A mom has shared the heartbreaking moment of what she found her son doing when she arrived to pick him up after his first day of school. Nessa Lovelyn was "very nervous" about her son Jaxton starting preschool. "My primary concern was him being treated differently than the other kids because of his autism and facing rejection," she told Newsweek.
Indeed, research has found that children with autism may experience difficulties making friends at school. A 2022 study, published in Psychology in the Schools, followed 166 autistic children for two years and found that they “experienced high rejection and low acceptance,” with 51.9 percent rejected during one or both school years. But there was more to it than that.
Growing up in a small Minnesota town, Lovelyn said her own childhood was "very traumatic," with her focus simply on "surviving each day." Now, having cut ties with her family, her focus has been on making sure her kids "never feel the way I did." The idea of Jaxton starting preschool had her revisiting her own experiences. "I remember starting preschool very clearly. I was a nervous wreck and a very shy child.
I spent the first day crying but eventually warmed up to it," she said. It's normal for parents to worry about how their children will cope with the demands of school. A 2022 Harris Poll for the Kids Mental Health Foundation found that close to four in five parents were concerned, with around a third especially worried about the prospect of their child being bullied.
But while Lovelyn fretted, she said Jaxton was excited throughout the week leading up to his first day. "Every day he'd tell me he 'can't wait to make friends' and would ask me if I thought he would make any. I would tell him he was going to do amazing and that everyone would love him just like I do," she said.
Lovelyn arrived at Jaxton's school half an hour early for pickup on his first day. That was when she saw him out on the playground, sitting on a swing all alone, with nobody to push him or play with. It was devastating for her to witness.
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