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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can you try activities with other kids that would interest him- a sports skills class or D&D at a game store or theater crew or whatever?  My similar kid has better luck at activities not related to the school- fresh kids where he might not feel like he's already been rejected.  He doesn't develop friendships, but it's a social outlet.

Also, ask your therapist about a social skills group.  Lunch bunch at school wasn't really helpful for us- too short of a time period to develop relationships and practice skills.  But my kid has been going to the same social skills group for 2 years now, and that has been helpful.[/quote]

DS is strongly resisting group…therapist recommends it but if he is unwilling then he is not going to get anything out of it. What is D&D?[/quote]

D&D is Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a role playing game with interaction but structured. There are some groups around that are geared for different ages. I think there is D&D group that is a social skills group in disguise that I read about on the Special Needs forum.

I would consider being pretty blunt with him that if he wants to get better at friendships, he’ll to put some work into it. [/quote]

This: To make friends, you have to be a friend. Some kids, like yours OP, need to be taught "how" to be a friend. You will have to role play some common interactions and behaviors to help him break the ice. Arrange very short encounters for specific activities and gradually ramp up to longer less structured encounters with the kids he did well with. He's likely gotten a lot of negative feedback from peers on prior attempts, so you have to slowly build back his social confidence.

I also think encouraging the the on line games with live chat with kids he knows actually helps -- it's practice talking without the face to face intimidation and anxiety. Another useful practice is to let him use an avatar (like his Minecraft persona) to vlog on YouTube. Talking to an imagined audientce like they are friends is very helpful. It doesn't matter how disorganized or boring his videos might be, or if he's just imitating other YouTubers; it's the practiced talking to people that builds the brain pathways for live conversations.[/quote]

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