Posted by Reya on 2:19 Jan 9
In Reply to: Please help re: gifted son -- PLEASE posted by Dawn K
DH had rarely spend time around kids or parents other than our own child. All his coworkers were either single or had much older kids. Then we began spending a lot of time with our new neighbors. At first, he'd say things like, "They do X--do you think we should do it that way?" I waited it out, and his opinion slowly changed until he is more fervent about our own choices than I am. *g*
(The parenting decisions in the beginning were almost entirely mine. We shared a common vision of the desired results, and I was the only one with experience, so he decided to go along to see how well it worked and to modify as needed. There have been a few tweaks along the way, but nothing major.)
So he saw a couple of things he liked in the other kids. Why don't you suggest that he teach your kids how to play the group games and spend time with them doing those sorts of things?
You could also point out that Nathan isn't used to dealing with kids with the maturity of kids. (I the ignoring kid had been mine, for instance, I would have hung him up by his toenails for rudeness.) If Nathan truly has good social skills with adults, I wouldn't worry about it. He is simply overestimating the social and intellectual abilities of his age-peers. It's normal for an intelligent 8-year-old, for goodness sakes. I didn't figure it out until the end of third grade, when I was nine, that the other kids weren't playing dumb, didn't care about the interesting things that I'd found out, and preferred to be treated, in my mind, like babies. And I only realized it that early because I was stuck in school with them all the time. Most gifted kids don't really realize it until middle school.