Kids talking to their class about their autism.

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Tomorrow Eldest's school is having a "dress down day" for kids -- they can come in wearing street clothes, no uniforms, if they bring in a dollar. The money raised this way is being donated to Autism Speaks.

(I'm not fond of Autism Speaks, for a variety of reasons, but still. Hearts in the right place.)

Eldest was incredibly excited by this -- "They're raising money for me!" he declared in class, and his teacher had to explain things to him.

(And used the phrase "Kids suffering from autism" in her explanation, at least when she releated the story to me. I should have said something about that, but didn't think to do so at the time...and besides, she seems like a really wonderful woman, and a great match for Eldest.)

Even so, he remains excited about it. We've got this book at home called The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (And Their Parents), and he wants to bring it in and talk to the rest of his third grade class about it. I'm pleased by that, but at the same time I'm a little nervous.... Thus far he's managed to escape teasing at school (although there's been issues with other kids taking advantage of his naivety and eagerness to please) and I don't know how the other kids are going to react to hearing about his autism.

On the other hand, his teacher says that the kids all know that he is who he is, and they've been supportive of him. So it's probably a baseless worry. But is there any advice that I should give him about talking to his class? He's not the most authoritative speaker on the subject, even with personal experience....

how old are these kids?

This could be such a wonderful thing! My daughter would not get up in front of the class to do this but I have given some thought to this. Your son could go over how everyone is different and how some people's differences are more noticable than others (even taking the time to point out differences like hair color, height, allergies, etc). Then he could talk about how Autism changes he way he experiences things, giving some examples such as when things feel too itchy, or loud, or how he has trouble focusing on one thing when several things are going on. And also talk about the great strengths that come from having Autism and the famous people that have Autism or are suspected of having Autism and how it has helped them see things "outside of the box" or in unique ways. What a great experience for your son!

And maybe he could add in there that SOMETIMES he "suffers" from Autism but other times Autism actually HELPS him and give examples of this.

Would love to hear how this goes. My son's therapist wants me to do that at his school but I'm not so sure. I don't want to add stigma to a situation that is pretty good right now.

I'd love to hear how it went too.... Unfortunately, he was fairly uncommunicative about it. He read aloud from the introduction to the book, which was likely a bit painful -- like most precocious readers, and myself at that age, he knows lots of big words but has no idea how to pronounce them.

"How was it?" I ask

"Fine," he replies, blithely.

This happened near the end of the school day, and he wanted to try reading the last bit today...so maybe we'll see. I'll have to talk to his teacher, I suspect, to get the whole story.

My son brought a copy of All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome to his class. He read it aloud to his classmates - his teacher was thrilled, because usually he won't read out loud - and then after each trait described, he'd tell him that it was like him or not like him. It seemed to have a positive effect on the class. I heard a lot fewer complaints that kids were teasing him after he read the book.

I've posted this link several times before but I just LOVE how this mom did it:

http://momnos.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-being-hair-dryer-kid-in-toaster.html