My daughter is starting kindergarten this fall and has not had preschool, so her main interactive scheduled things are at church. I was assigned to her room for Vacation Bible School and it broke my heart. I saw her trying so hard to be a friend and fit in, and so many kids are mean to her or just shun her and don't want to be with her. Sometimes Emily will pinch or be aggressive, but not lately. I think what turns other kids off is her constant questions and pestering and "Will you be my friend" and forgetting names and such. I grieve because she has a good heart and no one wants to be her friend. To some extent she seems to be unaware of this but more and more she is sad about her situation with friends.

Jane

Hi Jane,
I am new here. I read with understanding your post from 2002. My son is in middle school and is struggling with making and keeping friends. He uses immature attention seeking behavior to make kids laugh and to him that = friends. Yes it is very sad, but-"day by day" Jane that's all you can do. My son's therapist suggests to do all we can to boost his self esteeme and get him more involved in activities he enjoys. When he's involved with kids doing the same activity, he is more apt to be himself and less likely to show off. We tell him that he has so much going for him, if he could just control this behavior the kids will see what a great kid he is! How is Emily fitting in now?

allaboutthekids

I just wanted to mention my experience with an ADD boy who has spent a few days each year "volunteering" at the special ed/autism school where I work. His mom works at our school, so he "volunteers" when his days off from school don't match our school schedule (and his mom can't find a sitter). When he was younger, people were not thrilled to have him volunteer because they had to manage his behavior on top of dealing with their student's behaviors. But for the past two years, the staff members have been fighting for his time ...trying to get him scheduled to spend time with their students. He is much better than most of the non-ADD volunteers we've had. He accepts our kids for who they are & he truly seems to enjoy playing with them. Other volunteers seem scared of our students or they talk down to them/baby them.