Hello all,
I am step mother to a sweet little boy who will turn 8 in two weeks. He is on the autistic spectrum with a two year delay in his learning - he has significant speech and language problems and social difficulties. He struggles with many things although at the same time has many wonderful strengths.
I am wondering firstly if anyone has any recommendations for speech and language/maths/extra tuition therapists/teachers? He has a lot of extra help at school but I feel we need to get him more. We need to find someone who can make learning fun for him as he absolutely hates it. I feel we're at a critical point in his learning and we've got to really push to make much needed progress.
Secondly and heartbreakingly, he has no friends. There have been incidents of him being bullied at school, children don't seem to be very nice to him - I think because his speech is so muddled and his social boundaries/interactions aren't quite right he's an easy target to be picked on : ( He constantly comes home from school saying so and so was horrid to him and no one likes him and he just wants one friend : ( Therefore I wonder if anyone has any leads or information on groups we could take him to where he might be able to make a friend and have some fun.
His dad has been a single father for a long time before I met them and we have become rather isolated in Hastings. We're pretty much just a unit of 3 without any respite or help from extended family. We're all a bit in need of some friends who understand the highs and lows of raising a child with autism. His dad said to me recently 'I just can't bare to be friends with anyone who has normal children and complains if their child didn't get 10/10 in a maths test when my boy can hardly even speak properly and he's nearly 8. It kills me.' It's all very hard.
Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. We're at a bit of an all time low and I'm desperate to help them both. Thanks so much x x x