Color Blocks

A special needs child therapist works and tests children three to five years old to see how they think and work through a process of getting their objectives finished. The therapist works with one child at a time. She gives the child a pile of colored blocks and tells the child to remove ten blocks out of single large pile. From what the therapists say the most common way is for the child to move one block out of the large pile and count one block at a time by moving single blocks at a time. They form new straight rows of blocks or single piles. Some children have a different solution to do this. What caught the therapist’s attention was that one of the children would do it differently. The child looked at the large pile in silence and started counting. Then he grabs ten blocks away, all at once, from a large pile rather than count each block and move it with his index finger. He just continued to grab ten pieces of blocks in groups away from the large pile and continues doing that until the main pile runs out of blocks. I was that child.

I am not unique nor a genius for doing this, it was just that I have a different perspective of how to doing it. The therapist told my parents about this that she thought it was interesting that I did it differently from most children. It is as if therapist was expecting me to do it in a routine just like any other children would do it.

It is not evil or bad if you are one of the few that has a different perspective of how things get done. Image five children in the same room, each has large pile of blocks in front of them. Therapist told the five children to take ten blocks into individual groups until the large pile disappears. Sure enough four of the children would pull single blocks with their index finger to make neat rows of ten blocks. After a while, all four children turn their head to look at one kid on the last desk on their left. They noticed that kid grabs all ten blocks out of the large pile at once. Four children look at each other and murmur in disagreement. At the same time, the therapist made a face at the kid on last left desk as if he/she is wrong. Now again, image this way and apply that idea to your daily day work. Maybe you are the one that has unique possible an idea of how to solve a problem at your work. You might end up in a struggle trying to show other four adults and boss a better method to accomplish project/ customer’s need or you shut up, put down your head and do what the four adults and boss always do. Yeah, it can be a real struggle to convince them to break routine and see new ways to make the company stronger.

I was glad that my mother told me that story and all of a sudden what had been lost and buried way back in my mother’s mind appeared. I was having an argument with my mother about people and I disagreed on how and what to do to get goals accomplished. It is like we see a maze with two different pathways that lead and reach to the same goal and its conclusion.

It’s just a difference perspective of how to get there and accomplish the same task and reach the same conclusion, that’s all…