I need help to explain autism to my dx'd son

[Guest guest]

Hi group,

Can anyone suggest a good book or throw some ideas my way to discuss autism with

my 12 year old son. He is HF and in the 7th grade but was recently featured on

Fox 5 news because of some great accomplishments and for the first time, I

believe he is faced with trying to understand his differences. In fact, I don't

think he really understood that he was different at all until the news clip was

on tv and it said he had autism and struggled. He asked me what did

" struggling " mean. While I want him to understand some things may be harder, I

don't want him to internalize that he doesn't have to try because of autism. We

are facing puberty and explanations like this and I am not sure what to say.

Can anyone here throw out some advice or suggest a good book for me to read with

him that would help explain his diagnosis in terms that make sense to him?

Thanks everyone,

Stacey