Helping Neurodivergent Children Make and Keep Friends

Many neurodivergent children want friendships but find the unwritten social rules confusing, exhausting, or unpredictable. The friendships they do form often look quite different from neurotypical ones, and that difference is easily missed, judged, or unintentionally pushed away by well-meaning adults. This session offers seven practical wins for noticing, protecting, and supporting neurodivergent friendship on its own terms, with strategies that work at school and at home.

• Recognise the markers of neurodivergent friendship that don’t fit the neurotypical script
• Understand why one trusted friend is often the goal, not the consolation prize
• Identify when to step back from forced socialising and when to offer something specific
• Distinguish between performance and genuine connection, and respond to masking accordingly
• Apply small language and environmental shifts that support friendship without trying to reshape it