Jada is Aware

Compassion is not one of Jada's strong suits.  Communicative delays and low ability to pick up on social cues is not likely to be a crippling issue for her, but nor is it an area she thrives in.  So Amy and I celebrate a couple of indications of a growing self-awareness.  Remarkably, both were found in a single school essay.

The essay, and its first paragraph, was about Theodore Roosevelt, who among many accomplishments won a Nobel Peace Prize for brokering peace between Japan and Russia.  Here's what Jada wrote in her second paragraph:

"This is one that I saw another person doing that was peacful.  The thing that my mom does to make peace in general is that when she goes to work, she helps people that don't have anyone to talk to.  She talks to people and help them with their problems such as health and lonliness.  My mom is an important person and she changes lives everday."

Wow.  Amy was touched by this.  Here's what Jada's wrote in her third paragraph:

"This one thing that I did was peacful.  The one thing that I did was when it was my second grade party.  My friends were teasing one of my other friends.  So I took her upstairs.  Even without talking and just lookign out a window helped a sad person.  I overcame my social problem a little bit and it feels good to finally overcome a fear."  

Again, wow.  When we talked with her developmental pediatrician last year, it became to us that Jada does understand that she is behind on certain social abilities.  Again, it's not debilitating.  But it is a weakness, just like all of us have strengths and weaknesses.  And, hearteningly, she is aware of this weakness, and that she can sometimes overcome it.  Bravo to Jada.