I faced all the typical emotions when Arjun moved up a room – would he be comfortable, would he be ok emotionally, will he gel with his new keyworker? With Saajan, it’s a whole nother ball game.
When Saajan started nursery, I shared my feelings and thoughts on how I felt at the time. Time seems to have flashed by and six months later, i felt he was ready to move up to catch up with his peers. I felt being in the baby room at 18 months probably wasn’t helping him to progress. At the time, he wasn’t crawling, speaking or walking but I felt being around his peers that are doing those things may help and encourage him to do them too. I was right – he’s started crawling quite soon after moving up a room!
But sadly, that decision came with such a heavy price to pay. I hate change. I really do. I struggle with it and I’ve never made it a secret. The smallest change sets me off on an emotional rollercoaster. More so with Saajan in this situation.
By this age, Arj was a lot more vocal, he was a little more independent. I don’t want to write off how much Saajan HAS achieved and actually the fact that he’s quite a people person really helps, but I worry. I worry a lot.
When he joined nursery, the staff and room manager had left it up to us/him to decide who the right key worker would be for him. Who he’d develop a rapport with himself. It was quite quickly obvious that he took a shine to Ashleigh and the feeling was definitely mutual.
Since he started nursery, Ashleigh has had patience, perseverance and so much enthusiasm with Saajan. She has worked so hard to help him develop and has always been so excited and vocal when he achieves a new milestone – however tiny it may have been. She’s always been proactive in understanding Saajan’s additional needs – eg the right consistency for his fluids (he’s an aspirator), or understanding his sensory needs and having patience to try and work through them rather than avoiding them. She’s provided us with so much feedback which gave me so so much reassurance on knowing that Saajan was ok.
As he moves up a room, I can’t help but feel nervous. Any change is always tough for me – the room is much bigger, much busier and obviously it means new staff. They’re all lovely and his new keyworker also has an interest in working with children with special needs but I still can’t help but worry about him becoming a little shadow while all the other kids are running free, he’s still confined to the floor. While all the other kids are speaking away, he’s still only babbling.
It’s not often you find people with such a passion and true love and I wanted to show my gratitude to Ashleigh for holding our hand and for being so amazing and making it so easy for me to relax when handing over Saajan’s care to someone outside of the family for the first time. We are so grateful! x
