Published on 12, July, 2020
My younger brother is now 14 years old, he has Aspergers but attends mainstream school with support from a base there to assist him when he needs. He doesn't really talk about having any friends and spends most of his time alone in his room on the XBox, he gets very anxious about having to go anywhere on his own and with the prospect of making new friendships. I'd really love him to be able to attend an extra curricular club or something where he could socialise and potentially gain more confidence but struggling to find anything in the local community. Any advice at all would be much appreciated.
Have you considered explorer scouts? They're 14-18 year olds and are very accepting and motivating and he'll get to mix with another group and get to do some adverturous stuff.
They're a mixed group of boys & girls these days so it's a safe environment where he can play the social game for a limited time every week while engaged in team activities. Much lower pressure than 1:1 socialising.
My son is 14 with autism and sounds very similar to your brother. We live in America and have joined groups here that automatically give him something in common with the other members, and that has helped. He has one close friend, but even with him, he has a hard time interacting appropriately. When things go south, we talk with him about he could have handled a situation differently with his friend. His friend also has some social challenges, though he doesn't have a specific diagnosis. So my suggestion is find something he is interested in that perhaps you can both take part in together. You can provide him support, and help him test the social waters.