waiting room only
August 4, 2012 § 1 Comment
Waiting rooms are rich with practical social skills opportunities. More than chairs arranged in a sterile circle and predesigned questions this space lends endless opportunities for practice.
Adults and children ranging in need and restless for their moment with an over-scheduled doctor, my son’s psychiatrist’s practice is ripe with practical applications of various behavioral exercises. Taking turns, controlling impulsive speech, using and interpreting body language.
Yesterday my daughter shared a special moment with a little boy. Her own needs and her experiences with her brother’s challenges lend her awareness and compassion. On this occasion she used the waiting room as an opportunity to play with another child while her brother and I met with the doctor. Play in this space is interpretive; often it consists of parallel play and fragmented conversations. My daughter asked me to trust her to play rather than sit quietly through her brother’s appointment. Grasping an occasion to exercise her independence I gave her room to play, trusting she would navigate the social space of the waiting room.
Upon ending my son’s appointment, a mother thanked me for my daughter’s kindness. She didn’t enumerate on how my daughter demonstrated kindness, but I understood the language of the other mother’s gratitude; the need to acknowledge another child’s compassion. I have shared breathtaking moments of thankfulness for small acts of generosity: a child patiently listening to a series of facts squished together without room for interruption, finding humor or brilliance in an otherwise misplaced mannerism, an absence of judgement or irritation when my child acts outside expectations.
In our home we deconstruct simple interactions to decode the invisible social rules. I couldn’t be more proud that my daughter has learned to share these lessons with others through acts of kindness tucked inside childhood play.
scribblechic 
She is such a gem.