My 5 year old son has recently been diagnosed as being on the spectrum but as we have had an idea since he was 3, it came as no surprise.
We've spoke to him about his diagnosis and he has picked up books from the local library so he can learn about autism from a book as well as from us as we learn.
He's a very bright child and at school seems to have a lot of friends, or atleast talks about a few people he calls friends and we've witnessed these children do make an effort and play. Our problem is at home, making friends.
We have lived on the street since he was born but sadly the neighbours are very judgemental and if you don't fit their criteria then they don't like to associate with you and will tell their kids to be nasty and lack any disipline. Everytime my son tries to play, he's met with verbal abuse, ignored or just plain nasty to him but the minute one of these children have no one to play with, they come knocking our door asking for our son.
We've tried to explain that these children are using him but he doesn't understand, he thinks the abuse is just play and he tries so hard to join in and is always pushed or even chased out, the only time any children make any effort with him is when his older brother (14) or his older sister (12) have their friends round and they include our son but he will always try to mix with the kids nearer his age and be treated the same. It's got that bad that he recently tried to join in, being the school holidays and they chased him with a cricket bat and stopped after spotting me at the front door watching them. In the end he came and asked if he could help me work on our project (a car we have rebuilt together) as soon as he started helping, the other kids suddenly want to know him again and he falls for their same tricks.
Any tips on how to explain to a 5 year old that these children (aged 7-10) ate actually being nasty and not playing and that we, as parents, would rather he stayed away even though we are outside watching him at all times. We've tried being straight to the point but he keeps telling us they're all his friends and the only nasty people are the ones that have regular police visits....it is sad to see as it's knowing he has to spend the whole 6 weeks on his own due to having no friends from school living nearby but we are making every effort to take him out so he gets to enjoy things and not be stuck indoors or his back garden watching the other kids.