I work at home, and so was in the schoolyard every day for 7 years. The things the other kids - and their parents! - said to me about DS.... whew. Not bad things - we have an exceptionally kind and tolerant neighbourhood of kids. But the kids ALWAYS know who's different. They are very, very aware. They talk to each other, they talk to their parents, and they talk to me. Your child knows they're different, too.
What they may not know is why. And they are likely to come up with a lot of reasons why they just don't seem to be able to fit it and be like everyone else, and most of them probably won't be good.
So while I never wanted to use the G word with my children, our psych used it very matter-of-factly with them, and now, so do I. I talk to them very honestly and straightforwardly about both their E's, so they can understand and accept what makes them different is not good or bad, it's simply how their brains work. Some things are easier for them and others are harder, and we test because we want to understand how they learn and support that as well as we can.
