First day of daycare today | Autism PDD

When Adam was in developmental daycare he would cry when I dropped him off and then he would cry as soon as he seen me when I picked him up. LOL It broke my heart to leave him but I knew that it was something that he needed and that kept me strong. This August he will be starting preschool and he will be going 5 days and for all day long and of course it will be another adjustment period for me since he hasn't been in daycare for so long. I think it sounds like a good day considering it could have been so much worse and NO i do not think you left her there too long. GOOD job mom!!!!

Karrie

Thanks for the advice. She seemed like almost her old self by afternoon. She wouldn't let me put her down at naptime so we napped together.

She did however do some things I knew she learned there.

She would just laugh uncontrollable while I rocked. Then she would say oh no a bug and slap the chair.

She has the sniffles so the spacy might have been a combination of oversensory and not feeling up to par.

Well, today was our first time at day care. Remember we had went last week with both OT and her service coordinator to look at this place. I really love this place and when I went to get her she had colored 2 bird pages.
Maybe she got overstimulated from being around a bunch of other children and that's why she's being aloof now? Or maybe just from watching TV? I find that Luke seems to get 'weirdish' whenever I let him watch a video (like Baby Einstein) or the Wiggles. I feel like such a mean Mommy be/c I know he loves them, but he doesn't interact with us as much after he watches them. He also acts aloof when he's been at a playgroup for "too long" (which for him is anything over an hour). See how she does the rest of the day and maybe she'll regroup after a while of being at home.
What a relief! Good for you AND her!

With my 3 year old dd, anytime we come home from ANYWHERE she needs "down time" where she plays alone and recites her books/songs/tv shows (always has). She is also like that after watching tv. She is in school 3 hours a day 3x a week and needs "down time" after that too. I usually try to get her to interact but if she doesn't respond or is persistent in doing it, I let it go for a while to give her that time to regroup. Then I go after her again to interact. I think it's okay because, after all, we ALL need downtime, it's just that most of us don't recite Dora episodes line for line while we're doing it.

I get worried too when she seems too "spacey" and I get really determined to make her interact - but honsestly I haven't really found an effective way to "force" her to interact when she doesn't want to. I figure anytime I can get her to interact when her natural inclination is not to is a mini-victory, even if it's only for a few minutes. Sometimes I can get her to have a little mini-conversation. I'll say something and she will say something that's related but doesn't really make any sense (and also isn't really a sentence or grammatically correct, etc.) but at least she is trying and willing to be engaged so I just try to pick up on whatever she says and go from there. We''ve had a few nice little back and forth "conversations" that way which is encouraging. Of course, anyone on the outside listening in would just hear a garbled, non-sensical, sorta strange discourse, but to me, it's music to my ears.

And remember, going to school or even just the grocery store, can be overwhelming and trigger sensory issues for our kids. And somedays they are more "up" for it than others (just like anybody). You're doing great - keep up the great work!