Any advice on how to explain to DD that she has aspergers?

[merindol]

Our 7 year old DD has just been diagnosed with Aspergers. We're not planning on telling her yet as the advice so far is that she is too young to handle it - but we don't want to conceal it either and when she is ready we would like to try to explain it to her in the most supportive and helpful way possible. She knows she is different though, and sometimes talks about not having friends or not being like her class mates. I would love to hear from others how they introduced the idea to their kids with aspergers and when they felt was the right time? Thanks...

With ds1 we felt the same way, so we discussed issues with him but never the label. So he knew he has sn, since other kids don't have constant OT apointments, a wheelchair, etc. He is currently down as hypermobility, developmental co-ordination disorder, social and communication issues, sensory processing issues, probable autism. But he is mainstream and doesn't have much support at school.

Then one day he came out of respite and said oh I was with x today, I think he has autism like me. (he has 1:2 care there).

I was and asked him who had told him that. And he said well, no-one but you just did! So I think on some level he did already know. He is now nearly 10 and interacts with others with autism quite frequently. I was glad it sort of came out that way rather than the big shock I worried about.

My DS was told in year 6 at school as part of his transition to secondary planning. A specialist from the councils autism team did a 4 week course with him (about 2 hours a week for 4 weeks) and they made a book all about him, what he was good at, what he found difficult, how he was different, how he was the same and lots of other things. We were involved as parents and agreed for him to do the course.

He had previously read a lovely little book about autism (with us).

I think he found it very useful and has no issues about being a bit different as he is also aware how special he is.

That course sounds brilliant.

Merindol

We have told our DS (6.9yrs) as he wanted a name to the difference that he was feeling. We bought this book to help us tell him.

This board isn't that busy so feel free to join us on Special Needs: Children.