years of practising and using visual aids. We had been in a part of town that night where, about 7 years ago (when Samuel was 3 and I was pregnant with his little brother), he ran away from me and out into a road. What a scary event that was. Even though we can have tough moments out in public, it is nice to have more and more successes with him!