Telling a child they are autistic

[CallMeMissTweedy]

How the hell do we do it? 5 yr old recently diagnosed with Asperger's. Do we tell him? How? He has started going to an after school club for children on the spectrum, so we probably need to broach it with him soon, as the terminology - 'ASD' etc - is mentioned now and then by parents and other children at the club.

He is very very bright and very sensitive and I have no idea how to phrase it so that it doesn't sound scary and like there is something 'wrong' with him.

Try the National Autistic Society website. They have all sorts of fact sheets and a good booklist.

Its hard isnt it!

Ds is 6 and he already feels 'different', i havent actually used the words autism, but we have been discussing what makes him feel different and how these differences are sometimes strengths. Reading books about being unique etc.

Hopefully the 'label' wont come as such a shock or a feeling of something being wrong when he does know what the difference is called.

DD1 had seen a number of books around the house, and also we have a close friedn who has a child with asd. We explained that her brain worked differently (not wrong, was very clear with her about that) and that why she did A, B , C ect. She took it well and seemed kinda relived that she finally knew why she reacted differently to her school friends.