Videos for HFA

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Anyone know a good short (10 minutes or less) video that is available online to explain HFA to an 8 year old? DS has (finally!) been diagnosed by his school district, and now we're ready to tell him the story of himself. I've found a lot of video clips about autism, but they all contain a lot of symptoms that don't apply to Asperger-y kids. If I show him one of those, I think he'll be confused and/or reject the idea that ANY of it applies to him.

The only thing I can think of (It is not a video) is the Arthur episode, "When George meets Carl," and it is technically about aspies, but it works as well for HFA. You can tell your son it is what they once called a type of HFA.

It is not going to necessarily all fit, either. It is probably what I will use once I notice some notion that my son understands he is different. I am not making headway on that, and i am moving cautiously on that front b/c of self-esteem and other possible issues.

I can't think of anything other than that other than characters in various things who have "traits." My son loved the character, Don, in Dinosaur Train and he definitely had some traits. He liked to be on his own, sometimes, when the other members in the family would go on adventures. He had unusual interests, had a collection of stuff he liked, that kind of thing.

DS is very aware that he's different. He has been in tears several times saying that the other kids think he's weird and that no one wants to be his friend. I actually think he'll be somewhat relieved that there's an explanation for his difficulties and he's not just a lone weirdo.



DS really likes Sheldon Cooper. He has even asked me to buy him some of Sheldon's shirts so he can dress like him. I know Big Bang Theory isn't a very age-appropriate show, but I let him watch it BECAUSE of Sheldon. Maybe I can use that. I will try the Arthur episode too, but I don't know if our internet connection is good enough to watch something that long.
Thanks!

You might want to preview the Arthur episode before watching it -- my DS8 didn't relate to that character at all, the child was too stereotypically aspie and very little like my son. DS definitely relates to Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, even announced to us one day, "I think Sheldon has Aspergers!" (He also went through a stage identifying other kids in his social kids class as having Aspergers, but not himself.)

Sorry if I already mentione this to you in another thread, but I really like the Dude I'm an Aspie cartoon. It's not a video, but I just remembered the author also did a video cartoon with Aspie characters -- Flummox and Friends, which I haven't watched yet but am now going to!
http://www.dudeimanaspie.com/2012/04/dude-im-aspie-kids-edition.html
http://flummoxandfriends.com/

I almost mentioned Sheldon, but then I thought you might not think it age appropriate. LOL My son likes Sheldon too, though he does not watch the actual program, he will watch him talk about his favorite number, 73 etc.

There's actually plenty of youtube resources aimed specifically at kids with Aspergers (much more than autism). Just search Aspergers.

Much of the resources on the web relating to HFA were aimed at parents of kids who were diagnosed with autism but were considered high functioning...

My son loves Don too! And I always thought it was just me who thought he had some traits! LOL. My son loves to dig in the sand like Don and when he digs big holes he will sit in them and say he is just like Don. Too funny.

I always wondered if Don was depicted autistic-ish on purpose, or if he is just intended to be the "goofy one." It is subtle enough that if it was intentional, they did a very good job of making it ambiguous and low key. This show was so great for us when my son was in his dino phase.