AUTISM Tip: How To Set Your Child Up To Succeed On A Play-Date

Did you know that there are ways to increase the chances that a play date will go well? Here are the best tips that parents of children with autism who we work with have road-tested:

PLAN: Plan a schedule for the time together and share the proposed schedule with your child’s friend

TIME: it is so much better to have a short play date that succeeds, rather than a longer play date that goes off-track. Keep things short… ideally around 90 minutes.

FOOD: Kids love food and it gives them something fun to talk about. Also, kids who are busy eating don’t have to be talking, so it helps your child escape from face-to-face communication.

MOVIES: movies enable our kids to hang out with their friends and have a good time without having to be talking to each other. It is worthwhile to plan the movie with the other parent ahead of time so that both kids will have a movie they love and haven’t seen before.

BACK-UP PLAN: what about when things go very, very wrong? As a parent we need to know ahead of time when our plan is if things just go very badly. It might be something along the lines of saying to the kids, “I’m sorry kids - Something has come up for me and I need to take [Friend] home earlier - but we can do this again sometime.”

You’re a great parent (Yes, really!)