Slashdot Mirror
Building Social Skills in Gifted Youths?
UNOStudent asks: "I'm currently a Biotech undergrad at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and have spent the past several semesters mentoring gifted youngsters and have been presented with a challenge this semester. My student is unbelievably smart, however has very limited social skills, is unable to cooperate with peers, doesn't understand why they make fun of his uncombed hair, etc. Since many of us may have grown up in a similar circumstance, I'm looking for suggestions from my fellow geeks on ideas for how to challenge him mentally, while building essential social skills." How would you build social skills in someone more concerned with math, science and computers?
Then he wont need social skills - he can kick the bully's asses and get back to doing what he loves.
There'll be time for girlfriends later (when he's rich), and who the hell said we all *have* to be open, loving marketing types anyway?
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
Incoming a million "This is slashdot, what's a social skill" jokes....
asking slashdot on social skill questions is like asking a factory worker which distribution of Linux is better.
This is a joke, laugh.
Bored? Why not join a decent mess
You need incentinves. Simply explain that better social skills lead to more sex.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Hire him a hooker at his young age.
This did wonders for my social skills.
Get him into dungeons and dragons. Find a group at a local shop or a campus club that will allow him to join as a newbie.
Most experienced DM's enjoy seeing new players grown and mature while learning and playing the game.
There's the natural course of geek development and we should mess with it as little as possible.
New young geeks should have to wait for beer to develop social skills just like we did.
Comic Book Guy : Someone has mixed an "Amazing Spiderman" in with the "Peter Parker - The Spectacular Spiderman" series. This will not stand.
Woman: Pardon me, but I wish to tender a serious cash offer for this stack of water damaged Little Lulus.
CBG: Huh, "A" that is not water, it is Diet Mr. Pib, and "B" I... (CBG turns to look at the woman) Ohh... Err... Tell me, how do you feel about 45 year old virgins who still live with their parents?
Woman: Comb the Sweet Tarts out of your beard and you're on.
CBG: Don't try to change me baby.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Get him interested in the booty and he'll clean up his act...or become a mass murderer.
Step One: Comb Hair
A pulse.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Raves, and the Marine Corps.
Not joking.
"I've found that as intelligence increases, happiness often decreases. Look, I even made a graph! ... I make a lot of graphs."
- Lisa Simpson
(Yes, I was diagnosed as "gifted" when I was a kid. They should have NEVER told me...)
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
Asperger
(Ausberger is a german take-out food, eaten by highlanders, with lotsa sauerkraut and no iodine).
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
Of course, being a fencer, I'm highly biased. :)
The advantages are that (1) geeks love swords, (2) there's no temptation to use it in a fistfight, and (3) in my experience, there are always hot chicks in fencing classes. :D x 1 million
#define sig "Every social system runs on the people's belief in it."
If we're going to do this properly, we should really start at the beginning.
Aardvark:
A furry thing that eats insects.
Collection otherPersonsInterests = new ArrayList();
while(true){
while(otherPersonTalking){
boolean noddingAndSmile = true;
listenIntently(noddingAndSmiling);
if(mentionsInterests){
otherPersonsInterests.add(conversationStream.read
}
}
Thread.sleep(10000L);
if(otherPersonHasREALLYstopped){
conversationStream.write(constructQuestionsAboutI
}
paySincereComplement();
}
Er, yes it does :)
Wow, what's your charisma at, like 19? I'd get the kid to reroll if possible.
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
As a young geek teach he should know the importance of Compound interest. The more he invests in the future now. When he is older and ready to score with the chicks he will be able to afford to pay for them like the rest of us nerds. Instead of building one, not that he wont be smart enough to. If you don't believe me here is proof that it has worked in the past. Revenge of the nerds
Like the Johnny Cash song, just name the kid Sue and he'll be forced to grow out of his shell.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
When I was going to College, the biggest influence in my confidence and people skills was a job in retail.
Other benefits:
1. Money. I mean, who couldn't use some more money? You can buy clothes, haircuts, women, toys; hell, he could even buy a gold brick if there's nothing else he wants.
[...]
4. You will learn that a company will stab you in the back, then figure out if it's cheaper to pull out the knife and stab you again, or use a new knife. That's a VERY valuable lesson.
So your advice is to become a bitter shoe-salesman and visit hookers? Great life advice there, Al.
But he just didn't get some of the jokes or stories because he simply can not read sarcasm or irony.
So, Asperger's is rather like being an American?
Yrs,
A Brit.