Lucas’ Letters

Kids with autism often find it hard to make friends. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to.

It’s also not unusual for autistic people to communicate more comfortably in writing than in conversation.

One day, a boy with autism in Charlottetown was visiting the Facebook page of his favourite Canadian music duo, Splash ‘N Boots. He shared that he was looking for a pen pal. The mother of another autistic boy named Lucas saw it and showed her son. When Lucas saw the message, he was really excited about the idea of making friends through letter writing. Over time, he collected a few long distance friends.

Lucas and his mom wanted to share this opportunity with other children and with the help of Splash N’ Boots a project was begun. Lucas’ Letters is a pen pal club for all kids, designed so that children with autism or other disabilities are able to meet new friends.

How Does it Work?

Contact Splash ‘N Boots from their website, and they will help you register. Once each child is matched with a pen pal, they are sent contact information and a welcome package including some writing materials and some tips on making communication a little easier.

Participants are welcome to adapt their communication form and style to their needs – writing can take whatever form they are comfortable with – it could be parent scribed, written, typed, drawn, or generated by a communication device. Kids of all abilities are welcome to join.

Benefits

So far hundreds of kids have responded.

For Lucas, letter writing was a way for him to engage with other people on an even playing field, where he could say what he wanted to say and learn from different perspectives of other kids as well.

Lucas’ Letters is an opportunity for people to realize that autism does not mean loneliness – that for kids who have a hard time talking, they can make friends in a different way. The project is also an example of how kids can surprise us with new interests and abilities – just like Lucas.

Is your child interested? Help them sign up here!