Luke was diagnosed with mild Asperger’s Syndrome in first grade. How “mild” looked for him at the time was that, on the surface, he could function pretty well in most settings. But because of his lack of social skills in the classroom and on the playground, he was in trouble most of the time. Despite school changes and myriad medical, dietary, therapeutic and behavioral interventions, his social learning just couldn’t keep up, and each year he fell further and furtherbehind. Academically, he was flying, but socially and behaviorally, he was floundering.Yes, that sounds very familiar. And:
My general attitude about learning is that kids don’t need the “ideal” environment all the time…some hardship (within reason) makes for a more meaningful learning experience. We learn most from the challenges in our life, and smoothing every bump in the road for our kids only delays that learning.
For Luke, however, the social challenges in school were burying him. Most kids his age could place a scolding from the teacher or a playground argument in context and learn from them. He couldn’t. He simply felt bullied, victimized, and alone.
As they say, read the whole thing.
