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I honestly have no idea if this would work and I have nothing to back up this idea other than my own personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt... Ha
by cujo 12y ago
I honestly have no idea if this would work and I have nothing to back up this idea other than my own personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt...
Have you tried making "normal" kids games mentally challenging for him? At 7, I imagine he's being exposed to team sports such as basketball, soccer, etc. Perhaps there's a way to make it interesting for him by getting at the strategy behind these games rather than just the physical activity part. Especially if he's competitive, it might work to expose him to what it means to beat someone at a sport strategically rather than just physically overwhelm.
I can say that this appealed to me as a kid as I was ridiculously competitive, but didn't always have the physical skill necessary to win. Once I realized that you can often win by playing smarter, it was like a whole new world.
- npongratz 12y agoSimilar here. Ridiculously competitive, and though I had inconsistent physical results, I enjoyed learning strategy as well as making physical progress. I personally found great intellectual stimulation and feelings of satisfaction from one-on-one sports such as tennis, table tennis (ping pong), badminton, racquetball, and wrestling. I also played team sports quite a bit, and enjoyed being a student of those games, but I tended to prefer pursuing mastery of one-on-one sports (edit to add: though I've never come close to mastery). By distilling the experience down to a one-on-one competition, I find I'm able to focus more on the intellectual pursuit, as opposed to the intellectual+social pursuit of team sports. Handling social dynamics can sometimes overwhelm me when I attempt to focus on the strategic and the intellectual. Everyone's experience and taste is different, of course. Many paths can lead to happiness :)