The Anti-Social Little Monkey Makes Friends

My son has never tolerated other children well. He hasn't done well with parallel play. If another child comes near him or his toys, he flips out.

One day I was babysitting 3 boys for a woman in our neighborhood who was moving (her husband had already started working wherever they were moving to).
Kaiden did NOT like the fact there were other kids in our house.
In fact, I put a movie on, and Kaiden watched it from on the floor in the kitchen. He didn't want to be in the living room with the other kids.

It is something that concerned me, to say the least.

Well about a month ago or so, we had new neighbors move in across from us. They have twin 3 year old girls who DEFINITELY have minds of their own. They are very sweet and cute...and spunky and sassy to boot. Kaiden the girls have had their ups and downs...one of the girls has bitten him, he's hit another...just another chapter of the saga "My Son May Never Have Friends"

Today, however, was a break through.

And not just any breakthrough.

A miraculous breakthrough.

Because it involved the sharing of toys. HIS toy.
Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself here...

I was sweeping our walkway, when my neighbor came out with her little girls behind her. Kaiden was outside with me and was playing with his "laptop" toy. The girls came down and watched him. He looked up and protested their presence a little, however didn't pitch a fit that they were in his "get near me and feel my wrath" perimeter which extends 5 feet in any direction from his body.

One squatted down and pushed a button on his toy. I winced...I knew our eardrums were all about to bleed...he would scream, she would get mad and hit him, he would hit her back and then she would bite him...Jazmine and I would apologize to each other and in shame, usher our kids into our respective apartments to quietly close the door on the chance our social interactions could ever NOT be awkward...

But nothing happened. Nothing! I've never been so happy about NOTHING. He just kept pushing buttons too. And so did she, and then so did her sister. He whined a little at that, but no melt down of Nagasaki proportions. Then one of the girls started dancing to the music, and so did he!

They proceeded to play in the grass for the next 5-10 minutes (we had to go inside when his speech therapist came). Kaiden was more parallel playing than actually purposefully playing with them, but he giggled at things they did and even smiled when they would run around him or run up to him to "talk" to him.
I was the happiest mother ever.

Even if these girls are the only children he successfully plays with for a while, it is still a huge step for him socially.

There is hope for my little monkey after all.