disability.... or not?

[sonjam]

The other day I went to my little girl's daycare centre. She is 2.5 and she is taking "playball" classes. They teach the little ones how to balance and handle all kinds of ball related activities. These activities teach them about taking turns, about teamwork, self discipline and lots of other good qualities. Anyway, they were doing a 3 session evaluation of the kids, and the teacher split them up in groups of 5. I was allowed to watch through a nearby window where the kids could not see me.

 

The teacher would show the kids the activity, and then she would ask if anybody wanted to try it first. Being toddlers they all just looked at her, too scared to go first. She would then call on by name to see if they would go first, and my little Alexis with her extroverted personality (trait she got from her dad) goes first.

 

I felt a little indignant after the 3rd or fourth time that they called her to do it first, since it is sometimes a bit difficult, although she always got it right….. Because the other kids had the benefit of watching this activity being done over and over before getting their turn, where she only got to see it once. But she was fine.

 

However, what go to me is a little boy in her group, The teacher told me he's shy, He never made eye contact with anybody, would wonder off all the time, and had to be called back to sit. When called for his turn to do the activity, he would just stand there and no amount of coaxing or pleading would make him take part. The teacher would then loose interest and focus her attention on the next child. One activity was she would roll the ball and the toddler would have to run after it and stop it by placing two hands on it. The teacher rolled the ball, the little boy did not respond, and then she focused on the next child. While they were focused elsewhere, to my amazement I saw the little boy stroll to the ball and do the exercise. Nobody saw. This kept happening with a few exercises.

 

My question: do you guys think he has a disorder of some kind, is he just shy, and will this go away by itself? I felt so sorry for this poor child. Just because he didn't respond as quick as the others, he was really not getting the kind of attention that he needed, instead of loud encouragement, and repetitive insistence, in my opinion he needed quiet loving guidance and gentle encouragement.

 

It was very obvious that he could not focus on the activity at hand, but it was also very obvious that he knew exactly what was going on around him while seeming like he was not paying attention.

[Serendipity1607307077]

It could be possible that he is autistic or something....

 

It could also be that he's too scared of having people watching him doing stuff like that... it can be quite difficult and daunting for young kids to learn new skills... but he might have felt that he wasn't given enough positive attention or something from the teacher...

 

I'm not sure... that's just what my first thoughts are..

[southerngirl]

Poor little guy.

 

 

I dont know that he would have a disability because you did say that he seems to be aware of whats going on. Perhaps he doesnt like the teacher. He definitely doesnt seem to be getting the care and attention he needs. It makes me worry about what lessons this is teaching him if his teacher doesnt take time with him at such a very young age and is so quick to pass him over.

 

Shame of it is, alot of daycare teachers dont have formal training like a 'real' teacher at an elementary school would have. I wonder how much training this particular one has because some can be quite good and well others, not so good.

[BellaDonna]

He definitely is capable of doing the task, since you saw him do it secretly. So his cognitive skills are in tact.

 

His problems seem to be social ones. The most commom disabilities that you see which impair social interation are Autism and Asperger's syndrome. However there could be a lot of "normal kid things" going on too. As others have said, maybe he does not like his teachers, maybe he is very shy and freezes up when people look at him, maybe he does not like to take orders and he's realizing that he has free will- thus he did the exercise on his own, but not upon command from the teacher.

 

In short, he could be a normal kid, he could have a disability, or he could be gifted and become a genious for questioning authority.

 

It would be impossible to know without seeing him in other contexts (at home, with family and friends he is comfortable with, at the playground etc.)

 

BellaDonna

[CarnelianButterfly]

He could be socially deprived. A family friend of mine has taught kindergarten for many years now, she's had some very interesting behavioral problems with some kids. She had one little girl that only knew how to verbalize songs from the radio, she hadn't been socialized enough that she understood talking and communication if it wasn't signing. The teacher started singing to the little girl and she started learning, she slowly developed the ability to talk, but would always revert back to the sing song way if she was stressed.

 

If its something similar to that, the teacher really should have seen that and not just skipped on to the next child. It shounds like they aren't really doing their job taking care of all the kids. Being at day care maybe the only time people interact with him.