Our Circle of Friends thank-you letter

We sent out our Circle of Friends thank-you letters to the dozens of families who returned the signed form giving their child permission to participate in TH's circle. We also enclosed a gift certificate for a scoop of ice cream as part of our expression of gratitude, but of course anyone implementing Circle of Friends can forgo that and just send the thank you. I printed all the letters, Mr. DMFP and I both signed them, I read it to TH*, and we addressed and stamped and stuffed the envelopes and mailed them.

I thought that I'd post the letter in case anyone would like an example of what we've done to say thanks to the families who had it in their hearts to help out our son in this way.

Dear Second-grade Family:

At the beginning of this school year, you returned a permission form allowing your child to join a Circle of Friends for our son, T.H., who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism that manifests in part with social impairments. By inviting your child to participate in this program, we hoped to foster a better understanding of this developmental disorder and improve T.H.’s ability to interact with his peers. We are extremely grateful that 32 second graders were generous enough in their hearts to open the hand of friendship to T.H., including many in his own class.

Before we presented Circle of Friends to the second-grade classes, T.H. was struggling socially. He had difficulty interacting appropriately with other children, a common experience for children with Asperger’s, and his behavior had alienated him from his peers.

From the day we presented the Circle of Friends program to the classes, however, that changed. The increased understanding that the children showed our son translated into lessened anxiety for him, making him better able to focus on and practice the social skills that other children acquire automatically. Mrs. J., his teacher, described the difference in her classroom as “night and day.” As his schoolmates became more comfortable with T.H., he also became more comfortable and better able to integrate himself into the social dynamic of his peer group. We cannot express fully our appreciation to you and the other families who helped facilitate this change by allowing your children to participate in the Circle of Friends.

Throughout the school year, T.H. and various students who returned signed forms have participated in different activities together, including nature walks, butterfly husbandry, lunch bunch, and pairing for room deliveries and motor breaks. The school’s willingness to foster an atmosphere of understanding and introduce these activities certainly helped make the school year a positive experience for T.H., but it couldn’t have happened without you and your child’s willingness to be a friend. We are deeply grateful.

We hope that your child will enjoy a treat from us at our local Ben & Jerry’s. Please accept the enclosed gift certificate as a small expression of our thanks to you for helping make a profound difference for our son.

Have a great summer!

Best regards,
The Daisymayfattypants Family**

*You may notice a slight copy-editing discrepancy between how I type TH on this blog and how it is in the letter. That is because I'm married to a prescriptivist. If he had to type TH on a blog as often as I do, he'd drop the periods, too.

**Obviously, we did not actually sign off with this.