I wanted to take a look at any corrilation between intense children and emotional development. I found this article
at the National Network for Child Care. It discusses the emotional development of 6 to 8 year old
children.

It seems that my Dervish is pretty much on track for emotional development. There isn't anything that stands out to me that would make me think that his emotional development is anything but normal.

Interestingly enough, this is something I've always thought could be part of the issue, I felt that perhaps his intensity and strong emotional reposnses were based on a slow emotional development but from this article it seems I have been wrong. So he's just intense?

That seems like a contradiction

The question is, and always has been, is my Dervish a person who as an adult, people will say... "he's very intense" in that awe struk kind of way that comes out sounding respectful.... or is "intense" a symptom of something else that will leave people saying "he's a little odd" which has no hope of ever sounding respectful.

As a mother, I have no choice but to worry about this kind of thing, it's ingrained in my "mom gene" because of course, I want all of my children to be happy and successful and respected and respectful and anything that threatens to offroad that train puts me in a panic.

Here's the article..... (part of it, click the link above for the full article)

Six, seven, and eight-year-olds build on the important developments
of the first 6 years of life and seem to settle down to a steadier
pace of growing and learning. Young school-age children are interested
in real life tasks and activities, and pretend and fantasy lessen
considerably. School-agers want to make "real" jewelry,
take "real" photographs, and create "real"
collections.




School-age children have longer attention spans. They are more
likely to stick with things until the project is finished, the
problem solved, or the argument resolved. Doing things together
with friends, teamwork, and following rules become very important.
This age group is fascinated by rules and can develop games with
extensive rules and rituals.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• being with friends becomes increasingly important
  
• interested in rules and rituals
  
• girls want to play more with girls; boys with boys
  
• may have a best friend and an enemy
  
• strong desire to perform well, do things right
  
• begins to see things from another child's point of view, but still very self-centered
  
• finds criticism or failure difficult to handle
  
• views things as black and white, right or wrong, wonderful or terrible, with very little middle ground
  
• seeks a sense of security in groups, organized play, and clubs
  
• generally enjoys caring for and playing with younger children
  
• may become upset when behavior or school-work is ignored

  
  IDEAS FOR CAREGIVERS

  
  
• Provide opportunities for active play. Throwing at targets, running,jumping rope, tumbling, and aerobics may be of interest.
  
  
  
• Provide opportunities to develop an understanding of rules by playing simple table games: cards, dominoes, tic-tac-toe, etc.
  
  
  
• Provide opportunities for children to do non-competitive team activities such as working a jigsaw puzzle or planting a garden.
  
  
  
• Encourage
  children's sense of accomplishment by providing opportunities to build
  models, cook, make crafts, practice music, or work with wood.
  
  
  
• Encourage children's collections by allowing them to make special boxes or books in which to store their collections.
  
  
  
• Encourage
  reading and writing by allowing children to produce stories with
  scripts, create music for plays and puppet shows, produce a newspaper,
  record events, go on field trips, or conduct experiments.
  
  
  
• Help
  children explore their world by taking field trips to museums, work
  places, and other neighborhoods. Invite community helpers to your home.
  

DOCUMENT USE/COPYRIGHT

National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Part of CYFERNET, the National
Extension Service Children Youth and Family Educational Research
Network. Permission is granted to reproduce these materials in whole or
in part for educational purposes only(not for profit beyond the cost of
reproduction) provided that the author and Network receive
acknowledgment and this notice is included: