Should a teacher talk to the class about Aspergers?

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I have no problem with teachers educating students on various conditions and trying to make everyone a little more sensitive to people who are different, but I wouldn't single one student out.

Can I give you a first person perspective?

I have some really strong feelings about this sort of thing because i was actually cought in the middle of it. When I was in the 8th grade I had severe anorexia. I ended up forced into a residencial treatment center for six weeks.

I went to a catholic school and supposidley kids were spreading rumors. Some thought I was terminally ill and stuff like that. And I mean, yeah it sucks that they would have had to wonder, but really it was none of their business. And I reallly wasn't their friend (all my close friends knew exactly where I was). In the real world people take leave of aabsences all the time...if I wanted them to know I would have said so.

But anyway, coming back from my tangent. The school was unsure of how to handle the situation. They approached my mom who just told them to do whatever they wanted. My science/religion teacher made a lesson plan out of it (totally unrelated to physics by the way). He explained what anorexia/bulimia was...and basically told the entire class that I hads it and I was in the hosptial. What really gets me angry is that he WORKED in a psych ward and with mental illness patients. He should have understanded how delicate the matter was. I was so angry.

I mean I got over it but i was irate. When I got back people did treat me weird. I was basicallyt he class trainwreck. Teachers monitored my eating, I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom alone.... I mean. It was a bad case of anorexia don't get me wrong. But I felt more like I was at a treatment center than a school. It made me feel like I was just a patient and people lost all hope for my recovery.

When I was more independent is when I got better....

I mean this is just my experience and im biast... but that was just... not good

I mean I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I tough 100 people about mental illness. If I did anything to help that stigma...then I'm happy. I mean i'm a totally different person now than then, so they can think what they want (I'm sure noone cares anymore) But in that moment...school sucked. Hard

Thanks for reading

Honestly I don't think most other 7 year olds would have any idea what you're talking about as they don't really have much of a conscious perspective on social situations themselves.

If you asked a 7 year old how to make a friend, they would usually say something like "You go up and say hi can I be your friend?" And what they actually do is they go up and they say "What are you playing?" And then they ask if they can play, or they just skip to the point and say "Can I play?"

It should also be noted that 7 year olds don't have much capacity for patience or understanding in social situations. If, for example, they are playing a team sport and one of their team mates accidentally causes them to lose, they will generally be upset and react to this in a hostile manner even though it was an accident.

What the teacher might say is "X is kind of shy and has some trouble making friends. Who would like to be his special friend and show him around?"

I mean, even though I'm NT I've always always alwways been a little awkward and different. When I used to go to camp these things used to work themselves out. I'd just sort of be a lost puppy until a kid who kind of wanted to have someone to "take care of" came along.

I mean i thik friendships just sort of happen. I've had the same best friend since kindergarten and I distinctly remember going up to her and being like "lets be friends" and now 13 years later we're still friends!

After a lot of forethought and a bit of consternation on the part of my son's teachers, my son decided to disclose his Asperger's to his class this year, using a book in much the same way you describe (we used All Cats Have Asperger's Syndrome.)

Here's where I think the situation was different:

My son, first of all, shows very few outward signs of AS. He was already being bullied, in part because many kids interpreted his poor social skills as bullying. We shared his diagnosis with him as soon as we were fairly certain about it (which took a considerable amount of time.) We told him that his diagnosis belonged to him, and was his to share - but that there might be both consequences and benefits to sharing it. We talked about how some kids might treat him better, and might stand up for him if they understood - but how some kids might bully him even more.

He thought about it very carefully, and then told a few kids. He then decided to disclose to the classroom, which went very well (so well that most kids forgot about it entirely, which is really the ultimate goal if you think about it.)

However, I think there are some important differences between my son's situation and the one here: first, there was an existing bad social situation that was unlikely to get worse. Second, both my son and the other kids (4th graders) had the capacity to understand to some degree that he was dealing with something real.

For kids in this age group, I'd generally agree with Chronos, here - it might be better to start out by recruiting some friends for your child, and explaining his differences in specific situational language (e.g. "my son is shy," "my son has a hard time with loud noises" or whatever applies that you think is most likely to cause a meltdown.) Maybe prepare some materials in case somewhere down the line, kids start asking specific questions.