Empathy...Its Not Just For Neurotypicals

My son recently had his second quarter report card come home.  In it, was this wonderful little note from his speech teacher:

'We have spent a great deal of time working on J's (social) language skills within the therapy setting.  We have continued to increase J''s awareness of his listeners.  He continues to understand and identify the "good listening skills" of his listeners so that he knows when they are listening to him.  J has become increasingly more aware of his peers' and the signs they show when they are listening to him.

In his increased awareness of his peers, J has been verbalizing his displeasure with another student in our group.  However, his is using excellent social language skills and he communicates his displeasure about her with me (his teacher).  J tells me that he doesn't want to "hurt her (feelings)" so he doesn't verbalize what she is doing to bother him.  We have been working on positive ways to communicate when he is bothered or upset in a nice way while being truthful.  I am pleased with J's working on this and how much more aware of his peers he has become.'

That's my boy...that is my gentleman.