I'm a special ed teacher and today was the first time I've cried in front of a student over something they did (in a good way).

I work in self contained special ed so most of my kids are pretty low incidence, a lot of them are non-verbal or have very minimal speech. One of the kids I work with, let's call him A, has been with me for 2 years. He's minimally verbal and very impulsive. He does tend to have certain "words" he uses for things, like he always calls my friend S "mama", but he's never said my name. In fact, he's never said a single word to me ever. <br><br>I've been working a lot with A on his social skills. Many of my kids have a hard time relating to and interacting with each other, but some are worse than others. A is in a class designed for our more severe kids or those with behaviors, so they tend to struggle more with social skills. This week we've been practicing saying "hi" to our friends when they come in. A has been having a hard time participating in social skills lessons, so my paras and I have been pulling him outside one on one for 1:1 attempts. He'll do it some of the time, but other times he just won't.<br><br>Today his social skills block starts, and I go to pull him out and he stops, repeats the steps he's supposed to do (he does have a hard time remembering), and goes over to a classmate and says "hi S". He then runs over to me and says "hi _________" (my name) and comes in for a hug. I'm surprised and try to keep my composure but I break up crying in front of him. He looks up at me and smiles and says "I'm so proud of you!" (he's definitely never said that before to me). <br><br>I immediately went to my principal's office and cried because I was so overwhelmed. I told her what had happened and she cried too. <br><br>I've worked with many kids before, but for some reason this was a big deal to me. It was such a touching moment and I know that I will always remember this. To some people this might be a small thing, but as a special ed teacher we don't see these kinds of moments very often. <br><br>Did anything like this happen to you?