How to get the adults in your family to better understand autism

[adelinehillman]

Hi

I am struggling with some of the adults in my family to understand what autism is. They are quite to shout and blame my 5 year old who has been diagnosed with autism. I try to explain that my son is different and doesn't always understand. Books/websites etc don't work to educate the adults - instead i was thinking of putting the adult infront of a DVD. Could anyone recommmend a DVD that explains what autism is and how it should be dealt with. That these kids are different, not naughty and that patience and understanding is required.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Nothing worked better for us than giving them the reports / diagnosis to read. Some members of the family show traits themselves tbh.. So until they saw it in black and white they couldn't process it. The way it was written was helpful too as they could see how the diagnosis was reached over time .

I've given up tbh. Most of DH's as well as my family don't get it. The only exception is my sister, who has a child roughly the same age with very similar SNs. So of course, she gets it.

I was hoping to see some great advice... But unfortunately I have a similar issues.

Hope you manage to get through to them

It's just so frustrating and make me feel very lonely. I am not sure if they are ashamed or just ignorant to it all. Being a Mum is hard enough on its own, let alone being a Mum to a kid with ASD, all you want is a bit of help, support, understanding etc, but I just get met with 'there's nothing worng with him,' or 'you're too soft on him and should tell him off more.' My son's diagnosis is very wooly and doesn't really explain anything except stipulating the diagnosis, plus nobody is interested in reading about it. I was hoping for an educational DVD, something visual and easy to understand, just so my family could get it. Fortunatly my other son, who is 7 understands - so at least i have him on side - but that is how it feels - like there are 2 sides... Can't choose your family eh?!?!?

Teaching them 'about autism' is probably totally pointless while theyre in the 'nothing wrong with him/ in my day/ you were the same' more

Saying 'I need your advice/ help etc', 'this is a video clip by a speech therapist', 'the doctor recommends x, can you find out anything about it?' might open the door a tiny crack.

MIL accepts ds1's ADHD now, 4y on, but is still clueless about his asd

I often struggle to get DH to understand it... and he's with DS2 daily! His family? And mine? Clueless. It's frustrating.