Posting on here for traffic. Youngest ds just got his leavers hoodie so he had the usual class photo of them all wearing them on the school facebook page. Then a few group shots of the children in either pairs or small groups of children in their friendship groups. Ds is in the class photo but none of the pairs or groups because he doesn't have any friends in his class. I'm not blaming the school, they have been great with him and there are a couple of others missing from the group photos too. But my heart breaks for him. He stims and struggles with personal space so most children find him annoying and he doesn't like the other children either. He adores his teacher and he likes the other parents. I walk him into school and he will call out a cheerful "hello Luke's mum," and "hello James's dad" etc while ignoring their child.
He is going up to secondary school in September where he will be with his brothers. I think that will be better for him but I'm still worried. He seems to get on best with children who are non verbal and severely disabled, probably because they just accept him as he is.
He has an ehcp with band 4 funding which we are trying to appeal. He's got the local secondary school named on his ehcp. None of the special needs schools would take him as he is too academically able and doesn't have challenging behaviour. He has the emotional development of a 3 year old and I worry about him being in a school full of NT teenagers. I can't fault the school though, the staff have all been great with him and he hasn't even started yet.
I have 3 older dc with autism and they all have at least one friend. Only my ds doesn't.