Training My 2e Child Social Techniques with Celebrity Trek: The Next Generation

The team of this U.S.S. Enterprise are secured in a dangerous stand-off with an all-powerful alien life type referred to as Nagilum. Preferring to end the lives of his whole team versus subject all of them to torture, Captain Picard makes the tough choice to begin the Enterprise’s self-destruct series. Riker verifies. The countdown begins.

“Wait,” my seven-year-old pipes up, prompting me to hit the pause key. “They aren’t even counting nanoseconds, are they? They aren’t.”

The staff regarding the Enterprise is about to wipe themselves off the face for the galaxy, and my child’s major issue may be the reliability of clock.

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It was not a big shock. My earliest kid (whom needs that we relate to him by his video gaming handle, “B-Bot”) is definitely enthusiastic about figures. He was counting before he could chat, carefully lining up their cheerios and grunting while he pointed every single in series. After learning the art of message, he demonstrated instant recall of almost any quantity, in almost any framework, and had been regularly exasperated by others’ inattention to detail, such as the precise quantity of bites that they had taken in the process of ingesting a sandwich. I couldn’t say “I’ve told you this a thousand times!” with no him politely inform me personally that no, in fact, it had been just eight.

B-Bot is incredibly powerful, extroverted, and constantly flexible, but features a difficult time reading feelings beyond apparent physical responses like laughter or rips. He is also hilariously literal. As a toddler, he when crawled around, barking. When I said, “Oh, will you be a doggy?” he straight away sobered, reached his foot, and explained, “No. I a boy.” While youth basic of ‘playing pretend’ had been a nearly incomprehensible idea for him, we had hours-long conversations about atomic structure, biochemistry, cancer tumors, and the solar power system. Their family members nickname could be the Energizer Bunny, because he never rests. We joke that B-Bot doesn’t rest — he waits.

Though we at first suspected B-Bot had been autistic, their formal analysis had been more complicated. He is “twice exceptional” or “2e” — both very gifted and learning disabled. B-Bot won’t require you to teach him reading, math, or technology. He does, however, need help comprehending his other people.

What now ? with a hyper-intelligent being with super-strength just who never ever sleeps but does not understand the notion of lying?

You introduce him to Data. 

B-Bot was immediately captivated by the warp machines, tachyon beams, and photon torpedoes of celebrity Trek: The Next Generation. We invested the very first a number of attacks reviewing the entire Starfleet demand framework, because he needed seriously to know precisely exactly what all of the consistent colors and collar pips signified. The wonderful thing about Star Trek, though, is the fact that underneath all that riveting techno-babble, it’s actually about men and women. And information provides the perfect beginner’s guide to this inner world. Similar to B-Bot, Data overflows with knowledge, regurgitates information advertising nauseum, and hasn’t a clue why is a tale funny. They’d plenty in common that B-Bot didn’t even understand information had beenn’t human!

At the beginning, I’d hit pause each and every time a personality’s face indicated a feeling that has beenn’t clearly referenced in discussion. I’d ask something like, “How is Captain Picard feeling about information?” In most cases, B-Bot wouldn’t know. We’d discuss how Picard needed to work rapidly, in which he had been irritated that information had been slowing him down by giving an excessive amount of information. (usually even anything?!)

When two characters shared a steamy kiss — I don’t recall the precise scene, but I’m sure it involved Riker — B-Bot covered their hands around my throat and attempted to replicate the gesture. He’dn’t a clue that exactly what he’d seen on television had been meant to be romantic, or exactly how these types of affection differed from love between a mother and child. Luckily, B-Bot wasn’t the only one puzzled by mating traditions. Data’s attempt to date another staff member in “theoretically” wandered B-Both through fundamentals of relationship: Who’s included? Exactly what do enchanting partners do per other? Just how is an intimate commitment distinct from friendship? B-Bot had been riveted.

As casually brilliant as B-Bot is, we focused on their mindset towards other people. How will you instruct humility to a young child reading Ender’s Game while his peers are sounding out of the ABC’s? That is where Data’s instance was crucial. Yes, he knows plenty. But — unlike their bro Lore — he never ever considers himself superior to other people. TNG gives as much body weight to Deanna Troi’s psychological intelligence as it does to Data’s scientific expertise. Information acknowledges their poor places, and in the place of dismissing all of them as unimportant, he adopts an attitude of continual discovering and growth. Simply because information can’t feel thoughts does not make sure they are unimportant. Quite contrary!

Data’s relationship along with his bro has also been enlightening. He’s repeatedly hoodwinked by Lore’s duplicitousness, providing him possibility after opportunity at redemption. B-Bot had similar problems with classmates. Whenever a “friend” insisted that acceptance needs to be purchased with candy, he dutifully handed over the treats I had packed in his lunch. Dessert seemed like a small price to pay for addition. Information, however, shows that small concessions may have huge effects. In “Descent,” though he in the beginning believes experiencing emotion is worth diminishing his ethics, information shortly knows it’s not only his own well-being at risk — when he accedes to Lore’s manipulation, he nearly kills his closest friend.

Still, I did not wish B-Bot to summarize that the blunders of their 7-year-old colleagues instantly made them “bad guys” — specially since, when this occurs, he made zero distinction between a friend’s fanciful embroidering of facts (this marble is considered the most valuable jewel in the world) and deliberate deception. To their very literal brain, both were equally false. Luckily, in celebrity Trek, as with life, most dispute stems perhaps not from crooks doing bad things, but from misconceptions between well-meaning individuals. Inside classic “Darmok,” it is a language barrier. In “Galaxy’s Child,” it is the team associated with the Enterprise — the great guys! — just who unintentionally kill an unusual creature after misinterpreting its actions. The colonists in “Up the Long Ladder” see stealing cells as his or her only path to preserving personal way of living. Also, all of the conflicts B-Bot encountered in school had been largely pretty good children becoming mean, but variations in tradition and interaction. The perfect solution is had been always in an attempt to look at circumstance from another point of view — an art and craft that Data, that is unlike everybody else, models constantly.

Mirroring Data’s curiosity, B-Bot became increasingly more interested in other characters while the months progressed. Out of the blue we were having discussions about how precisely, like Wesley, B-Bot’s course in life might include unanticipated detours. Worf’s fatherhood caused discusses exactly how moms and dads tend to be fallible, too. Captain Picard demonstrated that following requests is good, but so it’s more important to perform some right thing. Riker is an example of enthusiastic consent. And Geordi taught B-Bot that diversity — including disability — is a valuable asset. 

But B-Bot wasn’t simply engaging with TNG’s ethical lessons. He had been studying personalities and facial expressions. Once we reached the subsequent months of TNG, B-Bot’s understanding of men and women, both on display screen and down, had blossomed. Not Just could he read nonverbal communication sufficiently to identify an impending kiss, he’d slap his fingers over his eyes and groan, “Eeew! Tell me with regards to’s over!” Which is, definitely, a delightfully typical reaction for an 8-year-old son. At school, he learned to take into consideration the motives behind his classmates’ touches. He expanded confident enough to seek out brand-new friendships with young ones prepared to really take him for him.

Though we’ve completed viewing all eight months of celebrity Trek: the new generation, i am aware my son’s future holds one last life training from information. Even yet in a galaxy inhabited by celestial marvels, aliens, and beings with abilities nearing god-like status, Data is undeniably various. And as a result of that distinction, he inevitably faces prejudice. Not just from outsiders, but from individuals like Dr. Pulaski also bipeds just who choose to not ever “believe” inside the personhood. In “The Measure of a guy,” we find that the Federation itself, supposed beacon of enlightenment, views Data property.

Sadly, the world is littered with those who will concern my son’s well worth, rebate his experience, and belittle him for the things he’s not. When that happens, i am hoping he can understand that while information handled intolerance with grace, he also never ever asked his own price or surrendered his claim into the same liberties and dignities afforded to their peers. I really hope he knows that for virtually any Pulaski you can find ten Picards and Rikers and Geordis prepared to fight for their legal rights. And just as information alone advocated for the recently sentient exocomps in “The Quality of Life” — we wish B-Bot will step up and talk on for all those whose sounds have yet to-be heard.

Ramsey Hootman (she/her) writes quirky contemporary fiction about rejects and nerds. She’s the author of Courting Greta and Surviving Cyril. Find this lady on Twitter @RamseyHootman.