anyone with dc who have AS been to a social skills group?

[sasquatch]

Hi,

Ds, nearly 13, has been invited to a social skills group by CAMHS. It will be in school time and parents are to attend an alongside group.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of this as I dont know what to expect.

My son (AS, 9) did a group with CAMHS a couple of years ago and it was pretty useless. His problem has always been that he knows and understands right from wrong but when he gets over-emotional in a real life situation he can't react appropriately as he forgets what he 'should' be doing. The social skills group he attended focused on teaching those skills but he already had them anyway, he just couldn't access them when he was distressed.

Also, the group was supposed to have several children and limited structure, so that those running it could see how they fuctioned without adult guidance. It was just the opposite, three children and three adults (which, correct me if I'm wrong, works out at 1-1 support) and LOADS of structure, even down to getting them to plan the session themselves.

The upshot was that once the sessions finished he got a glowing report about how well he'd done, but he hadn't actually learned anything that he didn't already know. I got the impression that it was a bit of a box-ticking exercise, tbh.

He's doing a social skills group at school now but as before, not sure how much he's actually learning from it, but at least this time he enjoys it which he didn't before.

Thanks both,

I have the feeling he has ok social skills but that may be my denial that he has AS.

I dont, but I still expect others to be surprised, as he is mildly affected. I'm a bit anxious he will go to the group and be exposed as a fraud! "he's not AS at all", type thing.

I see social difficulties, he had more when much younger. Now he is more comfortable with who he is, and says he can get away with just being wierd.

We are both going to a meeting on Weds to discuss the group.

Maryz

I agree with you about the gaps in ability narrowing, your ds is 14 isnt he? Things were much tougher when ds was young. Its not possible to "grow out" of AS, I know, but he has definately grown into it IYSWIM.
We went to camhs today, they are going to decide in the next two weeks if he will be in the group.

I dont know if they think he needs to go.

KarenThirl, my ds sounds similar to yours, in that he gets over exited at times when stressed or pressured and then things can go haywire. But in agroup of kids he doesnt know he can be quite cool and self contained.