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Thread: he's too young to type

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    Default he's too young to type...

    but I swear my five year old acts more like an ENTp than I do!

    There was an open house today at school. My son is in Kindergarten. When we got there (late) I took a seat in the back of the classroom and Travis joined his class for story time. He squirmed and walked off and spoke out of turn a couple times, nothing too bad.

    Then he asked to go to the bathroom. One of the other students said, “How come you always have to go to the bathroom?” The teacher allowed him to go, and when he didn’t come back for a while I went to find him. Another teacher was walking him back. When he saw me he yelled “Mommy!” and ran over to me. The teacher asked him to go back to the stairs and walk over to me. He went back to the stairs… down the stairs… to the water fountain for a drink… then back to us. He almost forgot not to run again… The teacher told me that she heard yelling from the boys room so she went in there to find Travis climbing on the stalls and shouting.

    We went back to the classroom for story time and he asked me to sit on the rug with the students. Seemed like a good idea to me, so we took a seat. One of the little girls said, “Are you Travis’s mom? Did you know he’s really bad?” I told her that he was learning to cooperate.

    After story time the teacher showed them the letter of the day, J. She had the students pass out little dry erase boards, markers, and erasers. They were to practice the letter J. Travis has been writing Js for a couple of years now… He drew a few odd shapes and then raised the board to show me. He said, “It’s a box J.” The shapes were laid out in the shape of a J. Then he decided to draw lines to help him with his Js. He drew a very thick line, scribbling over it many times. Then he started to draw the dotted line… he got about halfway through the board and started dotting down instead of across… then back up horizontally again. Then he drew the bottom line, which too low and not quite straight. He then decided to scribble over the top line some more.

    At this point the little girl next to us looked at Travis’s board. On her board were a few perfect Js, better than I could write. She said, “You can’t make the lines like that!!!” It was all I could do not to laugh. Her mother was right there and told her to stop…

    Then the teacher came over and asked to see Travis’s Js. He made a few attempts which did not turn out to look anything like a J (remember, he’s been writing Js for years… one time he even surprised me by writing my name, which I didn’t teach him). She helped him with one and then watched him write a couple of Js. As Travis was finishing up he noticed that there was a small mark on the floor from his marker. He used the dry erase board eraser to get rid of the mark. He then drew on his hand and tried to use the dry erase board eraser to get the marks off his hand. That didn’t work as well so he got up and went to wash his hands.

    At this point the students went to their tables to work on their worksheets. Travis told me to sit by them, so I grabbed a chair that was off to the side. Travis said, “No mom! You can’t take that chair, that’s one of the kid’s chairs!” Not understanding what he meant, I continued over with the chair. He said, “No mom! Where is that boy going to sit if you take his chair? You have to get a different one. Put that one back where it belongs.” He showed me where the chair was supposed to go. Sure enough, there was a little boy standing there…

    I pulled up a chair as the kids opened their workbooks. A little girl at Travis’s table told me that he’s bad… As Travis opened his workbook I saw pages from previous days. They were all pretty much the same. There was a line for the student’s name and the date, two rows of the alphabet in upper and lower case where they circle the letter of the day, an area to practice writing the letter, and then an object like a barn or a truck with letters inside where they circle only the letter of the day. The opposite page had a couple of random objects to color.

    In Travis’s book there were many sloppy letters and colored objects. He had changed a few of them to be different objects and drawn himself, his dad, or me in some of them. He even explained a few of them to me! In the part where he was supposed to circle only the letter of the day…in some of them he had gotten a little carried away and circled most of the letters (not because he didn’t know which ones were or were not the letter of the day), in some of them he drew lines between the circles connecting them, and in some of them he’d drawn circles between the letters! Something started to click in my mind…

    I was talking a bit with the kids at the table. A boy told me that Travis is very bad and gets time outs all the time. I told him that Travis is learning to cooperate. He didn’t let it go though, and Travis said, “Stop telling her that!” The little boy said, “But it’s true!”

    I said, “If you did something wrong and you were sorry about it and someone kept talking about it, how would you feel?” He stopped… Then he was trying to tell a story and mentioned that they’d been in school for a month. He stopped and changed it to one hundred days, then a week… he was still thinking about it when I pointed to the date on the board.

    I said, “Today is 9-16, right?” He agreed. I continued, “You started school on 9-1. That means that 9-1 was one day. How many days have you been in school?”

    Travis blurted out “Sixteen!” instantly. I ignored him to give the boy a change to think about it. He was making wrong guesses, and Travis said, “Mom, it’s sixteen!” I told Travis to let his friend think about it.

    I said, “Well, 9-1 was one day, 9-2 was two days…” and continued counting up. The boy guessed 20 days…

    When Travis wrote his name he made the S kinda goofy. He said, “This is how I make my Ss”. I asked him how people would know it was an S, and he said, “They can just ask me what it is and I’ll tell them.”

    I said, “But honey, the whole reason that we write is so people can tell things to each other without talking.” He thought about it for a moment and said “Okay“.

    Travis continued coloring when the teacher announced that those who were finished could play. Travis finished very quickly and went to play with the lego. The teacher mentioned that he always plays with the legos. I told her he does that at home and day care, too. At this point one of the children told me that Travis builds awesome things with legos. A couple of kids watched him build for a bit. Travis does indeed build complex and creative things with legos!

    Aside from a little bit of whining when I left, that was about it.

    I had noooooo idea that my son was so much like me!!! As I watched him today one thing became immediately clear. He has absolutely no inclination to do anything just because that’s what others do or that’s what he’s “supposed” to do. He is full of ideas and wants to try his way of doing things. He’s quite good at figuring things out, too.

    When he was one year old my parents bought those door knob covers for their house. You have to have hands big enough to press both rubber tabs in at once and grasp the door knob in about to turn it. They had been up for maybe half an hour when I found Travis playing in my parent’s room.

    I asked Travis how he got in. He wasn’t even old enough to talk yet, but he led me to the pick that I used to unlock the type of door where there’s a hole in the knob that you use to push the part to unlock the door. He demonstrated how he shoved it into the hole at an angle so that when he cranked down on it the door knob’s mechanism would trip and he could open the door without having to turn the knob…

    Okay, I wrote all that so I could ask for suggestions on how to help him do well in school. Right now he’s an ADD poster child. He can focus when he’s very interested in something, but otherwise he’s quite unruly. His teacher is very good with him, but she has to spend most of her time dealing with him. We have this system where he helps her fill out a sheet on how he did throughout the day. He gets points and his points earn him prizes. We’re still setting up the reward system, but just having the sheet seems to have helped a great deal already. I’m going to tie it in the a chart system at home which he will use to earn points. He will be able to watch TV, play on the computer, hang out with his friends, etc. as rewards. There will also be a weekly goal which can earn him a small toy or something like that.

    I think this system will work wonders, but I still think he’s going to have a VERY rough time throughout school, and certainly not all teachers will be as good about working with him and keeping in close communication with me. And even with things improving, Travis is still not going to be an easy kid.

    I have some ideas on how to explain things to him and handle him so that he’ll succeed, but I’d like more! One thing that will help is appealing to his sense of logic. He is more likely to go along with something if it makes sense to him than if it’s “just how it’s done“. Also, I think encouraging his ideas and creativity but helping him channel them will help him a lot short term and long term. Another thing is choosing our battles… so he’s probably the only kid who’s already colored all over his pencil box. So what? But we he says he’s going to the bathroom and then wanders off… that’s an important behavior to deter!

    I also think that presenting everything to him as a choice will help. Instead of saying, “You can’t do that!” perhaps try, “What do you think will happen if you choose to do that?” In fact, before any of this came about I started asking him, “What’s my job as your mommy?” He knows the answer. He says, “To teach me how to make good decisions.” That’s how I remind him to stop and think when he’s about to get into trouble…

    I really want him to develop his strengths and learn some control over his weaknesses. Ideas? Comments?
    SEE

    Check out my Socionics group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546362349012193/

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    What leads you to believe he's an introvert? This is the most active child I have ever seen!
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    I just started reading this book called The Edison Trait. It's sooo good!
    SEE

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    Travis: "I want to bring this so I can wear it to the birthday party" *Holds up bag with last year's Spiderman Halloween costume in it*
    Joy: "Honey, it's not a costume party. The kids will all be wearing regular clothes."
    Travis: "So?"
    SEE

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    Today's homework was to draw a scene from Finding Nemo. Travis was working on it when I walked out of the room. He called me back after a few minutes saying he was done. I took a look...

    Me: "Travis, what's that in the shark's stomach?"

    Travis: "Dory, Nemo, Marlin, and two divers."

    Me: "But... nobody got eaten in Finding Nemo..."

    Travis: "No, but they almost did, so that's what I drew."


    SEE

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    Quote Originally Posted by Joy


    except we go up to 12. I would say "1+1" and he'd say 2, then I'd say "1+2" and he'd say 3, and so on

    I think he's an ENTp.... I'll post something.... (he really is too young to type though)

    and the other day he came up to me and showed me the word "vehicle" in his lego magazine and told me what it was. I was like "wow, travis! you read 'vehicle'!"

    he said "no I didn't really, I just sounded it out"

    and I said "that's what reading is honey" and then he was proud of himself

    yet he won't do his worksheets at school I understand though... we're working with him on his school issues though
    SEE

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    SEE

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    Creepy-

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    kids..........

  9. #9
    Creepy-aurora_faerie

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    BABY!!!!!!!!!!


    i will baby sit

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    you'll love him (:
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    (: thanks

    his dad is still very involved in his life
    SEE

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  12. #12
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    babies like me, but it makes me uncofortable. Everyone else thinks it is cute though.

    Even though I know the answer to it really, I will ask you all. Why are they (babies, and the people who find them cute ,and especially those people who find it cute when babies like someone who is uncomfortable around babies), like that?

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    It's an instinct built into human brains to ensure the survival of the species.
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    I love that quote!

    I don't know how I could deal with Travis's school problems if not through all of the stuff we're doing right now. I don't want to school to kick him out or put him in special needs classes.
    SEE

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    We had ANOTHER meeting today at Travis's school with his teacher, principal, 2 school psychologists and the school social worker.

    His teacher was telling us about all of the disruptive things he does... and then she got this puzzled look on her face and said, "You know, what's weird is that he's learning the material quite well..."

    And I said, "Oh there's no doubt in my mind that he is. He's absorbing the information just fine..."

    And she said, "So even while he's crawling around under the desks and poking at the other students and talking and pulling toys off the shelves and all of that, he's still listening and following what's going on?"

    And I said, "Yes, that's exactly what's happening...."

    silly convergent thinkers!

    Favorite Travis quotes:

    when I told him to clean up a mess that he insisted he did not make: "You always want me to clean up all of your messes for you. What do you think I am, one of your lawyers or something?!"

    he yelled when we were at the store waiting for my script to be filled: "Mom, can we just go get your birth control badges and go home now?"

    on a related subject: "Do you still wear those birth control patches that let the doctors know that you don't want to have a baby?"

    I'll add more as I think of them or he says them.
    SEE

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diana
    I literally fell off my chair laughing when I read that!
    lol He says really funny things all the time, then when I laugh he thinks I'm laughing at him. He's getting better about that though.
    SEE

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  17. #17
    Creepy-aurora_faerie

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    Quote Originally Posted by Joy
    Quote Originally Posted by Diana
    I literally fell off my chair laughing when I read that!
    lol He says really funny things all the time, then when I laugh he thinks I'm laughing at him. He's getting better about that though.
    yeah you have to be careful about that because i still remember lots of times when adults would laugh at me when i was a kid and i felt HORRIBLE about it for a really really long time

    for example, i once asked my grandmom if she was older than my dad. they whole table started cracking up and i felt extremely stupid. but obviously they were just laughing because its a funny kid thing to say

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    Quote Originally Posted by UDP
    babies like me, but it makes me uncofortable. Everyone else thinks it is cute though.

    Even though I know the answer to it really, I will ask you all. Why are they (babies, and the people who find them cute ,and especially those people who find it cute when babies like someone who is uncomfortable around babies), like that?
    Because your discomfort looks a bit like fear (note: "looks like", not "is"), and sometimes people think it's funny and cute to see a grown-up man looking as if a tiny wee creature like that could possibly harm him. Me, I don't do that to anyone, ever. I'd feel like one of those dog owners who go "hahaha, he just wants to play!"

    What's also funny is that babies and toddlers can just walk up to you and decide that you're their friend, and there's nothing you can do against that.

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    Today Travis's day care teacher said he was VERY disruptive during story time, but got a chocolate treat anyways because he answered every single question she asked about the story. LOL
    SEE

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  20. #20

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    I don't know much about ADD, but I have heard it is one of the most misdiagnosed disorders. It seems to me that half the ENTps I meet are "ADD". Maybe it's just a huge coincidence. Think about it.
    INTj
    "... the present is too much for the senses, too crowding, too confusing, too present to imagine" - RF

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