My 9 year old daughter doesn't have any friends and usually there are only boys in her special ed classes. She is "middle" functioning and never talks about wanting to have friends so perhaps your son is similar with parallel play. As parents sometimes we think we know what our kids need but with ASD kids it can be a lot harder to tell what our kids truly want.

My son gets all his services through his school, so we are not at appointments where there are other ASD ABA parents, but I did recently join a new Facebook group for Vermont parents with children of special needs, so we'll see. Thanks!

I have found it helpful that any time my daughter has an ABA or other ASD-related appointment, I like to get there a little early, or hang out in the waiting room if it is an appointment where I don't go in with her, and attempt some small talk with other parents (I'm also not great with the small talk!) You'd be surprised how many other parents of ASD children are probably dying for a chance to discuss things with other ASD parents.

Also, Facebook sometimes has groups you can join in your area or pages you can "like" - even if you're not active on those pages, it may be a great resource for you to read over occasionally.

Thank you! Autism Speaks only has activities in the Burlington area which is an hour drive for us. Which is doable occasionally but not regularly and requires planning pretty much a full day when you include the drive. I was hoping to find some people or activities that are closer to us that we could do on a Saturday afternoon or after school. I will look into Family connections and see what they offer I hadn't thought of that!! We just got him into VT Adaptive sports so hopefully he will start that this spring, but that's with an adult instructor not friends. Special Olympics from what I can find only has sports you can participate in and he is too young for that still (but definitely a possibility for the future)!!