| The Story of The Collaboration Corner |
This is my story. Little Boy, my son, had only one friend from Primary 1 to Primary 3. At the end of Primary 3, his one friend left the school to join the Gifted Education Programme. At that time, I requested that The Teacher assign him some leadership role, in the hope that it would help him socially. The Teacher responded, “He is so blur that he cannot
even look after himself. How to let him lead?”
Since I have Asperger’s, I have always keenly felt that my potential was capped by my own inability to work with people and to lead others. Looking at my son, I saw a mini version of me. I looked into his future and I knew that despite his intelligence, he would not go very far in life if I did not develop his EQ. I was determined to teach him by the age of 12 what took me 40 years to learn.
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| The Difference with Our EQ Generative Protocol |
Having Asperger’s comes with immense strengths, one of which is the hyper-focus needed to research any topic of interest to death. I looked into EQ research and designed a protocol to help me and my Little Boy. What was available in the market is social training that is scenario-specific. The child is given different scenarios and then told how to respond. The child only needs to remember. This approach, however, is not generative. It does not equip the child to generate his own solutions to dynamic social situations. I needed a generative approach. So, I developed one. The EQ Generative Protocol© allowed me to problem-solve social situations and develop solutions for my own social gaps. When I taught it to my son, he too was able to generate his own solutions.
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| How Little Boy Turned Weakness into Strength |
By the time he turned 13, my son not only had a whole class of friends, he was also consistently elected by his peers to be a leader. He led every project group he was part of. He was Class Chairman for years. He became Shooting Captain. He was VP of the Science Recreation Club. Since he was the team lead of the local champion secondary school team, he was sent to the SUTD Design Challenge (a robotics competition). He was picked, at age 16, to represent SUTD at the International Design Challenge. His competitors were from universities like Tsinghua, Beida, Tokyo Tech and MIT. Since he was bilingual, the job of Team Coordinator fell to him. His team took the championship. For a boy whose teacher once saw as unable to lead, he sure has a strong leadership portfolio now. For a boy who once barely had friends, he sure has many now.
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| My “Soul Connection” to Gifted Children |
Then, I started an enrichment centre to teach English. For the strangest reason, high ability and gifted children with social lacunae made their way to me. I encountered children that no one liked and I felt a soul connection with them. They were like me. I understood their social language intuitively. I understood also, that it was not the same social language spoken by most people. Naturally, I taught them my EQ Generative approach to social influencing. Then, I realized that these students went on to lead in secondary school too! At that point, I started to work with neuro-typical kids as their parents wanted them to excel in leadership too. Parents have asked how an autistic Dr. Pet can teach EQ. After all, Dr. Pet must herself have very low EQ. My response? People with naturally high EQ are often unable to explain why and how they react to social situations. Me, I have to think and work things out using my EQ Generative Protocol©. Since I had to work things out step by step, I also can explain the material. This has led us here today. Today, I am clear about what I want to do for the remaining years of my life. I want to help children like me to reach their potential in life. High IQ individuals with low EQ go through life with one hand tied behind their backs. One-handed, they get by in life. Two-handed, they thrive, becoming people of impact and influence.
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Best regards,
Dr. Pet
