Facilitating friendships with the opposite sex-Step One

Conversation Hearts

I’ve grown tired of telling Matthew that he’ll meet a nice girl someday. I’ve decided to help him, and started by asking myself three questions:

1) What is the biggest obstacle that prevents Matthew from meeting girls?

2)What is the best way to help him with his socially awkward behavior so that he doesn’t scare girls away?

3)Once he meets a girl who agrees to hand out with him, how do I provide supervision?

Today, I’ll address step one.

The challenge?

Matthew’s program at Camphill California is comprised mostly of men. They few women that he knows there are either neurotypical or older/sister types.

My solution:

I met with another parent from Camphill who has a son a little older than Matthew who grew up in the Santa Cruz area. He has Down Syndrome and is more socially savvy than Matthew (by quite a bit), but he has been involved in Special Olympics, and similar activity social groups all of his life. I signed Matthew up for these programs with the hope that he’ll broaden his base of peers.

My worry:

That Matthew will come on to strong and scare perspective peers away.

That is step two. To be continued next week!!

Laura

To read more about Matthew, GO HERE.

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