Our meeting today included both of Emma's teachers, the school director, Rob & I, and Emma. Emma has had the same teachers for three years now, and the school director is someone I've known since she worked at the college where I teach. I have a lot of respect for all these people, but I'm not sure they realize the impact this particular personality problem has had on Emma. One of the teachers, in particular, did a lot of talking, rather than listening.
I know that my view of A is not objective: I see her through the lens of the impact she's had on Emma this semester. That said, I find A to be completely insensitive to other kids feelings. She just doesn't seem to notice the non-verbal feedback she's getting from Emma, or even the polite verbal feedback.
I don't know that the meeting gave us any new strategies to help Emma, but it did let us tell them about some of the things that have been going on that they have not been aware of. If you have a kid who feels that she has to wear a mask all day at school in order to pretend that everything's fine, who has to excuse herself to go to the bathroom to cry, who cries every day when you pick her up, you have a problem. Because there have been other issues this semester with younger kids who want to be with Emma all the time, but those issues have been resolved, we were able to point out that there is something about this child that has not allowed those same strategies to resolve this particular situation.
Who wants to be a parent? :-)
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