Friendship Groups?

[laundryandlegos]

Hi! my 8yr old son struggles with peer relationships and does not have any close friends. Part of this stems from moving when kids had already made friends, but it's been 2 years at school and he still doesn't have any real buddies. I think a large part of his struggle to build a circle is from a difficulty reading social cues & maybe not "fitting in" the way the other kids play and interact. Has anyone had any experience with a friendship group or programs like Brain Balance to help work on some of those interpersonal skills??

[Aspen797]

I am not familiar with that program but did want to mention two other resources for friendship skill help—a book called “Why Will No one play with me” (for parent to read) and a online friendship skill class that is free and self-paced (so you can review it yourself and see what pieces you want to share) at umaine.edu/maier/trainings-.... Some school counselors also offer friendship groups at school, but finding counselors in schools these days is pretty rare, sadly.

[Uptowngirl12121]

Hello - I have experience with Brain Balance but I just posted not too long ago about my own child's ongoing struggle with peer to peer relationships. Honestly, the BB program was a game changer for many of his symptoms but we still struggle socially. I too am looking for a "solution" to this issue.

[Auggie123]

Hello- there's a couple things that have helped our son in this way. The first is part of his IEP is a social skills group that he meets with once a week. This has helped him practice his social skills and also make some connections with others who struggle in the same areas. It helps that the teacher who leads the social skills group is very tuned into the kids interests and keeping them stay engaged. She has also helped connect parents with each other so that if any of the kids wants to meet outside of the group they can. The other thing that has been helpful is pragmatic speech therapy. We started this about 6 months ago. We do this through an OT clinic. The speech therapist works with him on social skills, understanding interactions, being better able to read the room and respond appropriately. This has been awesome. The last thing I'll mention is leaning into his interests. We've got him involved in activities that are related to his personal interests. Drawing groups, hip hop class, theatre. When he is involved in activities that he feels confident in, and with others who have shared interests, he is much more confident- it's good for his self esteem to feel he can connect with others through something he enjoys doing. Hope this helps.

[Shi_ in reply to Auggie123]

May I ask how you found the drawing theater etc groups? They sound Great! My Granddaughters school has just two-three after school groups that are only for 3rd + Graders. She will be starting first. She would love the Drama group, but sadly shes too young. I noticed at theSchool Spring Festival that she loved jump roping with three! And was quite good at it. Sadly I've found no groups for that either though. She has no after school friends to play with.

[Auggie123 in reply to Shi_]

sure- for the theatre activities we have a community theatre in the town we live. This is where he does most of his theatre projects. You might look into if your town has a community theatre, or other theatre that has an education department with educational programs. The drawing class is offered through an organization called Arts 4 All. They offer virtual art classes for kids on the spectrum, which our son is in addition to ADHD. You could also look into something called Outschool. This is a great online learning platform with a wide variety of virtual classes including drawing etc. some of them are tailored towards neurodiverse kids and others not. But definitely worth checking out. Hope this helps!

[Shi_]

I don't believe that we have such theaters here, but I will double check. Virtual does not work for her, as of yet anyway. She is starved for face to face interaction with other Children. And interacting @ School does not seem to satisfy her. Thanks so much for the resources all the same

[Knitting20projects]

I also strongly recommend a speech therapist evaluation specifically by someone trained to evaluate pragmatic (social) communication. Our son (ASD, ADHD) recently started working with someone with this training. It’s been very eye opening for me. Finally I understand some of his communication difficulties that baffled me for years. I can’t say yet if it’s helping on the friend front because it’s pretty new. I honestly think that HF ASD kids should just form friendships with each other 😂😂😂