Last Monday, we had parent/teacher conferences for Nate. As I discussed in one of my previous posts, Nathaniel is doing great at school. He’s talking a lot, interacting with other children and listening better during storytime. During the conference, we also had the chance to speak with his occupational therapist and we were surprised to hear that he’s really improved since the end of last year. Nate can now cut a 5 inch line with the scissors without any help. He’s also doing really well when it comes to writing within the lines (although the lines are made twice as large as normal) and will do practically any tactile activity that he previously wouldn’t do. Granted, he still doesn’t like it but at least now he’ll do it without too much complaint and will do it for quite a few minutes.
As in the past, he still has his favorites within the classroom…pretty much anything dealing with numbers or letters will draw his attention first. At the beginning of the year, Nate resisted the changing of activities but with the use of a timer and given a choice of 2 unpreferred activities, he’ll now change with just the verbal commands of the teacher.
And the best part of conferences? The cd of photos that was provided to us by Nate’s teacher! I’m SO excited to have photos of Nate in his own environment! I absolutely love it.
The pictures you say? Of course, I’ll share!! 
Drawing at the easel.
YMCA! Oh, sorry! Nate likes the construction hard hat!
Sharing a pillow with a friend to do some reading.
Playing with a friend at the sand table.
Ah yes, and my most favorite pictures of all. One of the red flags of autistic children is the lack of pretend play. You can imagine my excitement when I heard that Nate has been loving the dress-up clothes!! Joe wasn’t quite that excited! But look at how cute he is! I can barely stand it. And not only that but him putting the dress-up clothes on is a big step in pretend play!
I love this one!!
Nothing like a princess dishing up some pizza and cookies!
