Meredith recently switched groups in her school. She was very anxious about this change for the first couple of weeks, afraid that the group would be too hard for her.
One morning, however, Meredith said that she was doing better in her group than she thought. Excitedly, she asked me to give her two numbers. "Why," I ask. "Just give me two numbers...two big numbers," she insisted.
After giving her two numbers that met her satisfaction, she began doing mental math and mumbling this and that. Finally, she sputtered out the answer and was very satisfied with herself.
"But what were you solving? What was the problem?" It took a number of times going back and forth for Meredith to articulate what exactly it was that she was doing in her mind. I finally ascertained it was the Pythagorean Theorem.
So often, Meredith doesn't realize that people can't follow her thoughts and she gets irritated with the fact that she has to explain things to people. Sometimes, she'll only say three words and trail off into silence, leaving the listener waiting for the rest of her thought. Then when you ask her what she was saying, she'll say, "Didn't I say that out loud?" and laugh at herself.
I relayed to the Head of School that Meredith was finally feeling very confident in her new group and was very excited about the higher level math. It was surprising, although not unexpected, that higher level math was almost easier for Meredith than easier math. Apparently this is not uncommon for visual thinkers like Meredith who thrive on complexity. The Head of School asked me to remind him what my husband did for a living and after I told him that he manages complex reverse logistics operations, he told me that some day Meredith will be a powerful young lady like her Dad.
Guess what Meredith said in all seriousness after I told her this? "But Mom, Dad isn't a lady." Language processing issue: check!
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