How do you find friends?

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

Am I the only one? What do you do if your kid has no friends? Are there others out there in the same predicament? My son is in middle school. He has mild LD and is socially anxious, but otherwise a nice kid. It kills me that he has no friendships outside of school. Is there any way to contact other parents who might be in the same situation, and if so, how?

Submitted by bgb on Thu, 07/22/2004 - 4:18 PM

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This is a good way to contact other parents. Locally you could join the PTA and see what groups are about.

My son is a sixth grader and has few friends….I am only now beginning to worry about it. He *is* friendly and hangs out with his brother’s friends but….

It worked for a while to have him in drama club. He connected with the other drama kids. Does your son have any interest he could develop? Mine is considering joining a yu-ge-ho (sp?) club that meets once a week. :roll: Whatever the interest is, go with it!

Does your son *like* being a loner? Some people just are that way….

WHERE is the breakdown? Does he know how to join a group of kids, can he *read* the social background? If he has difficulties in a certain area, you can have training for that written into his IEP. Our middle school has “friendship clubs” that the councilor runs. The group practices the social rules that some kids have trouble with. The hope is that they will generalize what they learn. If your middle school doesn’t offer this, he can meet with a councilor and do the same thing.

Good luck!

Barb

Submitted by LJ on Wed, 07/28/2004 - 7:47 PM

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I second Barb’s suggestions. Feed your son’s interests and he’ll find other kids who share his interests. For our son, it’s Boy Scouts and the martial arts (Aikido).

Check into community service venues too. Perhaps he could be a counselor in training at a summer camp and work with younger kids. Or maybe if he has an area of interest with community service, he could meet other kids who have similar interests when he performs community service.

Another possibility is to look into social skills groups to help him brush up on interacting with kids his age. Check with your pediatrician and child psychologists in your area.

LJ

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