interaction

[Momof3]

My son is 3 1/2 and he wants to be social and play with other kids but he is very far behind in speech. This is hard when we get w/ other parents for play groups or when at the park. He was doing very well in school but regressed when summer came. Thankfully school starts this week, I am hoping he bounces back.
My questions are: How do you teach your kids to play and interact better? Have you found any ways to ease the bullying on the playground? How do you explain to ther children how your child is different? We have a few close friends w/ kids the same age that come over and when they try to play w/ Clayton they wonder why he plays different. He likes more paralel play & naming/ labeling what everything is. He has come along way over the past yr but I wish I could help him to play better/ interact w/ others. He can immitate how the other kids play, but it is as if you have to show him what to do. Any suggestions?

[J'smom]

[QUOTE=Momof3]My son is 3 1/2 and he wants to be social and play with other kids but he is very far behind in speech. This is hard when we get w/ other parents for play groups or when at the park. He was doing very well in school but regressed when summer came. Thankfully school starts this week, I am hoping he bounces back.
My questions are: How do you teach your kids to play and interact better? Have you found any ways to ease the bullying on the playground? How do you explain to ther children how your child is different? We have a few close friends w/ kids the same age that come over and when they try to play w/ Clayton they wonder why he plays different. He likes more paralel play & naming/ labeling what everything is. He has come along way over the past yr but I wish I could help him to play better/ interact w/ others. He can immitate how the other kids play, but it is as if you have to show him what to do. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE]

My son is eight and was diagnosed with autism when he was your son's age. Right now I have him in a social skills therapy session. It's individual at the moment and he is finally, after approximately 3 years, going to be ready to move into a group. It's difficult to explain to other children why your's plays so differently. What I usually do is try to find some "in common" things that I know my son can do with others at least for a limited amount of time such as catch or racing or a video game. It has taken a while to increase his tolerance and understanding of the virtues of playing with someone else versus playing along side them or not at all. I would suggest taking it slow, try to get him into a therapy group that he can help enhance his skills at tolerating social interactions as well as learning the rules and, working with teachers to emphasize learning to play with others in his IEP. As far as the bullying, that's always a hard one and unfortunately, our children are targets for teasing and ridicule. I try as much as I can to structure who he is with so that doesn't happen as often and when it does, I offer a hug and sympathy reminding him that he is loved by his family.

[rosie]

Hello momof3

My name is Rosie and I have a 4 year old high function autistic little girl. She is sweet and funny and has alot of energy too. She has the same problem, she wants to play with other children, but they don't understand her play and when she trys to speak to the other kids but they don't understand her and end up walking away. She doesn't understand why they don't pay attention to her, or why they walk away.

She loves the playground and watching the kids run around. She thinks they all want to play with her and she ends up running around the kids as if they were playing with her even if they are not. I feel bad at times, because they don't understand her and she doesn't realize this.

It is also hard to explain to some parents that she is autistic. They don't react the way they should. Sometimes it makes it worse. We don't have play dates, but she does have a little sister who is 20 months old that she can play with and she has 2 older sister who love her too.

rosie