Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion what do you think of this?

Today I was in the mall with our 24 month old daughter. There are some parts of the floor in the mall that are very shiney. Well, whenever she would walk over part of the floor that was very shiney she would slow right down and it looked as if she was walking beside a sleeping bear not wanting to wake him. She would only take a few steps and then ask me to pick her up and carry her.

She does this quite often in stores. I have explained that the floor is very shiney and she has asked what she sees and I tell her it is the reflection of the lights on the floor etc.

It's kind of strange to me though. Is this a little weird to you?

I have no idea if it's strange but my DS used to do it all the time. He told me he thought he could fall through because it looked like water. It took him a while (probably 3) to realize that it was okay! It's the first time I've heard of anyone else's kid doing it though so I guess we're weird together.

Glad to be weird with you!

Thanks

I don't think that's strange - picturing her walking like she doesn't want to wake a sleeping bear made me smile. Kids see things in such a different way sometimes - everything is new to them so they don't take things for granted like we do. My kids yell whenever they are in an open space like between the double doors at the entrance to a store. Why? They love to hear their echo. It's become automatic to them. I love to watch their brains work!

She may be afraid of slipping and falling.

Hi all,

I am bumping this post because I am still stumped as to what is going on with dd. This has been going on for while now and it is strange to me. Any building we are in that has shiny floors causes her to immediately stop in her tracks. Sometimes she won't move until I hold her hand and other times she will walk but so cautiously. She runs through the mall a lot of times (we go there before stores open just for something to do sometimes!), but when she gets to the part of mall with the shiney floors she stops. Today she needed to be picked up until we were off the shiney floor. She told me she can't walk on them "because of the reflections."

I have told her over and over they are just shiney, clean, like a window or mirror (reflection) etc. She knows what a reflection is and she knows that is what she is seeing (since she tells me), but she is still scared of it.

Any ideas? I am not worried, just confused!

It sounds to me like she is unnerved by the reflections, just as she says. GT kids sometimes get really focused on something and it's hard for them to shake it, even if they know better. DS4 is scared of his room even though he KNOWS there's nothing scary there. And I have a vivid memory of when I was little and realized that "going #2" made noise, and I got sort of freaked out by that and refused to go #2 in public restrooms for several years. (Perhaps TMI, but hopefully useful to you!) Kids are like that sometimes.

I wouldn't make too much of it. I'd respect her worries as best I could without accepting them as realistic. Reassure her that it's safe. I suspect she'll get over it fairly quickly if you neither stress over it nor minimize it.

You might also ask her if there's anything that will make it so that she can walk on the reflections. Maybe if she watches you do it first? Or if she can try just one step and then go back if that's too much for her? But you may just have to wait it out.

On the bright side, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that she won't still be doing this as you pack her car for college, so don't let it trouble you too much!

I remember when I was taking my child development classes back in college, I was really captivated by a video we watched...a psychologist had done some tests with younger children and getting them to crawl and walk over various sufaces/areas.....they set up an area that had a walkway where there were different materials on the flooring sections.... mirrors, plexiglass or a strangly colored/material floor and time and time again each and every one of the children refused to walk anywhere near these flooring sections. I can't honestly remember the reason/explanation why other than their sensory systems kicked in and sent a warning message that their body was unsure if it was safe due to the fact it made the child think they would fall through the section even though they were shown over and over that it was solid....hope this helps?

I saw that video in college too, Belle! It was actually kind of funny. But yes, something similar is probably going on with OIE's dd.