Friend's son just diagnosed with mild autism

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

Hi wondering if anyone could give me a bit of advice from personal experience. My friend's son (3 1/2) has just been diagnosed with mild autism and I just wondered what I could do to support her.

Are there any books, websites, etc that would help or should I just keep my counsel and let her talk when she's ready.

I'm a primary SENCo which makes it a little tricky as I perhaps know more than she might be ready to hear at this point.

Thanks for any help .

Listen and let her set the pace.

Yup, listen. Be there. Find out info yourself so you can be a good source of facts when she's ready, I guess. Me, I tend to wade in with a ton of info about me and others like me who are on the autism spectrum and it's Not Helpful

Thank you both .

Cos of my job I do already know quite a bit, but it's different when you're dealing with it personally .

Might be a good idea to point her in the direction of the National Autistic Society. They have lots of info on their website and she can look at it in her own time.
I also found an online support group which helped because when you are feeling emotional after diagnosis it is easier to ask questions online to strangers. Maybe suggest she looks on here.
As for talking, I agree with everyoone else, just wait until she is ready.
I have two children with disabilities and when DD was diagnosed with MS I could hold it together as long as I didn't talk about it.
When DS2 was diagnosed with ASD I went back to the same stage. Of course some people do the opposite and talk to everyone who will listen.

NAS have a pop up advert on this site. Look out for it at the top of the page. Regional branches of NAS sometimes have regular local events, meetings, coffee mornings, and christmas Parties

Can I tell you what makes my friends fab?

They listen to me moan .. They drink wine with me and have a laugh.. They tell me when they don't know what to say, but will listen and offer a cuppa.. And mostly they treat ds2 as they do their own dc's and my other dc's ( but the ignore the social faux pas..)
and they never ever treat him or talk about him in an ' awww bless ' that poor child way! So if he's being a pain he doesn't get away with it :)

Thank you everyone. Will definitely direct to NAS and totally agree with you about avoiding the "aw bless" stuff .