What is a sensitive way to describe your child with ASD to another young child?

[GCNC]

Just that really. My little one has started school. There’s a wee one in the class with autism. He is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to school. It means my wee one is coming home a lot and talking about how he is behaving. (Behaving is obviously not quite the right word but they are all very small and don’t get it). I’ve tried a few times to explain that he might just find things a little bit more challenging, and that he might look at things differently to the rest of the class and find that sad or frustrating. I don’t think it’s making it any clearer at all though. Still getting the stories about how he’s the naughtiest boy in class and he cried even though he’s big etc etc. She is generally a reasonably sensible kid who wouldn’t name call out of badness.

Is there an age appropriate resource which shows kids who aren’t neurotypical and explains a little? Or is there a more sensible explanation I can give to a little kid than the muddled version I’m attempting? I hate the idea of them all thinking he’s ‘naughty’ and feel like it can only be a good thing to try and foster a bit of sensitivity from the get go.

'A friend like Simon' might be a good way to start a discussion. DS is autistic and we used this book with his little cousin when she began to ask questions/make comments about his behaviour. It's not perfect but is a good way of starting the conversation. There are others but not overly suitable for this age group. It's totally normal that she would ask questions/make comments and it's reassuring as a parent's of an autistic child that you are putting in the effort to educate her early on.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwRrVw-CRo

That’s a good resource. More generally - tell her that people are all different, that we all have things we find easy and things we find hard. It doesn’t make us more or less valuable.