Explaining autism evaluation to 5yo

[dantesmama]

My 5yo DS has an evaluation at the autism center on Wednesday. I'm wondering how to discuss this with him; how much should I tell him, and how? I'm not sure if I should call it a doctor's appointment, or what. I'd like for him to have some vague idea of what's going to happen. Just wondering how others have handled it. Thanks!

[beanma]

I don't have an autistic DC, but I did have one of my dd's go through an eval for some educational issues. I told her, at the psych's suggestion, that she was going to meet with someone to figure out what way she learned best. You might frame it something like that.

hth

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by beanma 

I don't have an autistic DC, but I did have one of my dd's go through an eval for some educational issues. I told her, at the psych's suggestion, that she was going to meet with someone to figure out what way she learned best. You might frame it something like that.

hth

That is what I do/did with ds' evaluation for behavioral problems. We told him something like--the Dr. needs to know how his brain works but since she cannot see ds brain, she has to ask him questions to understand how his brain works. Once she knows how his brain works we will know how to help him with "the crazies" (being hyper--ds' words) so it will be easier for him to behave at school.

[RiverTam]

We told DS that he was getting a brain check up. We explained that Dr. J does his body check-up to make sure his body is working okay and Dr. A would do a brain check-up to make sure his brain was okay. We then explained that she would ask him questions and work some puzzles with him.

When we started speech, we explained that Dr. A thought he should work on his talking.  He is a very good reader, so we explained that some kids in his class need to work on reading, but are very good talkers. We told him that he is a very good reader, but he needs to work on talking more. 

[NataliaI]

Lean Bean said:  we're going to meet someone who will help you to know how you learn best.  She (he) will probably play some games with you and ask you some questions.

The eval rooms are set up to be fun and inviting.  Kids usually enjoy the interaction and environment.

[dantesmama]

Thank you for the replies! They were very helpful. I told DS the doctors were going to ask him some questions to see how his brain works, which made sense to him.