Ep 4: How Our Neurodiverse Kids Navigate Friendship

You Don’t Want a Hug, Right? The Hilarity and the Hard of Raising Humans with Neurodiversity

Making friends can be hard for anyone at any age, but it’s especially hard for neurodiverse children. We’ve had a front row seat to the experiences our kids have had trying to make friends and the lessons they’ve learned (and often have to re-learn) about who to let into their friendship circles.

In today’s episode, we talk about the data behind making friends when you have autism, learning what friendship and loyalty mean, and how we can help to facilitate friendship for our neurodiverse children.

In this episode, you’ll learn…

[06:24] The data on people with autism and friendships

[12:57] How our kids’ friendships began to change when their friends joined sports activities and how our culture is very sports obsessed

[18:24] How we’ve had to define friendship for our kids and be gatekeepers to those who don’t reciprocate friendship

[28:54] How there’s hope for our older kids and making friends after the loneliness of early childhood years

[31:57] How we have a whole different understanding of what friendship looks like for our neurodiverse children and how each child has made progress in their own way

[37:25] The importance of having family members who adore and appreciate our kids

[43:49] The Last Word from our kids and their experiences making friends as a child

Get full show notes and the episode transcript: https://www.youdontwantahug.com/post/ep-4-how-our-neurodiverse-kids-navigate-friendship

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