Friendship and autism
I guess this is quite a weird one for me to write about. You see, neither Kevin nor Johnathan believed in friendship particularly, or were bothered by it. In fact, when I met Kevin he had one friend. And as I said a few days ago, I was looking for LOADS of friends.
Because Kevin only had one friend I thought it was imperative to get him more friends. And who better than the husband of my new friend? They were a younger couple not long married, but we got on well with them and went out with them a few times for dinner and they came round to our house once for a meal.
One thing I discovered was that although he would talk to Kevin and they would discuss things, Kevin never spoke about what we were going through to him. In fact, I think he knew more about us through him and his wife talking to me! But that’s just how life is.
Johnathan never really had what I would call friends until he was 7 or 8. I can’t remember which. There was another boy in his final year in nursery that if they hadn’t given each other a cuddle goodbye before they went home, they weren’t happy about it. And because the boy was going to school elsewhere, I honestly thought that would be the end of it, although I discovered they live close by.
But he was coming back with Kevin from somewhere and they came across some girls doing loom bands and they asked him to come and play. At first Kevin or I had to be with him, but then he managed to go see them and play with them outside. He has found it more difficult recently because the two girls he was really friendly with aren’t playing outside so much now they’re getting older. Don’t get me wrong, they still do….but it’s getting less and less.
Johnathan said that he had met the boy from nursery a few times outside and one day he actually struck up the courage to go round to the boy’s house and ask to play with him. And tonight he went out for about an hour and played with him again. The fact that it was pouring rain and he hates it so much speaks well for the continuation of the friendship. So I am very hopeful it will continue into the future and they can play together more as time goes on.