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[quote=Anonymous]I've been struggling to find a social skills class/environment that is a good fit for my son.  We are new to Montgomery Co.  DS is 4.5 and has speech delays and various motor delays that he receives private speech and OT for.  His social skills are a mess.  He is very verbal and outgoing and interactive with adults but doesn't really know how to handle other kids.  Part of the problem is that he displays a great deal of rigidity, control, anxiety etc. in his play.  He has an idea in his head of an activity and if the reality varies from what he wants...then he freaks.  Honestly he's exhausting to be around because he melts down over minor issues.  Earlier today he wanted to put on a puppet show for me.   It ended in tears bc I clapped at the 'wrong' time, happened to look at my phone when it rang, closed my eyes for 10'seconds, asked him the name of a character because I didn't understand what he said, etc.  and he lost his shit every few minutes and couldn't get over it.  just now we were trying to color some pictures, and Do a craft (making a crown) for him and he flipped out when I picked up a crayon and started drawing because he didn't want me to.  And then he couldn't cut the crown design out well so he got frustrated very early into it, could'nt recover and we scrapped that activity.  I don't even want to talk about what it's like to play games where he doesn't win, good lord.  I know these are issues that a lot of kids have, but he takes it up to level 10 every time.

He has a couple of kids that over the past few months he has been able to play decently with--mostly because they ignore his freak outs to be honest.  But the vast majority of attempted play dates are very stressful because he melts down over very normal behavior from his playmates.

He attended half-day preschool for two years and will attend this coming year as well, but it's a new school as we moved recently.  He did well in school and didnt have the big melt downs as the activities were very scheduled and everyone was doing the same thing.  During free play time he started out sticking mostly to himself.  Then he did start to interact with the other kids and had some success but the rigidity and control and low frustration tolerance did show--for example he liked to play tag on the playground but couldn't switch it off when the other kids moved into wanting to do something else.  Or, if he could stop a game when the other kids moved on, he had difficulty picking back up and moving into whatever new game the kids were playing.  By the end of the last school year it was looking as hopeful as it ever has-he seemed to be getting 'better' but then of course we moved and he isn't in school and hasn't had steady opportunities for play with peers.

As we are new in town, it's been a slow summer as we don't have any 'friends' that I can invite over for playdates--we have seen a few kids around the neighborhood but honestly, I don't really want to invite anyone new because it's stressful and his behavior is embarrassing---I feel like the other moms must be so ready to bolt at the end of the playdate that I've become a little socially anxious myself.  So it's a catch-22---he desperately needs lots of exposure to other kids and chances to practice play, but that's hard for me to provide for him, especially in a new state/place where we don't know anyone.

I looked into social skills camps but we ran into issues where a lot of the groups are compromised, naturally, of kids with special needs and in the most recent group, all of the kids had more severe impairments than he did.  I wondered if anyone was familiar with groups that mixed and matched NT kids and SN kids?  Maybe what I'm seeking is a camp/group that isn't special needs per se, but has leaders capable of handling some kids who need more support?

Any tips or info on opportunities that may be open for August would be greatly appreciated!  
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