When I was in college, I dabbled briefly with the idea of going to grad school to get a PhD in Exercise Psychology. This ended up not happening because I burned myself out by the end of my degree and I ended up going into the job force to numb my brain. Anyway, during that interlude where I decided that exercise psychology was the way to go, I started taking psychology classes for my electives because I was…um…an overachiever. Maybe. Yeah.
Anyway, I have always had a fascination with how things work. That had a lot to do with the degree I was working on. I took a lot of classes studying how the body function and how everything works together. It’s quite fascinating, really. But back to the pyschology angle. I had three favorite pysch classes: developmental psych, psych of the brain and abnormal psych (because who doesn’t want to be able to diagnose their family members’ issues?) Developmental pyschology was incredibly fascinating because it basically described how we learn as infants and into childhood and even adolescence.
I know what you’re wondering. Where in the hell is she going with this? Well, give me a sec, I actually have a point to all of this. When you’re a kid, your motor skill development grows in leaps and bounds and within even the span of a month you can see major changes in a child’s ability. Sometimes all it takes is a soccer season.
Last year, BAD Boy took a shine to playing goalie. He likes playing defense in generally, but REALLY likes playing goalie. The problem, however, was his fear of the ball. When the ball came at him, he tended to move AWAY from the ball because he would rather have the other team score than have the ball come into contact with any part of his body, because OHMYGOD it’s a soccer ball and it might hurt! Which in turn begged the question, then why are you playing soccer? Which his response was, “BECAUSE I LIKE IT!”
Well, this year? He’s finally gotten over his fear of the ball, he’s really starting to comprehend and understand the function of a goalie AND his motor function and skill has improved to the point where the entire first half of his first game of this season, only one goal was scored aganist him. Every other time, he stopped the ball. WITH HIS BODY. Instead of backing away from the ball and a confrontation with another player trying to score against him, he went into the fray and stopped the ball. And suddenly he can finally punt the ball, too! It was possibly one of the proudest moments I’ve had as a stepparent. So far.
I agree – the whole process is amazing! Abnormal psych was one of my favorite classes. I used a friend of mine for my big “case study” paper. It was great – she is loaded with issues!
Good for the boy, I’m still afraid of the ball!!!
So, you mean there’s hope for my boy? LOL I’m lucky if he runs in the direction of the right goal. He has fun though and that’s what matters.