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denny

explaining aspergers

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hi, my son who is 9yrs old has AS and he has just started asking about it, i just want some advice on how the best way to explain to him in ways he can understand, hope someone can help.

Thanks

Denise

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It's a tough one. Our son is also 9 and becoming more aware of his self.

 

We subtly bought him a book a couple of years ago called All Cats Have Aspergers Syndrome, which was just really a picture book with phrases accompanying the photos describing some traits.

 

He was also fully aware of our discussions about autistic behaviours / autism and we have never hidden it from him. Just really casually dropped it into conversations and explanations for his behaviours with him at times - while trying to reinforce positives about the condition too. He even uses it as an excuse nowadays, whcih is kind of annoying when he's done something wrong and turns round and says "well I am autistic, what do you expect !"

 

There are quite a lot of books available, I'm sure the NAS site has a good list of their reosurces. Also search Amazon and there are a few books come up that area aimed at pre-teen kids.

 

I would just try and be honest and frank, but at his pace. Good Luck !

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hi, er have the same with our son, we are sure as he is understanding AS he is starting to play on it, we feel that itis positive that he wants to know more and we have never hidden anything from him, he has told a couple of friends that he has AS which is all positive as it shows that he isn;t embarrassed about being as he calls it special. I think we will carry on just answering the questions when they come up, he will always let us know when he whats to know more.

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I've got a book called Can I Tell You About Asperger Syndrome? by Jude Welton. It is especially written to help explain Asperger's to children. It looks really good to me and it gets really good reviews.

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It's certainly not unsuitable for adults, and does explain things nice and clearly, and also goes into some of the different ways Asperger's can present. But it is aimed at children and focusses on the kinds of difficulties asperger children may get into in a school environment. If you want someone to read it who wouldn't read a "normal-sized" book and can get past the slight childishness, then I'd still say it would be good for adults.

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Some use the ugly duckling as synonym for..

 

I try and keep things as straight as possible, to avoid misinterpretations..

I explain the sensory input and how that influences that kid.. every person is unique..

 

Sometime I hear people with AS talk about others being normal and w..

Than I stop them dead: I'm sorry.. others being normal, and what are you then.. abnormal?!

I explain why I see a need to adjust their view of themselves..

everybody functions differently, AS or NT..

everybody has certain traits and things that work pro or against them..

 

Being highly sensitive is useful, but can cause problems when you are around a lot of people..

you can not control if you bump into one another, nor the sound level, nor how quick they move, etc..

You might pick up more than most.. which will seem odd to you, that others do not see, hear or feel that..

Like when your teachers answers to a question that "she is ok", while you see that she is very sad somewhere deep inside!

Why would your teacher lie?! For she doesn't feel like sharing her feelings with everybody (older kids: that is not professional)

 

things like that.. depending on the question from the kid ;-)

Edited by butterfly73

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