My wife and I aren't 100% sure what to make out of this. We just find it a little curious. One of the reasons that we were (past tense) very reluctant to accept that our child was that he didn't seem to have socialization issues. He's able to socialize pretty well with a range of people from his age-mates, to his neighbor next door who is 3 years older than him, to adults.
At any rate, he's in day camp this week and one of the things that he tells us about is this one child that does not act very nice to anyone. Doesn't share. Other children don't want to play with him. Etc. When our DS5 tried to talk with him, this boy just says "poop!" or do something equally five-year-old-ish. Our DS has apparently turned this into a project, trying to befriend this boy. From what DW has been able to observe first hand, this isn't a matter that our DS needs acceptable from this camp-mate. (He has other firends that he plays with or occasionally just plays with himself.)
That got us talking last night about a situation that occurred in nursery school. I'm not sure exactly how long ago this was, but basically a set of twins who didn't know any English was in his class. DS made a conscious effort to play with them, so much so that his nursery school teacher made a point to tell us about it. Again, I don't think he felt the need to be friends with the boys.
At any rate. I just found it curious. Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased that he seems to be acting very nice to these other children! It's been interesting hearing him tell us each day how much progress he's made with the boy at camp.
JB
