I hope you dont mind me posting here but I think you'll be the best people to advise me.

[Nbg]

My dh works at a respite unit for children with special needs.
The children can have anything from Autism, CP, DS and lots of other conditions.

Now my dd who is 4 and a half has been asking about the children he works with and asks why they are the way they are.
She sometimes goes into work with dh, so she sees the children.
A couple of occasions she has been pushed about a bit by some of the children with Autism and she finds it hard to understand when I tell her they hvent done it because they are naughty, its just their way of communicating and playing.

Obviously her understanding will be limited at this age but I dont know how to explain this to her.
I dont want to say they are poorly as it doesnt seem right.

Could you give me some advice on what I could say?
Have yo had to explain your child's condition to other siblings, if so how did you word it to them?

Again, I really hope you dont mind me posting here but I thought you would be the best people to ask.

I just tell ds2 and ds3 that ds1 is autistic so he doesn't understand. They've grown up with that explanation and ds3 has taken it upon himself to police other's reactions to ds1 since he was about 2. So if he thinks they are being too hard on his he'll shout at them 'don't tell him off he doesn't understand, he's autistic'. etc etc.

Hi Christie. Not as big as your ds!

(We're about to start working on typing with him, will let you know how it goes......)

This is really helpful, thank you

DD is one of those children who says why alot, so you end up having deep conversations with her sometimes but being left stumpted as to what to tell her.

You could try explaining that children with an ASD don't see or hear people very well, and they sometimes find lights and sound and people rushing about very scary. They also aren't always very good at working out how strong they are, or where they are, or balancing properly. That's why they sometimes play games that are too rough, or don't play games properly. They do want to have friends, though, it's just they don't know how to do it properly yet.