Interesting memory from Jade

Jade has just told me something really interesting. She says she can remember being 4, and on holiday in a tent with us somewhere (could very well have been our first Kessingland), and having the selective mutism feeling when somebody wanted to talk to her, but if she had known then what she knows now, she realises she would have been able to push herself to talk and got over it. She said she thinks we should have helped her more. She was struggling to explain herself, so I asked if she meant that it was a smaller feeling then than she gets now, and that with a bit of encouragement or help she would have been able to get over it then, and she agreed.

I told her that I absolutely agreed with her - if we had known then what we know now, we would have treated her shyness/silence a bit differently and maybe we wouldn't have got to where we are now. But I said that it's also encouraging because she can see quite clearly that what she has now is just a strong habit that has built up in her brain over the past 5 years, and that's all. (Which chimes in nicely with the Linden Method which we have started to use consistently this week.)

She also drew a lovely series of cartoon pictures (which she has done quite a bit of recently and shows something of a talent for) depicting herself hiding behind a parent when another child approaches, but gradually coming out and moving closer to the other child, and the parent stepping back, and her own expression changing from worried to relaxed and talking as she gets closer to this other child. I've asked DH to scan it in and maybe I will upload it if Jade lets me.