Gap year ideas for an autistic dd

[Stuffragette]

My dd has a place at a Russell group uni. She was supposed to go this September but last minute decided she wanted a gap year as her confidence in her social skills are low. She is very high in IQ but low in EQ. Anyone have any experience of any gap year programs your dc have done? She is currently job hunting online to fund the year. She is definitely not a child that would get on a plane to Thailand by herself. She is thinking start small. Her degree will be international politics. Our holiday was to The Hague for her to visit the Criminal Court. Her party trick is reciting all the winners of Formula 1 since it started. Any help will be sooooooo welcome.

There’s interesting political museums in the former soviet block if that’s her bag? eg this one in Lithuania https://olkm.lt/en/
I don’t know what the others are just that people have done it.
Berlin too of course.
Call in at Monaco and walk round the street circuit?

Could she go abroad and study for a month (say) in a structured way? That would give her something to do and aim for, and she can explore wherever she is when she's not studying. She may also meet people that way. Does she speak any languages, or want to learn any?

Does she have a language or want to improve one? What about a few months on an EF language exchange? Otherwise where are loads of cultural exchange programmes

i did 6 months in Italy between secondary and university and it was amazing. Quite structured too, with a homestay and organised activities

Thank you for your replies. She really wants to learn dutch! But not as an au pair. I am getting her to search language programmes today.

@RayKray that museum looks brilliant and right up her street. I am going to look it for myself too!

It was quite something. Really interesting and a very different perspective to the west, and made so much sense of the conflict and threat in that region. And the KGB cells were quite something.

I’m autistic and genuinely waitressed/hotel work for my gap year. It was EXCELLENT for my social skills and as it was 0 hours I could make myself as busy or as quiet as I wanted too. Lots of similar age staff so I made friends with people who are still friends now and even did some partying. Paid for driving lessons, bought my own car and had some local adventures (camping 2 hours away etc, lots of outdoorsy stuff), went on a girls trip to Disneyland. Had a boyfriend and did the US version of interrailing for 5 weeks. Spent a lot but I wouldn’t have handled SEA or backpacking at the time. I could work for 5-6 weeks basically full time, then go on a long weekend away, back to work etc. It was flexible enough that I could take some downtime.

It wasn’t flashy for a CV but I had a blast, improved vastly in social skills and confidence, learnt a lot about workplace etiquette and went on some fun trips that suited my interests and preferences. I look back on it really really fondly!