Social Groups?

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Hi all,

My son started an ASD program in a public school this year, in third grade. It is an inclusion class (but smaller than the typical one), but all of the kids on the special ed side have an ASD diagnosis. The ASD kids go to "speech club" a few times a week. In speech club, they work on all kinds of things like reading facial expressions and tone of voice to understand social intention, compromising, turn taking, how group conversations work, etc. My son loves speech club, as he sees it as a safe place to socialize. However, my son is somewhat behind the other kids in the group socially since they have been in the class since kindergarten. My son is very outgoing and social, but his rigidity of thinking causes him a lot of social upsets. I was thinking of putting him into a social group one day a week after school. This would not be the type of social group where they focus on eye contact or "passing", but one where it would help him understand how socializing works better, such as: if your friends incorporate your ideas into a game three times in a row, but don't think your fourth idea would work, it does not mean they are rejecting you and are not your friend anymore. As he really, really enjoys being social, I thought that this would be great for him. But, recently, somebody suggested it may cause him to feel burnt out or overwhelmed. However, I suspect they misunderstood me to mean the type of social skills class that tries to make ASD kids "indistinguishable", which is not the case.

I am wondering what your thoughts are. Thanks so much.

If he loves social group and being social and would enjoy then he'll probably get something from doing it. Why did the person think it would be too much?

I think it is one of those things that can either be very good or a waste of time, depending on the group. If you can find something worthwhile and your son wants to go and enjoys it, then why not?

I too think so!

Consider it an experiement.

No one says you "have to" keep going if he hates it.

The deal with my NT kid, is 4 times and then pull the plug. If it is sort of rocky, shorten it to three weeks. The first two times sort of don't count because everything is really new. By the 3rd and 4th week, you get a better feel on what is going on.

The worse thing that can happen is you lose you money and some time.

I'd try it.

I agree with other posters, if he is enjoys the social interaction it will be a benefit! If you are only concerned about him feeling overwhelmed I would just watch out for meltdowns or stress after the group and only then address removing him Be worth a try

My son was attending a social group where they set up scenarios like bday parties etc at first he loved it but there was a point when he began to come out frustrated, melt downs and overstimulated. Turned out the age gap was too wide he was becoming frustrated with the younger kids rather than enjoying it....that was the point we removed him as it was more of a difficulty for him than a benefit. His time was not wasted he had a lot of chances to learn from social scenarios that we wouldnt normally

We have tried social groups for my son and honestly, I wasn't sure he got enough out of it to continue with it. They are quite expensive and the problem I saw is that the other kids in the group have social problems as well, so it didn't seem like he was learning anything or making any friends. I am not trying to be negative, if you think it is a good idea, it is worth a try. You won't know unless you try. My son tends to not be that interested in making friends anyway.

I've only managed to find one group that's sort of in my area. It's a 30-45 minute drive each way, and each session costs 50 bucks. I just can't see spending that much just for DS to play Legos.