Playground politics

[Catladyagain]

What support do your children's schools give to helping kids develop their social skills in the playground when they feel constantly on the backfoot in spontaneous boisterous group games? Probably some autistic traits at play and says he never gets to choose the game or choose his role in a game. He's obviously also saying things that don't help him appear fun in the playground - kids say things like "i dont care" in response to whatever he is saying. Conversely one to one he's doing well socially.

Our school has various nurture groups to help with social skills, but I think out on the playground itself it's more about the playground staff just trying to make sure everyone behaves and gets along. The school may will ask them to keep an eye out if this is something they are aware of.

Can you talk to him about how other people are free to choose what they play and how they play it?

I have one ASD chi9d and one child that is ‘a bit sensitive’ to playground politics . Both have received extra support with emotional regulation in the form of counselling and identifying strategies for coping to difficult situations. A lot of it revolves around them identifying when to walk away.

Learning when and how to walk away sounds right, thank you. I've tried to coach my son on this. Re teaching him that others have the right to play what they want- I think that's a good point (sadly he's an only so he doesn't get the practice at home) and we do talk about that around his playdates. It's just so hard when kids can't show kindness to the kid who camt xontribute to the game in the same way but its obvious he cant contributeto the flow that group play needs. That's why mixed age social groups can be great - there can be an order of things that feels less hard somehow.