Pleasurable Playdates

I've been reading a lot about children with social anxiety lately. On X-man's report card the only area he appears to still be having real troubles with in the classroom is making transitions from one thing to another.  In the summer, I used a tool that I learned about at the Autism Resource Room at U of I and laminated some cards that I taped to the door with our activities for the day. We went over them every morning so he knew what was going to happen when. And like a lot of parents, I give him a heads up when time is dwindling.

However, like most kids, he never wants to leave the things he's enjoying. Anyone else have a child that used to completely FLIP HIS LID when you had to leave the train table at the library?

Anyway, he has gotten better as he's gotten older, but he apparently still has a lot of emotional issues about it when they change activities at school. In addition to his social issues about not having close friendships, I thought maybe more one-on-one play dates with some kids in his class that he's identified as having similarities. Today was our first one. And, um, it's been an hour and 20 minutes and they're having a ball.

It's pretend play with Legos non-stop. I can hear them build cars and race them across the floor. I hear the Ninjago Duels in the Dojo that Nana got him for Christmas. They stopped and looked at the new Ninjago toys on the computer.

Yes, I should admit that MacTroll and I put a computer in X-man's room last week. And, surprisingly to me, I asked for us to set up parental controls. We excluded YouTube from the options. And we singled out 10 web sites that he plays with the most (PBSKids, ABCya, Starfall, NickJr, Lego, etc.). So, he has access to those. The times he can be on the computer is also limited. I felt like the computer gestapo, but I felt good about him having some more responsibility. He's got his own log in and everything. :-)