What does Melissa's future hold for her? It is so hard to predict. She has such a range of abilities and non-abilities. She is starting to read, and even write her own storybooks. She does math at school, and can laugh at a joke. But she has such a hard time interpreting what is going on with other people. She always thinks people are laughing at her, or are going to laugh at her. In some ways her odd obsession with being made fun of only points out my own tendency to personalize things. Don't we all imagine that there is a "Kick Me" sign pinned to our back, and other's are snickering? Melissa is just real enough to vocalize that fear, as often as she has it. "Those kids think I'm a joke!" she will protest - not true, but painful enough. I think her future success is going to depend upon her developing some way to cope with this anxiety. She will have to join the rest of us.
