Special Needs Education | Viewing 'Children with Strong Preferences' Through the Lens of 'Their Individuality' (The Story of the White Kite)

“This child is different from the others.”

Don't you ever
think that?

Can we really explain it just by saying it's 'innate'?

Giftedness.

Generally, it refers to children with unique talents.
Born with the ability to calculate quickly,
having a good memory...
That is the image we have.

But, are there really
“children who can do things without trying”?
A child who calculates quickly

must have been absorbed in
calculating somewhere.
A child with a good memory

must have repeated the things they love
over and over again.
Thinking about it this way,

the view that
“gifted equals innate”
might be
a bit too much of a snap judgment.

Effort itself might be a form of talent.

For example,
Person A and Person B
attending the same piano class.

Even though they have lessons for the same amount of time,
Person A improves rapidly.

We immediately say,
“Person A has talent.”
But perhaps Person A

naturally thought about the piano
even outside of lesson time,
and found themselves practicing.
“Being able to put in effort” is also

a talent.
Thinking about it this way,

the difficulty of describing a child
solely by what is 'innate'
becomes clear.

Why is it seen as a 'problem'?

For a child who puts in the effort to improve at piano,
we say,
“That's amazing,”
“You worked hard.”
Then, what about a child

whose academic ability is exceptional?
They are seen as a 'nail that sticks out'.

They are called
“a child who is difficult to teach alongside everyone else.”
I have been thinking for a long time

about where this difference comes from.
One thing I think is that

depending on whether the direction in which they deviate from the 'normal frame'
is a context that is valued,
the way we view that child changes.
But,
what is 'normal' anyway?

🪁 I wanted to fly a white kite

Let me tell you a story about myself here.

When I was in kindergarten,
there was a class where we made kites.

While everyone else was drawing their favorite pictures,
I really didn't want to draw anything.

I wanted to see the scenery of
a white kite flying smoothly
in the blue sky.

A simple,
translucent white kite.

The teacher looked at me with a troubled face
as I insisted,
“I absolutely do not want to draw.”

My mother also
said, “Draw a picture.”
But I wouldn't budge.

—

Now that I am an adult,

looking back at my younger self,
I might have labeled myself as

“a child with strong preferences.”

But was that really

a problem?
If there had been an adult back then

who asked, “Why do you want it to be white?”
If there had been an adult who enjoyed it with me,
saying, “That's great, let's fly it.”

I might have
been able to like myself more.

The moment you apply a 'label,' something stops

Gifted, gray zone, strong preferences...

These words
can sometimes be
an entry point to trying to understand that child.

But the moment a name is attached,
we might feel like we 'understand' them,
and stop seeing the child themselves.

Not 'unique talent'
but 'what this child loves'

Not 'problem behavior'
but 'this child's preference'

Just by replacing words like that,
the child in front of you
might start to look a little different.

Finally

Is there a child around you
who is said to be
“a bit unusual”?

That 'unusual' quality
might actually be
that child's individuality.

Instead of labels,
look at the child themselves.

That is what the me from back then,
who wanted to fly a white kite, taught me.

Thank you
for reading until the end.

If you resonated with this,
I would be happy if you could let me know
by leaving a like or a comment.

Related articles: