Girls with apraxia and friendships/social skills

[Guest guest]

Hello there!

I am looking for some " been there, done that " input from parents of

girls with apraxia. Let me give a little background...

is in Kindergarten and having a tremendous year. She has a

wonderful program where she is in mainstream Kindergarten for 1/2 of the

day and is in a special class specifically for high functioning children

in the afternoon where she gets services (speech-language, OT, PT) and

the Kindergarten curriculum is reinforced. Our district only has 1/2 day

Kindergarten, so she is one of the handful of kids in our neighborhood

school going for a full day. ly, her speech is age appropriate at

this point. Her speech services are targeted toward conversation,

sounding out words, answering open ended questions and following

multi-step directions. Fine motor is probably her biggest area of need

at this point; we are watching her for /possible /auditory processing

issues as well. We are so, so proud of her!

My question is actually around social skills and friendships.

is a very friendly, likeable little girl. She looks very feminine but

is actually rather tomboy-ish. This is fine by us. She is making

friends at school, in both parts of her day. She gravitiates toward

boys, probably because of her tomboy-ish interests and also probably

because there have always been more boys than girls at school (in her

integrated preschool, in her therapeutic playgroups and now in

Kindergarten too). is a bit immature, especially as compared to

other girls. Yet, her social skills are far ahead of the other kids

(all boys) in her afternoon class. She is a gentle soul. But, she is

friendly and active and she seems well-liked overall.

We are gradually trying to set-up more playdates with some kids at

school and try to grow her social circle beyond kids in the

neighborhood. These things seems straightforward with boys, but girls

seem more complicated. They are more socially savvy and sophisticated.

I am not sure what to do with a darling little girl who likes her

trains and Diego toys and cars ;-) . Should I encourage friendships

with girls more or go with her boy friend preference? Should I

encourage some more feminine interests so that she can fit in with more

girls? Or, should I just encourage common ground with kids in general

(she loves active, playground type play, which is probably a good

unifier for kids of both genders)? I am not trying to change ,

just trying to make sure that she has plenty of social opportunity.

I guess my real question is ... do any of you have a girl who is/was

similar (slightly immature, slightly quirky, tomboyish but likeable)?

How did you handle social things like this? How did things turn out?

I hope that this makes sense. It is a bit of a vague question. Any

feedback or personal experiences would be so very appreciated.

Warmly,

-----------------------

Oakes-Hauf

Pittsford (outside of Rochester), NY

Mom to (5.7), apraxia, hypotonia and fine motor delays (but very

conversational :-) )

and (3.4), our precocious talker.

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