Supper club helps kids with autism find friendship
April 14th, 2008Writing in the Dallas Morning News, columnist Jacquielynn Floyd hangs out at Chili’s restaurant with a group of kids who are enjoying their once-a-month Supper Club. The club was started by pediatric therapist Mary Hawkins, and is designed to help kids with autism make friends and have fun. In the process, they also pick up social skills and learn to navigate a restaurant.
Floyd describes the kids with autism as “quirky” and “relentlessly entertaining,” as their conversation jumps from topic to topic in a way that assures non sequiturs. Most often, Floyd is told, these are kids whose social isolation is painful to them and to their families. But at Supper Club, they feel the “blissful pleasure of belonging.”
Imagine, for instance, being the mom of a boy who came home from school not long ago and miserably reported on his day. In a determined effort to strike up a conversation with a girl in his class, he had volunteered that he liked her handbag. The girl’s response: “Get away from me, you creep.”
Just hearing this story made my heart hurt. In the merciless tribal segregation of the middle-school social order, this sweet-natured, gentle boy (whose mother sadly shared this anecdote) is doomed to permanent outsider status.
At Supper Club, though, these children are very much insiders.
The story is accompanied by a video of the Supper Club. Definitely worth seeing.
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on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, News_2_Use, autism, friendship, tips & wisdom.
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August 9th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Hi Kimberly! I have heard from others who are now starting their own Supper Clubs! I am more than willing to sharing my ideas and how I started our group. However, be prepared for a large group!! My group has grown! We have a great time and I really hope I’m making a difference in these kids’ life!
April 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Wow, what an awesome idea, a supper club for autistic children. I wish I could find that in Arizona (Mesa). It is so hard for my son to act appropriate in social/public places. He is always talking about video games that he plays in his head, complete sequences, and doesn’t understand why children don’t want to play with him. They don’t understand his rules, which are always changing.