Dreamers, Discoverers & Dynamos: how to help the child who is bright, bored and having problems in school This is a must read book for parents of preschoolers and school-age children who seem to have problems settling into the school setting. It discusses how a significant number of children have learning styles that vary sharply from the way school typically is set up. Although these children, called "Edison Trait" children have many wonderful creative talents, they suffer in a structured environment that expects them to sit still, listen carefully and attentively, and to practice new skills in a particular way at a particular time. Sound like anyone you know? Part I describes the children whose parents are the target audience; Part II talks about ways the parents can help at home; and Part III talks about schools, psychological evaluation, ADD, the medication decision, and other methods for helping your child. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Part I - Your Child’s Inventive Mind (Chapters 1-3) Description of the Edison Trait Child - This first part of the book describes what the author means by the term: "Edison trait" children - children whose dominant style is divergent thinking. Their minds create sparks that ignite many different thoughts. They are creative, individualistic, strong-willed and innovative and this temperament may come in one of several forms - dreamy introverts, take-charge and enterprising discoverers, and dynamos who are very physical and always in motion. They are good at thinking up wild ideas, passionately defending their ideas, imagining the future, and trying things out. The common denominator is that these kids are not strong at the skill of convergent thinking - focusing on one thought and tuning out distractions. They will therefore have problems focusing on someone else’s ideas, remembering things they’ve been asked to do, practicing skills repeatedly, and finishing things. Edison trait children are highly visual, and not good at listening to oral instructions. They won’t try things they fear they can’t do as well as others. Their divergent thinking skills can help them blossom later in life. But, first, they have to get through childhood and school, in a culture that values convergent thinking. Many divergent thinking adults will talk about how difficult their school years are, and how much they felt like a failure. The working place is often a much more nurturing place. One caution: The examples of famous divergent thinkers in the book - Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Anne Morrow Lindberg, Emily Dickensen, Ted Turner, Maya Angelou, Bill Gates - may scare you away. I know that I had that reaction the first time I read the book: "Well, I think Robbie is creative and individualistic, but I don’t think he is going to transform our world." But, really, these stories are for inspiration and hope for the future. The book is very thoughtful and rich in ideas for helping spirited children gain self-esteem and confidence, and to develop the coping skills to achieve and be happy in structured school settings. To see the difference between the two thinking patterns, Palladino compares the traits. Convergent thinkers are exact, literal and orderly. Facts matter, measurements are quantitative, and thinking is analytic. If you ask a convergent thinking child about her day, the answer will be sequential, starting with getting up in the morning and getting dressed. The convergent thinker lives in a universe composed of atoms. In contrast, the divergent thinker is in a natural state of brainstorm, seeing life through an ever-changing kaleidescope. If you ask about her day, she will start with the most exciting part: "I’m going to be Mrs. Arable in Charlottes Web. I’m also going to learn Fern’s part, in case Linsey gets sick. We picked names out of a hat." The ideas will radiate out, in whirls of ideas and images. She lives in a universe made up of stories. Divergent thinkers tend to hold on to their outlook on life, along the lines of this quote from D.H. Lawrence: "It’s no use telling me the moon is a dead rock in the sky! I know it’s not." We tend to call convergent thinking the norm, and to label divergent thinkers who don’t follow through on one idea at a time, as having attention problems. But, the brains of Edison trait children are not inferior, they are just different. In schools, we underappreciate their creativity and blame them for not completing work on time, for not staying in their seats, for errors in grammar, spelling and math facts. We tend to teach to their weaknesses not their strengths. Divergent thinkers do not have ownership of convergent thinking assignments. But they will take complete ownership of imaginative projects. Divergent thinkers use mental pictures to communicate. They speak in metaphors. They are playful. And as children, they are a handful. Edison, full of curiosity and driven to experiment, as a toddler got up in the night and went to a neighbor’s barn to sit on a nest of goose eggs to test his hatching theory. At age six, he accidentally burned his father’s barn to the ground. Later, all those experiments made him the greatest inventor of our time. Henry Ford got his classmates to dam a drainage ditch so he could build a waterwheel and a coffee mill; a heavy rain ended up flooding the farmer’s crop. Like many temperament based parenting books, a key premise of Dreamers, Discoverers and Dynamos is that the challenging aspects of the "Edison Trait" child can be, and should be, viewed as strengths rather than weaknesses. Divergent thinking is behind the paradoxes you see with these kids on a daily basis. Parents will ask, "If my child can recall the entire roster of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, why can’t he remember that eight times seven is fifty-six?" The author suggests thinking of the kids wandering through an empty house alone where most of the rooms are dark, and one or two are well-lit. The child loves exploring the bright rooms and develops a preference for them. You try to explain to him that he could turn on the lights in any of the rooms. But, from his point of view, the house is wired differently. He can’t seem to use the same switch that others use. The parent’s role becoming empowering him to figure out his own circuitry. Descriptions of the three types of Edison kids: Dreamers are mind wanderers who seem to be lost in a world of their own. They become visionaries and poets, they see things from a different angle, they are drawn to color, sound, texture, taste and fragrance. They are prone to say things out of the blue, to procrastinate, to have eclectic interests, to start projects but not finish them. They can’t seem to get organized or to do anything efficiently. Later, they will be good designers of anything, from fashion, parks, houses, cars, clothing, jewelry, art exhibits, stage sets, media adds, music videos, etc. Discoverers are the kids who climb out of their cribs, get past the locks, up into the highest cabinets, the three year olds who take a walk down the street and get mad when they’re stopped. They test all limits, and are on the look-out for excitement. They like to trade things and find ways to make money. They won’t accept the status quo, they have to do things their own way, to explore. They want life to keep them interested. They are not typically planners. A Discoverer on the trail of an idea or involved in a project will tend to "hyperfocus", paying attention to the activity unusually intensely and to the exclusion of all else. Discoverers can also multitask. As adults, discoverers will be inventors, innovaters and entrepreneurs. They may design computers and software, video games. They create new markets, new companies, new products. Palladino calls Dynamos "fuel-injected speedsters." These are the kids that are always riding the bike recklessly and breaking limbs. They are impulsive, and they love power and speed. Like the Discoverer, they are strong-willed and immovable in position. The distinguishing feature is boundless energy. Their bodies are almost always in motion. They are risk takers and daredevils, and they are very entertaining. As adults, they will make good pilots, foreign news correspondents, emergency medical personnel, athletes. They will be aggressive entrepreneurs who always bet on high stakes. The Nature of Attention - Palladino asserts that divergent thinking patterns are increasingly common. We and children are reacting to the accelerated pace of life. Information now comes to us quickly in sound bites and divergent thinking is more able to process it this way. But school systems were designed by people from previous generations and put more emphasis on convergent thinking. The author then summarizes different experts’ metaphors for the different types of attention. One behavioral pediatrician talks about the difference between photographer’s attention and student attention. A photographer taking pictures in a beautiful park, for example, will look around and take the most fascinating photos possible, all kinds from the waterfalls, to the trees in the clouds, a closeup of a wildflower, an unusual bird, or maybe the smiles on children’s faces. This kind of approach doesn’t work in school though, where you need student’s attention, keeping yourself on track, only thinking of the NEXT thing you’re supposed to do. Another metaphor refers to the divergent thinkers as having the qualities needed to be a hunter - monitoring everything around, jumping into the chase, making quick decisions, hyperfocus, propensity to take risks, crave excitement and adventure. Convergent thinkers have traits more adapted to farming - they are more methodical, steady, dependable, organized and purposeful, cautious and security minded. Communication - Finally, she discusses ways in which parents can communicate more effectively with divergent thinking children. In one example, parents of a child who uses hurtful language were able to get through by using word pictures of how they felt - When you say shut up to me, it is like a slap in the face, with both the sting and the insult. Or like a knife cut on my finger; it bleeds and I feel sad. Their son was still angry, but he stopped saying shut up. In another case, a divergent child said to his mother, You wish that I was Benjamin (a cousin). The mother kept insisting that she had never compared them or said anything like that. Tensions kept rising as both felt they were right. The author said she was able to break through into their argument by suggesting Benjamin was a metaphor for a child who achieved a lot. Finally, the mother was able to say, "Charles, I love you for who you are." And the child was able to hear understanding of his fears and acceptance in her voice. The author attributes the success to the use of metaphors. In the third case, the author demonstrates the use of creating new scenarios. A daughter is scared of going to sleep. The mother, in talking to her, identifies the fact that someone in the room makes her feel more secure. She gets her to develop an image of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, sitting on her bed protecting her from scarey thoughts, an image that she can call up in the future. She discusses how playfulness and novelty can get a child to communicate her feelings. |