Firstly, I apologise if any terms I use are incorrect - I don’t have a lot of experience with neurodivergence and would appreciate some help from those of you that do 😊
DS (4yo) has started noticing differences between himself and others in his nursery class - everything from hair/skin colour, to physical disability, and behavioural differences. I believe this to be perfectly normal at this age and we chat about things like race and physical differences. What I’m finding it more difficult to explain are the behaviours shown by some of the neurodivergent children in his class which he had started to question.
There are 4 children who I know to be autistic, some more severe than others. I’m not sure if any have any other diagnosis. 2 of the 4 are pre-verbal/non-verbal.
DS has never really commented much on differences before other than “I build in the sandpit with Tommy and I tell the key worker if he needs help because Tommy doesn’t have his words yet” but he’s now come home saying a few things like “Josh says that Tommy and Isaac are ‘bad boys’ because they always throw toys and hit and they try to get out of the nursery door and that is naughty stuff so they must be bad!”.
I have obviously corrected him and told him that they are not ‘bad’ and that all people learn differently and some children, like Tommy and Isaac, find it more difficult to learn and understand things than others so they’re not doing these things to be ‘bad’.
He now is coming home saying things like “I got sad today because I worked really hard on building a tower then Isaac came and pushed it over. But I know he’s still learning”.
His nursery are big on celebrating differences etc and I’m going to chat with them about how they approach these things so that there is consistency but I’m wondering if any parents on here who have experience with neurodivergent children may be able to give me some help with explanations?