What are the situations where you are stopped from learning content when you want to explore? Why are you being stopped?
Which way do I go? Which way did he / she go? I want to follow that way. I can work around that / this. I’m angry that I don’t get to go that way? I like having this topic of conversation but I’m being stopped.
What is an inappropriate topic of conversation? An invasion of privacy of someone that you’ve just met on the street and you want to talk to them in depth about their pet dog, but you didn’t pay attention to their facial expressions letting you ‘politely’ know that you should move on, but you keep on talking because you ‘love’ dogs and in your real world you take care of things very deeply, you protect other people just like how you see them protect you. And you like talking about taking care of things, because you spend a lot of time talking with adults about taking care of things. You take care of your siblings that way. You take care of your parents and grandparents that way. Yet. When interacting with peers there is competition, so topics of conversation are different from those where you feel comfortable. Online experiences may have made it extremely challenging to find ways to express yourself because of restrictions or lack there of that do not manage targeted bullying well. In the real world people may only be able to have a ‘real’ conversation up to a certain point. The adults may have more information than their child due to safety concerns. Going through every usual pathway for expression of support to have that conversation can have been completed yet there is still a lack of what you need. Are you being stopped from having the conversation? Or is this resource deprivation in your particular area? Or are others impacting negatively on what and how you are able to express yourself to manage your own safety? How do you get around that? Are you allowed to get around that? Are there hidden rules that allow you to be able to have these types of conversations so that you can link new information together or it is dangerous because of the current online environment and how threatening it can be to be allowed to explore freely.
Safety precautions are often in place to protect us from the risks associated with increased knowledge. Example, in science year 7 students learn about safety procedures for using machinery and the reasons for their use in the first place. Some students may have an incredibly diverse knowledge base language wise but struggle with an understanding of how to understand specific topics (as seen in their Speech and Language reports) which can impact on their lack of insight into exactly how unsafe they are or will be. Students inherent anger over what opportunities they have been being blocked from can have been present from early childhood and can continue through primary school, through the various changes of schools til high school and beyond. This anger can be well managed through discussion of the reasons for the blockages. Where the challenges come up is from lack of knowledge of those supporting others about the depth of reasons as to why some individuals not only struggle to comprehend concepts (see communication and interaction skills section of this website).