And I know exactly how you feel about the social aspect and close friendships and relationships, this hurt my heart as a mother more than anything else....I took an extra long time for my son to develop close bonds with friends...but to encourage you, in 7th grade, things changed, such an incredible and beautiful time in his life and memory as a mother. I KNEW things had changed, and forever more he has a solid group of friends, 5 of them, and they are all so like minded. Dillon's friendships with these fellas has grown stronger and stronger...still to this day when he says "I am hanging out with friends"....it warms my heart sooooooooooo much.
It will happen...give it time, and it may take a long time, but I also learned trying to orchestrate and find just the right matches in friends for him did NOT work. Patience was the answer and encouraging him to just be him and to hang out with mom as long as he needed to (or just hanging in his room in his sensory retreat reading a book) was just fine with me. Sports though was the KEY to opening the doors to social interaction, without a doubt.
It will happen...give it time, and it may take a long time, but I also learned trying to orchestrate and find just the right matches in friends for him did NOT work. Patience was the answer and encouraging him to just be him and to hang out with mom as long as he needed to (or just hanging in his room in his sensory retreat reading a book) was just fine with me. Sports though was the KEY to opening the doors to social interaction, without a doubt.