making and keeping friends (ASD)

[mary21]

DS1 age 12 who is viusually impaired and has an ASD (PDD NOS) seems to be having lots of trouble retaining friends. they are great for a few weeks then they all niggle each other. He is at a special school . Most of the others have similar problems/diagnosis. I think part of the problem is they are all going through alot of the stuff NT kids do in reception year 1 which completly bypassed us. The other problem is the school is residential so everything is second hand. Oh Joy!

Completely 'NT' for an asd kid to go through this, I think, my 11yo DD is having the same problems, magnified by being in MS school, the school isn't geared up for it. I can't offer much help, other than liase with the school, am doing exactly that on monday..!

Thanks. He has been offered a social skills programme which I think he should take

Just seen the head of year (was meant to be seeing form tutor but her 9mo baby has got swine flu). The primary school hasn't passed on all of my daughter's records . That would be because the primary SenCo was a battleaxe who hated me....Head of year is going to have a meeting about my DD's problems, and flag them up to all the teachers, but there's no social skills schemes running at her school. Do you know of any other ways to access them if your asd DC has been 'dumped' in MS (where she doesn't belong IMO)??....

Often run by speech therapists so you could contact NHS SALT dept. Some areas have social groups for ASD/Aspergers children run by parents - ask your local NAS. ABA providers sometimes run private social skills groups. Only other thing I can think of is to ask school to send someone on some training so they can set a group up. I saw in the last NAS magazine an advert for a social skills course run by NAS for teachers and other professionals etc called Socialeyes - don't know anything about it but may be worth enquiring and asking your school to send someone on the course.

Cheers, will do that!