A beautiful mind!

After picking up William at the airport, Aditya spoke to him like he was meeting an old buddy.  He grabbed William with his talk most of the time he was in the car.

He also invented a "CD Clock" on the fly as he was speaking.  The clock, was a CD and a clock at the same time.  That is, it could play music, as well as show time.

William joined him right away and the two continued to discuss the CD clock up until the time we dropped off William at the hotel where he was going to stay.  When parting, William promised to come back the next day and talk more about both, Aditya's topic-- the CD clock, and a brand new topic that William was going to propose.

The next day, when William went into the playroom,  Aditya pounced on the CD clock topic!  The two friends had a blast discussing the CD clock.  Really... it did not seem at all as if there was something unusual about this topic.  The enthusiasm with which William joined him in the discussion, and even offered to diagram it on the white board,  they seemed like two engineers hashing out the design for the world's most advanced clock!

About 7 minutes later, we observed that Aditya was a lot more relaxed, as he had been allowed, even encouraged, to talk about the CD clock, for as long as he wanted.

At this time, William asked Aditya, "If you were to sell this fantastic CD clock how much would you charge?"

"Zero dollars" came the reply!

A little later, A had changed his mind and set the price of this CD clock to $50000.

Sensing that he was still quite relaxed and open (as opposed to rigid and controlling)  William asked him: "And what would you do with the $50000 that you get from selling this clock?"

"I would give it to people who have no money" replied Aditya, with a smile as beautiful as the innocent and kind soul he is.

And by the way, yes, William was working on the goal of inspiring A to ask/answer questions of a personal  (as opposed to "factual" e.g. how tall is this lamp?) nature.

A super-cool Son Rise friend visited Aditya!

William (senior Son Rise program teacher) came to see Aditya on parents' request.   We were really touched by his gesture of flying coast-to-coast to come meet his 6 year old special friend!

On a more serious note, this was our very first "outreach" with any Son Rise program teacher/consultant.  And it helped us beyond our wildest expectations!

His biggest gift to us... he brought to our attention how rigid we can sometimes get as grown ups, while working on a specific goal with our child... insisting that he worked on it in a certain way... and not recognizing that he just did it in another way.  For example....  when I went in with picture cards containing various animals, working on the goal of "inspiring A to ask questions to know more about a person" I casually told him how I do not actually like monkeys, even if that is the animal that surprises me the most.

A asked why I don't like monkeys.

My response... that's a new question. Which one should I answer? The "why I don't like chimps" or the question about "why they surprise me".

In reality, to ask me why I do not like chimps is TO ASK ME SOMETHING TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ME AS A PERSON.

Once William noticed this and told me, a light bulb turned on in our minds, and we could instantly see just how much A is actually ready to use his social skills... provided we ourselves become more flexible, and provide him with opportunities... and pauses so he can use them!

Thanks a ton William!