Miss Priss Update

I’ve been working with Miss Priss on her social anxiety. And I’m seeing some improvement. I’ve noticed that she does best in places she’s familiar with (and the local playground counts as one of those). She was even standing up for herself and bossing a couple of older kids around at the playground yesterday. There were two other boys there. I’d guess their ages were around 4-5 and 6-7. Miss Priss was playing with a chain that hangs down from the bridge. She likes to bang it against the post because it makes a clanging sound that she says is a school bell. Well the younger boy came up and told her to stop because it was hurting his ears. Instead of nervously walking away, she stood her ground and gave him a nervous smile. That may not seem like much, but that is huge progress for her. Then she and the little boy were playing and running around and over the bridge and stuff while my mother-in-law was the troll under the bridge and would try and grab their feet. (Just to clarify, my mother-in-law is about as un-troll-like as they come). Miss Priss even scolded the two boys, the younger one for going up the slide (our rule is “you can only go down the slide”), and the older one for putting rocks down the spiraling slide. She told him that rocks don’t go on the slide. Only people.

She has also gotten a little more relaxed around strangers. She still won’t talk to cashiers who talk to her, but she’ll smile and sometimes wave when we leave. And for some reason, she always waves to the people at McDonald’s. LOL

So far, all I have done is told her how proud I am seeing her playing with children at the playground or whenever she smiles or waves or does something friendly (especially if it requires no prompting from me). She also will tell me if she is feeling “shy today.” Or she’ll tell me that she’s shy around people she doesn’t know. And she seems to really relax when I tell her that makes me nervous as well.

But she seems to be doing better, so I’m hoping that with time she’ll really start to open up a little more. Only time will tell.