hi 

im a mother of a 5 year old boy with severe to very severe infantile autism and three other children and the way i helped my son to be able to interact with his siblings was 

1. i got him a pet which he interacts extremely well + plus a teddy which he named do-ray 

2. everyday i also got him to go up and pat or touch his siblings and say there names and when they were playing even if he would not face them he would sit beside them and then slowly started turning towards them this may help in your situation .and thank you for coming and asking parents instead of going straight to books 

I am really interested in the feedback too I am an Education Assistant and I work in Ed Support

HI I have a daughter 11yrs with borderline autisum. Needs social skills to make friends she can not make friends eaisly that is why I got a puppy to help her try to build her confidence up which is starting to help her.

Hi, I am the parent of a 6yo boy who has autism spectrum disorder... I think that focussing on music is a great way to get the lil ones to interact with each other.. My Ben had a concert the other night .. look up Benny the rockstar on youtube if you would like a sneak preview of the sort of stuff they did.. these kids brighten right up with music and it helps with co ordination, speech (singing) and they actually tend to appear to be able to work together on these lil concert things.. its almost as though it gives them something to play together for and overcome some of the isolating aspects of the disorder.. not exactly sure what sort of thing you were wanting to know about.. kinda confused by the question.. haha too many big words for me, but thats something I think helps in the autistic community.. books are ok, but putting things into practice will help you to understand alot more about what these kids need.. watching how they do things and most of these children have the most amazing abilities when it comes to something they truely enjoy doing :) Hope that was helpful.. Cheers from Mel xx

what social skills they think are important areas to focus with children of this population?

My son (7 years old) has high functioning autism. My dad has Aspergers and I have been told that I have alot of aspergers traits.

Social skills needed or that are important from my sons perspective is being able to interect as a "normal" child. when I say normal I mean, sit still. He jumps about all the time, he can not walk to a place he jumps and dances. its cute for a parent to see but other children tease him. At school he is learning about facial recognition. Happy, sad, angry etc. I think he needs to learn to be able to intereact with other children rather than being by myself all the time.

If you have any other things you want help with feel free to minti mail me at any time.

good luck

Just wanted to say GOOD ON YOU for coming and making the effort to ask what parents think instead of just reading books ect There are many parents on the forum with kids who have autism so I hope they come forward and help you with your program.