but this year DD2 is visibly becoming steadily more isolated and it is sad. And yet also comforting to know that even if it is not at school she WILL find people she can bond with in time.
Mumofthree, I just thought I would mention - and this may or may not end up being the case for your your dd - that my dd was very isolated at that age. Dh and I would despair watching her interact (or not) with other kids. It wasn't just age appropriate parallel playing it was just not getting them AT ALL. Why didn't they know how to share? Why couldn't they communicate with her? Why did they push in or say mean things?
Well, now 5, dd is very socially competent. She leads play with her 8 yo cousins, has a good friend who is a gifted 7.5 year old, but can happily play with kids all ages from 3 - whatever age with no problem. In her class she is sought out by other kids and is very well liked. Only this weekend I said to DH, "remember when we used to worry about how she was going to go socially".
I don't know what caused the change - though in part - and I guess this ties in with what this thread is about! - I think it has come from our recent conversations about why she might feel different (she knows that she is gifted and we were very careful to explain this in neutral terms that imply it is a natural difference rather than something that makes you better or worse than someone else) and that seems to have given her the freedom to just enjoy herself and others rather than focus on what is wrong with her/them. Obviously this conversation is unlikely to be effective at 2 - and it may or may not be useful if and when you do have it. I guess I just wanted to say that we were really worried about how isolated dd would be and in fact, over time it has been much less of an issue as she has gotten bigger.
Deborah Mersino has written a lovely blog post about these kinds of issues this week (and while written in the context of being an adult, she lists some things she wishes she'd known when she was a kid):
http://www.ingeniosus.net/blog
