Any good AS Childrens Books?

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A friend of mine has a son who has been diagnosed with AS. He is having some trouble understanding certain things about himself. I have 2 questions.

Her son is 8 years old. Are there any books out there for children of that age that explain Asperger's? ( I thought this was answered before, but I can't find the post)

And: Would you recommend telling him at that age? If so/not...why?

I know I'm going to have to have this conversation with my son at some point (he's 7), but for the moment I'm not telling him anything. He is who he is, and he has his strengths and his challenges, and I don't want him to feel he is different, and right now he doesn't think he is. I want to keep that sentiment as long as I can, forever if possible.

All Cats Have Aspergers is pretty good book. Simple to understand and I thought did a great job of conveying complex stuff like the sensory issues in a very easy to understand way.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE ... Button1=Go

The NAS has a large list of books, maybe this link will help:

http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=425

for example:

What is Asperger syndrome and how will it affect me?

Aimed at 8-13 year olds, this excellent booklet explains Asperger syndrome in simple jargon-free language for children with Asperger syndrome. It also offers helpful contacts and strategies for making life more comfortable.

I'm sure if you google the titles on the list you could possibly find them elsewhere also.

As for the second question, well, I've never been a parent. But I think I would have wanted to know all about myself and why I was different as soon as I was able to understand so. A book would obviously be the way to go- no use just saying 'you have aspergers' and leaving them to be confused- but of course you already know that.

When my son was 9 y.o., he read and loved Kenneth Hall's Asperger's, The Universe and Everything.

I am currently working through the book "Asperger's...what does it mean to me?", by Catherine Faherty, with my 8 yr old AS son. It is a workbook that explains stuff, but gets kids to circle things that are appropriate to them.

I would recommend explaining to your child around this age. I came at it from a "your doctor thinks your brain works a bit differently" and then talked about strengths and weaknesses. A couple of months later I mentioned it was called Asperger's Syndrome. I tend to talk in terms of how his brain works, rather than using a "label", as I think it is more important that they understand what is going on, as opposed to what it is called. Ditto with school - the kids at school don't know his "label" - they just get fed information from time to time about his brain working differently, along with things like the fact that he is allergic to noise.

I have read "All Cats have Aspergers" and it didn't do that much for me (I am not a fan of cats, so maybe that influenced me). Personally, I probably wouldn't use it with my son, as he is very dogmatic about whether things are true or not, and it would actually be a fallacy at his age to teach him that all cats have Aspergers, because that is actually a lie. Maybe when he is a little older and has had more exposure to metaphorical language, it could be a help.

In my opinion if the child is eight then he can understand more adult oriented books so I'd buy everything on the shelves and then see what he decides to read. One of the worse things you can do (in my opinion) is to try and control what your child sees, reads and experiences. Most kids with AS are lightyears ahead of their chronilogical age.

My son was 10 when he was diagnosed & that is when we told him. We did lots of internet searching together & explained what we were learning. Then we let him ask questions & we found the answers. I told my son that what we learned didn't change how we were doing things to make his life easier for him to handle, it just gave him a name & showed him he wasn't alone in the way he feels.

I was in a bookshop today and bought the most wonderful, wonderful book. It is an Usborne Flap Book, called "See Inside Your Head" by Alex Frith and Colin King. It is not specifically about autism and AS (it is mentioned), but it is about how normal brains work and then discusses "when brains go wrong". The layout is perfect - highly visual and cartoon-like, with 80 lift-up flaps with information. My 8 yr old AS son is right into this sort of thing, as he craves information.

The Contents are:
1. Your mighty brain (introduction)
2. Control room (covers decision-making, senses wing, short/long term memory, social, sleep etc.)
3. Making sense of the world (senses)
4. Making non-sense of the world (when our senses give us surprises that our brain is not expecting)
5. Who am I? (uniquness of your brain, exercising your brain to keep or improve connections)
6. See inside someone else's head (reading peoples faces and minds, importance of social connections with people)
7. When brains go wrong (covers brain damage, strokes, chemical imbalance, electrical signals going into overdrive)
8. Seeing inside (focus on brain scientists examining people; one picture is of someone doing a computer experiment with a child who has autism)

Yes, well, sorry if I've bored you with all the details, but it is probably the best book I've bought for my AS son . . . and it only cost me $23NZ which is about a third of what I pay for most AS books. It is definitely worth an investigation, particularly if your child is wired for information.

How To Massage Your Cat by Alice Brock (Alice's Restaurant person). Good for ages 5 to around 120. Especially good for those who actually have a cat, especially adults.

My concern about telling my son at age 7 is that his conversational skills are just now emerging, and I don't know what he will understand or how he will understand it. He is extremely smart, and is doing well in (private, small, special needs) school, but he has such a difficulty with language that it gets in the way. I am really conflicted about when to tell him. I don't want him to feel that there is something wrong with him when there isn't, and then have him internalize something negative because he can't talk about it.

thank you for your feedback. I will check out the books. Maybe one is visual enough that we can work through it....when I'm ready

I received the See Inside Your Head book today, I really like how they describe Autism as a different way of thinking, instead of as something that's only problematic.