How to approach talking to my child about his ASD

Over the past few weeks our 6yo has started to become a bit more self-aware about himself, calling himself "Dumb" and a "Loser". We feel this has clearly come from the playground as we don't use that sort of language at home and highly unlikely.

We will talk to the school about this but it's clear that playgrounds can be pretty unfair places at the best of times, so it's clearly limited on what they can do. 

My partner and I have decided that the best way to approach this is to try and explain to them how they are different and how other children won't understand that yet so they can be mean, has anyone had to deal with this before and how did they approach the subject?

  • Not sure if this is helpful. My son enjoyed a book called 'It's Ok to be different' by Todd Parr. What I like about it is the fun suggestions as well as the serious things. I can't remember exact examples, but things like It's ok to have green hair. This might also be a good book for school to use to start a general discussion.

  • Yes, we've had the diagnosis already. 

    Thanks for the book recommendation 


  • Do you have an ASD diagnosis already? Without this you will have limited access to support I think.

    The school should have therapists available to them who can talk to your son and answer his questions. These should be professionals trained to do it better than you can so I would let them do the initial conversations.

    You can educate yourself about it using a number of books, including:

    Asperger's Answer Book - The Top 275 Questions Parents Ask - Susan Ashley PhD (2006)
    ISBN 1402219776

    There are probably more current books out there and I'm sure there are resources on this site that can help too - have a browse through the Advice and Guidance link at the top of the screen.

    Good luck.