Explaining SN to kids without SN

[discordia]

This has been on my mind for a while.

I would be interested to know what people think about teaching kids about kids with SN in a way that will help them be supportive, understanding, etc, and not patronising or unintentionally unkind.

Eg, my kids are 7 and 4 and they have a cousin of 23 years who is autistic. They are starting to notice that he is "different" from other 23 year olds. Also, dd has a friend with "development delay" (so far I have just explained to dd that her friend finds it harder to learn and that's why she has a special teacher) and there are a couple of kids with DS at school. Ds's mate has a little brother with DS.

How can I explain that their physical differences doesn't mean that there's something "wrong" with them?

Hope you understand what I'm getting at.

TIA

hi, understand what you mean exactly and there have been lots of threads on this type of thing, will try and find them for you.

Thanks, Thomcat! I started working thru the SN threads but there are so many I needed to ask for help!

try\linkwww.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1373&threadid=22081&stamp=040414092722{}this

Oh, didn't work. hOw DO you do links to another thread?

hello again discordia

I posted on another thread the other day about my friends son who asked me 'how' my daughter was disabled. I just told him that she was developing at a slower rate than most children of her age. She was still learning things but it took her longer to learn them. there was nothing 'wrong' with her she was just slower. Or something like this anyway!

I would just tell them the truth and make sure they know taking the mickey is wrong and just because people 'different' doesnt mean they dont have feelings. Teach them to repect everyone, which I am sure you do because you wouldnt have posted this otherwise

HTH I know it hard how to explain things to little ones

Can't do links for other threads but they were both called What's the best Way For Onlookers to Behave 1 & 2, and 2's last post was 14 Apr and 1's last post was 29 Feb in this section.
HTH.

I'm sure people will advise you here again now anyway but look back ther too for more info/advice/opinions etc.

TC xx

Here you go

part 1

part 2

Hmmm.. was thinking about this the other day as my ds is just 2 and has pointing out that Penny Pocket in Balamorey is in a pushchair. I always say that yes, it's like a pushchair, but it's actually called a wheelchair - as I don't want him to be pointing at wheelchair users when we are out and saying that they are in pushchairs.

He doesn't really get it though and persists with the pushchair thing - should I keep on doing what I'm doing or let him call Penny's wheelchair a pushchair?

Any ideas?

Thanks all. Will look at those links later (kids home now!) I think in some ways, physical things are easier to explain. Eg, why is that lady in a wheelchair? Because her legs don't work very well. It's the SN's that you can't see that are harder to explain.

i found some books with the main characters having sn while looking for books the other day,hope it helps.
have a look at this

This is all very interesting.
My daughter has a girl in her class - since reception - with CP and no one has EVER questioned whats wrong! No one picks on her or singles her out because they have always known her just as she is. BUT my DS has an invisible condition (heart, SID, + lots of other invisible 'bits' and my daughter is always questioning why he's disabled, why he has SEN, why he has a 'big' buggy, etc etc. She classes him as disabled - but not the girl with CP!!!! I find this all VERY hard to explain to her - and other children, WHY he is disabled!!

there are a few books for younger children where the main character has SN - off the top of my head I can think of 'Where's Chimpy?', and there's a series about a little boy called Russ, 'Russ and the Apple Tree', Russ and the very special day'. Both the little girl in 'Chimpy' and Russ have Down's syndrome but it is a non-issue in the books, they're just books about them doing ordinary kiddy things. For a more detailed explanation there is 'Our Brother has Down's syndrome' which is good and has cute photos in, and for children 5+ there is 'Be Good to Eddie Lee' which is a story, and also the really good 'Living with Down's Syndrome', which explains all the facts about DS is a very child-friendly way, and even goes into detail about special and mainstream schooling, independent living etc. Sorry I've not done links to these, but they're easy to find on Amazon by searching for the titles. Got a very squirmy and grabby ds on my lap!