How do I teach my children to interact with an autism child?

Question

My neighbours son has autism. The only difference between him and my boys is that he has a speech delay and are somewhat agressive. He is 4 and my boys is 6 and 4. I really want my boys to interact with him and play with him, but find it hard to explain to them why he sometimes hurt them. We reached a point were they do not want to play with him and I feel really sad about it. My neighbour is lovely but I can see in her eyes that although she understands it is painfull.

Does anyone has advise?

Answer 1

dont need advice kids wont really care as long as there having fun. dont tell ur children anything

Answer 2

let her understand whats going on

Answer 3

it is hard, but maybe find out from the boy's mom if he finds anything in particular to be annoying....like does he have any sensory problems that may be causing his aggression? If you know that he has sensitive hearing, or tactile defensiveness you can tell your kids that "outside voices hurt his ears, so we need to try not to yell" or " his skin is sensitive, so gentle touches hurt him". if all else fails you can tell your children that when he gets mad or tries to hurt them they need to tell him "that's not nice. I can't play with you when you are not nice"  and to walk away and tell an adult.

Maybe the boy's mom can help explain things to your kids. she may have just the way to explain things so they understand.

Answer 4

why would u want to make ur children paly with a child who hurts them? its up to the childs mother to teach her son not to hurt other kids. and if she cant then that is sad but u shouldnt try and make ur kids play with a child who hurts them. they should come first. not the nieghbor or her son

Answer 5

i have autism and ive seen that so many times it takes a while to grow out of it. he cant help it maybe you can find out why he hurts them so they can do something diffrent and fix the problem.

Answer 6

No offense, but no child wants to hang around with one who has violent outbursts.

There truly is nothing that can be done and you shouldn't honestly expect them to do this. Why must your children suffer and be traumatized because the autistic child doesn't understand what they are doing?

And you can explain until you are blue that he doesn't really mean it and can't help it, but it doesn;t matter.

a punch still hurts

Answer 7

autistic children tend to hurt people because they are feeling something and don't know how to express themselves. when this starts to happen tell your children that they need to tell this boy to "stop, that hurts, i don't like that" and if he knows sign language teach your children to do the sign for "stop". then once he's stop have them ask "why did you do that, do you want something?" at the age of 4 they are still at a toddlers development and it is hard to understand that they are hurting someone. they either are feeling something or want to say something and can't figure out how to say it or they just don't realize that they are hurting someone. it takes a lot of patients and time but he will stop being so hurtful. just be sure to be gentle and talk calmly to him. you need to be right there watching while they are playing so you can intervene if he gets out of hand.

I think its great you want them to play and be together and teach them about how different people can be at such a young age.

Answer 8

just tell them to be themselves

Answer 9

Bop each other with foam noodles, kick balls, & play games that are positive outlets for aggressive behavior.

Answer 10

yes, i have advice.you teach them the same things you would if your neighbours kid was black,asian, mexican, first nations, or any other skin colour than yours. the same as you would teach them to play with a blind, deaf, or mute child, or an amputee or parapalegic. if they are not raised in a bigotted, closedminded household than you have no worries. kids learn by example, and at that age, a child with autism should be not much different than so called "normal" kids. just tell them he is very sensitive and does not share very well, so they may sometimes have to give up a toy, but he will soon tire of it so it is only for a few minutes. i'm sure every family has a differently abled member, so just explain that he was born different, and is special in his own way. good luck.

Answer 11

If the kid is hurting your kids, but they still like playing together, then have them treat him like any other kid.  If he hits them, let them hit him back.  If the kid doesn't learn from that, nothing will teach him, autism or not.