Taken from that perspective, a child’s behaviors become an opportunity for the parent and teacher to discover what traits are being expressed in the child’s behaviors. When we’ve identified a child’s underlying traits, we are then able to tap into resources for better meeting the needs of those traits, getting creative in our solutions.
Trevor came to realize something jarring the first time he witnessed white people playing fetch with their dogs – his mother had for years been running him like a dog to wear him out.
In the cognitive, critical thinking arena, he came to surpass her wit at about age seven or eight, at which point she would only participate in discussions with him that were carried out on paper – letters back and forth to each other. She found a great work around to his creative sly independent thinking that both honed his skills and gave her time to think through her answers.
