Dear Oceandrive24:

It’s a tough one. If he met the right professional for him, someone with just the right attitude, someone who would have neutralize your son’s alarm about meeting new people- that would be a wonderful thing, but it didn’t happen. I figure that the reason he engages with immediate family (you and his brother) from time to time is because immediate family is always there around him, and his father is there when he visits with him,  so from time to time he ends up engaging with the people who are there in proximity to him.

If he had professional always around him, I bet he would have engaged with them once in a while.

Because he experienced repeated frustration with you regarding being understood, I figure your best bet is to no longer ask him the same/ similar questions, to no longer address the same issues in the same ways with him, but do something different, something in the context of play/ a game. Is there a game the two of you can play together, anything from a board game like monopoly to an interactive computer game that you are comfortable playing with him?

anita