School want to explain autism to classmates

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I have been asked if there are any books I can recommend to tell classmates about DS autism. I have searched the internet and can't find many reviews.

Any recommendations or advise on how to cover this with the class. They are 5 years old.

Thanks

I recommend searching within amazon.com then reading the reviews by the customers.

"This is Gabriel Making Sense of School" by Hartley Steiner is a great book. My daughter also enjoyed another one about a girl named Izzy, that I can't remember the exact title of. It may be Why Does Izzy Cover Her Ears.

I like the books by Kathy Hoopmann, but they might be a bit too advanced for kindergarteners.

There is an episode of "Arthur," the PBS Show, that might be a better fit for very small children (it's really about Asperger's and not the whole spectrum, but I think it offers a good overview.) Arthur #1306 "George and the Missing Puzzle Piece"

The Autism Acceptance book is another good one, but again might not be appropriate for 5 year olds. http://www.amazon.com/The-Autism-Accept ... 0975986821

At one of our service providers, I read a kids' book I liked where the protagonist had autism and thought of himself as a superhero. I think it's this one: http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Boy-Amazi ... roduct_top
You can download an e-copy here: http://www.meegenius.com/book/6072/chic ... ith-autism

I always recommend this series of blog posts whenever this questions comes up because I absolutely LOVE the metaphor:

http://momnos.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-being-hair-dryer-kid-in-toaster.html
She was working with an older group of kids but I think the idea is worth it.

There have also been a few threads on here about if, when and how to tell a child's classmates. I searched and couldn't find the one I was really thinking of but this one touches on the subject:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt156560.html

Note that just because a child's teacher thinks it is a good idea to discuss this with the other students, it may not be. You and your kiddo should be comfortable with this before it is discussed with the class.

http://www.starkravingmadmommy.com/2010 ... utism.html

The above is a great blog entry about explaining asperger's to kids.

How severely affected is your son?

I volunteer with a summer program for kids with disabilities. There's a few NT siblings, a whole horde of ADHD/LD/quirky kids, and a couple LFA kids, ranging from 5-10 years old (the majority are 6). We explained LFA as just 'having trouble talking' and 'having trouble learning', and explained some behavioral issues as 'he doesn't like change' and 'he doesn't like noise'. Stimming was 'it feels good for him to do that'. I mostly just explained as the kids asked - the questions were things like 'why does he talk like a baby?' and 'why is he yelling?' and 'why is he always bouncing on that ball?'

Explaining higher functioning autism would be trickier, because the signs are more subtle. In fact, I'd be surprised if 5 year olds would even notice anything different about a high functioning autistic kid. I guess you could explain the odd behavior in the same way, and with the social skills issues, maybe ask the kid if he's noticed that he can tell how someone is feeling from their face, and say that X has trouble learning to tell what people are feeling. And maybe ask if he's noticed when people say things like 'it was raining cats and dogs' they don't mean animals are falling from the sky, and say that statements like that are confusing to X because he thinks you're saying that animals are falling from the sky.

How old is the class? How detailed is this suppossed to be?
I'd simply say load up GreenTurtle's cartoons (there's a sticky on the main /general/ forum page here) and use those? Maybe alter a bit for the age of the kids in the class.