AUTISM: Meet 3 Young People With Autism Who Are Proving Everybody Wrong.

I'm about to introduce you to 3 young people who are improving their social skills so much!

I'm not going to tell you their names (I'm actually completely changing their names) but everything else in this is absolutely as amazing to us as it is to you:

Amazing Kelvin, 12 yo

We got Kelvin onto Secret Agent Society at the last possible moment because we were so touched by his story. He was 12 years old and had never really had any friends. After 5 weeks in his Secret Agent Society course, he went to the local show/town fair and left his Mum to go and hang out with two other boys for a couple of hours. Mum had never seen him do that before and she was so proud of him. Since then, he's had a number of get-togethers with friends at his house and his confidence is so much higher than it's ever been. We are so proud of him.

Jemma the Brave, 14 yo

Jemma had barely left the house in the 6 months leading up to working with us. Mum was keen for us to work with her, but was pretty apprehensive about how it would work out. We were confident that her daughter would do well because Mum was super proactive and willing to try things. 

Jemma started the Minecraft Social Skills group to build her confidence and to get her used to interacting with other students. Then, about 6 weeks later she started on our "Peers For Teens" course. She always comes with her video on and is always willing to share her ideas now. She appears to be one of the more outgoing children in her group, but the truth is she is working very hard on the inside to be brave and interact with others. 

She now does about 2 different social activities with others from her school each week. Everybody is astounded, but the truth is that Jemma was always just a superstar waiting to unleash her personal awesomeness. We are so proud of her.

Sammy (who now has friends) 8 yo

Sammy has completed Secret Agent Society this year and is also loving doing weekly Minecraft Social Group sessions. 

Before she had done Secret Agent Society, she just couldn't keep friends. She would talk with others, but because she was really firm and rigid about her standards and what she wanted to happen (some people might even say bossy), other children pulled back away from her and wouldn't really be her friend for long. 

However, she was completely willing to take on board what she learned in Secret Agent Society. She started to understand how to let others have their say and how to compromise and how to be okay about it when others didn't want to do what she wanted. 

She still has meltdowns at home, but now those meltdowns last about 40 minutes instead of the 2-hour meltdowns she used to have. 

In Minecraft groups when there are new students there, we put them into Sammy’s group because she is so good at helping new people feel comfortable and she has learnt to negotiate well and give-and-take a bit. So proud of Sammy!

Here's the BIG IDEA:

Do not let your child's current social skills cause you to believe that things will always be as tough as they are now. Your child will surpass your expectations. I've never met a child with Autism who didn't surpass their parents expectations, after they had participated in training courses and social groups that were designed to help them unleash their inner awesomeness.

Something else that sounds crazy is that I literally could have listed 30 or 40 students (just off the top my head) who are totally surprising (and delighting) their parents. Once students start to learn the specific formulas for how to interact socially and how to remain calm and in control of their own emotions, everything opens up and life changes fairly quickly. There are always a million challenges that our kids face, but with new skills, they can face their future more bravely and more confidently.

Be bold, hold your hopes high, equip your child with skills and keep being an AWESOME parent.

Michael Clark

0481614517

www.amazingskills.com.au