Autism/My 10 year old son

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Expert: - 12/6/2008


Question
My 10 year old son was diagnosed PDD-NOS when he was 2 years old.  Now that he is getting older he does notice that he is different, especially socially and areas of interest (weather, car gas mileage, liscense plate numbers).

How can I tell him about PDD without hurting his feelings or thinking there is something wrong with him.  He is a loveable, compassionate, and very intelligent boy (IQ 147).  However, he know that he has to work harder at everything he does especially reading comprehension and expressive language.

Any input you have would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Carol,

It's difficult to answer this question, as everybody is different, but I certainly would have appreciated if somebody had explained to me why I was different. It's probably a little bit early for this but I guess it's important that he doesn't grow up thinking it's his "fault" he's not having as many friends as his peers and knows why he is the way he is. I think you should tell him if you think he's ready for grasping the concept of autism (including that this does neither mean he's mentally ill or stupid or something, just "wired differently").

I think there are a couple of children's books available through amazon.com which are either little stories that feature an autistic character, or are books explaining autism to children. Maybe you could get one or two of these, and let him read them, after you talk to him about autism.

You should probably also ask a professional on how to introduce best a child to his diagnosis.

Hope that helps,
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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