[senco-forum] Autism and playtime/lunch

There are several children at the primary school who although don't have an
official (yet) diagnosis of autism/ aspergers, have many of the symptoms -
very poor social skills being one. At lunchtime the library is open and they
tend to hang out there. At playtime it is closed - the theory being that it
makes these kids do something else. What happens though is that they are
lost and just wander around aimlessly. There seems to be an attitude of
'they're a bit odd but they'll be OK, they don't want any friends anyway so
let them sit on a bench by themselves".

My question - what have your schools got in place to meet the needs of these
children during what is probably the most unstructured and unsupervised time
of the day? 

In my experience they are actually desperate for friends but just don't know
who to make them and are continually rejected.

Ta

Fiona