Camp Day 4 was uneventful, which if you are the parent of an intense kiddo is success at its best.
The Critter told his therapist a while back that he wants to be average. He doesn't want to know SO much more than his peers or know or be able to do things less or differently than his peers. He wants desperately to feel average at school, which on its face sounds terrible for a kiddo with an IQ way above norm, right? At first, that news made me very sad, and I may or may not be shedding a tear about it still even now. However, isn't that what we want for him, too? For a kiddo who waaaaay too frequently feels like everyone around him is stupid AND feels that he himself is useless simultaneously, maybe average instead of those two extremes that tear him apart is a good goal.
Maybe figuring out how to wear his "I AM just like you" costume instead of feeling like an alien is a good thing at his age. I'd like to think that he would feel safe sharing exactly who he is with everyone and telling those that don't like it to fuck off, BUT then I remember that friendships formed in middle school don't last more than a year usually anyway, so figuring out how to function in the world that IS might be a good tradeoff to trying to find his tribe at this age.
Many kiddos learn how to navigate the back and forth of social norms early - think of 2-3 yr olds in a sandbox. They share, they build a structure together that they have figured out what to build almost seamlessly with minimal language. This is shared imagination play. For a kiddo who is talking about paleontology and various theories on evolution at 3 peppered with Roman Aqueduct architecture, there is no opportunity for shared imagination with peers. That seamless social melding with others almost never occurred outside the home for The Critter.
A place to be and feel average like everyone else is a pretty good thing and can help The Critter gain confidence in himself and feel emotionally safe around peers - finally. While I'm not hoping that he will magically turn in to a typical middle schooler who tells me NOTHING and is constantly texting, having him feel what it is like in the "fun zone" as he likes to call average, is definitely a welcome change and something he can carry with him.
What's that stupid, sappy song from some stupid, sappy musical??/ "Somewhere there's a place for us"...
ARGH! I looked it up! West Side Story Natalie Wood Death Robert Wagner NCIS Hart to Hart......make the brain stop!!!
Sorry, it runs away sometimes and yes, The Critter comes by his intensity honestly.
Anyway, a place where 2E kiddos can realize that they are "average" somewhere is definitely a good thing and Landmark College ELO-STEM seems to afford that opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment