To cut a long story short, my niece took the piss out of DS today. She's 8 and very bright, she knows DS has very delayed speech and ASD.
She wouldn't have done it if her parents were there and is fully aware of DS's problems. She normally reduces/adapts her language when speaking and interacting with DS, but today she went out if her way to repeat what he said and mimic, question his sentence structure and looked bemused at what he was trying to say and took things off him which he was playing with and just generally tried to make him look like a fool.
My dad was there and agreed she was being a cow, and when I asked her why she was being so mean he was fully supportive. She didn't respond and I didn't ask her to explain.
It just struck a chord of how vunerable he is, even though he is totally unaware of how upset I am and how she was taking the piss out of him.
I left before her parents, my brother and SIL, arrived to pick her up as I was so cross and upset
I know she's a child, she's never done this before, I don't expect her to try and engage with DS and she is normally very accommodating, she was probably tired from school, but wow she has pushed a button and to be honest has made me cry, quite a lot.
Just needed to write it down.x