One of the biggest challenges everyone in this world encounters is learning to recognize and appreciate that we all have different perspectives.
About everything.
All the time!
For our autistic and ADHD kids, this one thing is the cause of SO MANY of their struggles. It is very difficult for a lot of our kids to realize that different people think differently, and beyond that is the ability to understand exactly what/how those different people are thinking!
In this week's episode, I'm sharing stories from the first 2 days of our 4th week of summer camp.
Week four was characterized by understanding how different people think, and some of the conflicts that occurred when the kids struggled with this.
There was lying. There was cheating. There was anxiety that showed itself as not being very friendly. There were kids talking to themselves and kids talking to people without actually talking to anyone.
And there was growth and awareness and understanding, as there always is when we share space and play and learn together!
Here's a clip from the episode:
It reminds me of one time, many years ago, when I was at a marketing event for Starfish Social Club and a parent came up to me and asked about what I do. And she said, “Oh, my daughter doesn't need this. She's really social.” And she pointed her out to me and I noticed her… she's probably about 16,15, talking to some other people her age, and I can tell just by watching that they did not want to be talking to her. And at no point was she recognizing that, she was monopolizing the conversation,… it wasn't actually a conversation, it was just her talking at them.
So I think our kids who are more chatty, sometimes we mistake chattiness for social skills, when actually sometimes these students have poorer social skills than our kids who are more quiet and reserved.