As some of you know from past posts, my daughter has a friend at school who does not talk in public. For most of the school year she has been going to their house every week and has been his "whisper buddy" at school. He has been very close to her and he has made some really impressive improvements these last few months, I even heard him yelling to her at the park (I was hiding in the bushes, so he didn't know I was there)

I want to get him and his family something special for graduation. They have been through so much and things are really looking so much better for them that they were at the beginning of the year. (His diagnosis was just changed from autism to selective mutism, so there was a mistake there too.) What can my daughter and I do for them? I want something special, thoughtful.

We do still plan on seeing them, they want to keep doing playdates over the summer and bring DD to his new school to play and get used to it there. It's not a goodbye, it's more like to new beginnings?

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

What is the age of the individual? How far away are they?
I would say stationary and stamps so they could write or at least send pictures. Who doesn't love to get mail (when its not a bill)
Walkie talkies if they are not too far. It may encourage the child to speak and they could communicate when they needed or wanted to.

I like the walkie talkie idea.

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They live in the next town over and they are both going to be 5. I LIKE the walkie talkie idea, but I don't know if that would work? We have them here and the kids can't get each other half of the time and that's just playing around the house? That would be great to keep them talking though!

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

The walkie-talkie idea made me think about a digital recorder or small cassette recorder. (One for each of them) Perhaps if the child felt safe enough having conversations into the recorder, and then maybe weekly, every other week, etc the tape could be mailed so your daughter could hear the conversation. Then she could record something back to him?

At 5 they won't be doing much writing yet, so that might be tough and this could be a way to keep them in touch. Of course, I suppose a telephone call would do the same thing, but this way he could be in a safe spot (in his room or wherever) and have the conversation on his own terms without any pressure. I dunno...I'm just rambling now