We had THE talk last night

birdie_1010

A good friend of mine works for our state Autism Society. My friend taped my son, and other children, saying little blurbs for a marketing piece to solicit donations to the Autism Society. B's clip made the cut and she sent me the final video today.

Well, I showed Brock the video on the way home from social skills group last night. He watched it 3 times and then said, "Well that's weird... What is autism?" I explained that autism is something that some people have that makes their brain work a little different. We talked about what that could mean... some people with autism need more help learning to talk, some people with autism get a lot of energy when unexpected things happen, some people with autism are very gifted at math, or music, or reading, etc.

He asked if he had autism. I told him there are different types of autism and he had a type of autism called Asperger's. I explained that people with Asperger's learn how to talk at the same age as babies that don't have autism, but they still need to work harder to learn other things. He noted that maybe his math brain, as he calls it, is because he has Asperger's and that he probably has all his energy because of Asperger's. He asked if autism was bad. I of course told him no, it just meant he learned in a different way.

When we got home it was time to eat. B said he wasn't hungry and asked if he could go to his room. Normally we wouldn't let him do that, but we figured he was trying to process. He spent the night playing iPad and reading his book in his room. I finally got him to eat and told him when he was ready I could answer any questions he had.

I have been preparing for this day for 2 years. Last night I was pretty emotional, but today I am feeling good. We have been talking about differences for a long time, so that was not foreign to him. I just think it could not have gone any better. He was in the car, where we always have our best discussions and there weren't any distractions.  He brought it up, so he was more engaged. I am just really please with how it went. I hope he feels positive about it and not like this means there is something wrong with him.

I ordered a book a few weeks ago ( https://www.amazon.com/Aspergers-What-Does-Mean-Me/dp/1885477597 ), on  aunties suggestion that I am really excited to share with him.  Does anyone have any other suggestions for other media that is appropriate for talking to kids about autism? Typically B will process for a few days and then the questions will come rapid fire, so I want to be prepared.

ABColeslaw

I'm glad it went well.  I am worried about when it will come up for us and I've been trying to figure out how I'll explain it to him.  Maybe I'll get that book.