Henry has been asking some tough questions lately. And I like what they reveal about his development.
It's been a year or more since Henry started describing the way characters in his favorite movies were feeling: "Simba is saaad" he would say, moving to get right in front of my face and look me in the eye. I was happy with that development because, for a long time, Henry ran away from any discussion of unpleasant emotions. He ran away, literally and figuratively- in speech therapy they would show him those posters with a series of emotion faces and he would cry and yell and refuse to look at them.
So it was good when Henry became able to label emotions and identify how someone was feeling. But now I realize something was missing. (I have not been trained in RDI, but I think this is the kind of missed link one is getting at with that program- comments are welcome here on this subject. Teach me!)
Over the weekend as he watched some favorite Disney movies, Henry again would comment "Simba is sad." And I would agree (Henry always wants you to repeat back what he has said. If you don't, he continues to repeat it until you do.)
But then Henry said "you want me to tell you why he is sad?" (His pronoun use has become much better, especially in routine situations. But in a situation like this, where he is venturing into new territory, he lapses back into his "backwards" talk.)
He also asked about Aurora (Sleeping Beauty): "you want me to tell you why she is sad?"
Those are tough questions kid. Simba is sad because his father is dead and Simba thinks he is responsible for his father's death. I'd really rather not explain that. Aurora is sad because she just found out that, although she just met a handsome stranger in the woods, she is being forced to marry a prince she's never met. (Sleeping Beauty, by the way, has to be the dumbest and most offensive of the Disney movies.)
So, although he has long been able to identify someone as "sad", he has never understood WHY they are sad. It's pretty hard to find your way through life if you're missing that much background information. What is a good way for me to explain these things to him?
(It's also interesting that he asks questions in such a convoluted way lately. It shows me how much his mind is really working! He will look out the window into the back yard and say "you want me to tell you what I did with the slip-n-slide?" Such a more complicated question than "where is the slip-n-slide?")
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2 comments:
Henry's speech reminds me so much of Conor's! Instead of Conor wanting you to repeat what he said, however, he phrases his questions like this: "That's blue, isn't it?" Then, he will keep saying that over and over (and with more ferver) until you respond, "You're right! It is!" (or something to that effect) I am convinced that it is his way of reaching out and initiating conversation.
I think it is GREAT that Henry is asking questions, even if they are tough to answer. He is striving to understand the emotions. Wow. Some adults don't even care enough to do that. :-)
I also think it's GREAT that Henry is asking "why" questions!!! Bud still doesn't get the "concept" of "why." He seems to interpret it as "how do you know that" instead of "what made that happen." For example, if someone is crying and I say "Why is she sad?" he'll usually say something like "She has tears," instead of "Because she fell down and got hurt." He answers the question from HIS perspective, and not the other child's. And he doesn't ask "why" questions.
I'm no RDI expert either, but I think you're right that the higher stages of RDI address those skills. There are 28 stages in RDI and Bud and I are working on stage 3... and I try to not read ahead very far. :-)
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