How one shy child found his voice and lead the way

One of the more common challenges that we see in children is they are really shy, quiet, and passive outside of the home environment. They are loud, demanding, and playful at home with siblings and parents. But as soon as they step foot outside of their homes, they become a completely different child. Unfortunately, people can only form a judgment on a child based on their previous interactions with that child and what they can observe. This then results in a situation where people’s perception of a child’s personality and abilities are not in line with who that child really is.  And this is where this month’s superhero story begins. 

A Superhero in the Making

We currently have a boy attending our Academy Program who attends a mainstream kindergarten and has been struggling to find his voice. Even though he is incredibly bright, no one in his class, including his teacher, was aware of it because he wasn’t expressing himself and would always rely on others to tell him what to do. 

So part of his journey at the Academy was to find his superhero voice, one that was loud and clear so that others could hear him. 

Challenges That Unleashed His Superpowers

At first, we challenged him to recite the Academy Oath on camera before leading the oath at The Academy. As he began to embrace this new role, we challenged him to use his superhero voice to order ice cream at a local ice cream shop. Little did we know that he would attempt to order 10 scoops of ice cream!

We continued to challenge him to use his superhero voice in the community, to order his favorite foods, breakfast, and even coffee for his parents at a cafe. 

The Grand Surprise!

This culminated in an unexpected surprise! One day at the Academy, we noticed the entire group of 8 children was playing together in a game that they came up with on their own. It is not often that every single child in a large group willingly plays together during unstructured free play time. In a surprising turn of events, we found out that it was the boy who first came up with the game and was also the one leading the entire group.

Needless to say, it was very exciting for everyone to see and hear him use an ability that he has been learning to develop at The Academy. Well done!