1. Bluebird

Bluebird was 9 years old when her parents contacted us1. The reason for their doing so was Bluebird's increasing problems in school during the previous half year, both in keeping up with her class intellectually and in adjusting socially. She was in the second half of the third grade.

Her mother thought the main reason for her problems might by dyslexia.2 She was herself educationally oriented. Bluebird's father emphasized her habit of withdrawing into intense games of make-believe. He assumed that her excessive fantasizing was the real reason for her learning disability.

Her teacher felt that she “really was too immature for this class level.” She had been advised to wait another year before starting school because she was “under-age and immature”, at 6 years and 8 months. Now, in the third grade, she was one year behind intellectually and showed a “strange lack of adjustment in class.”

My advice to her parents was that we arrange for Bluebird to undergo some tests, especially with regard to dyslexia. I also considered it necessary to talk to her teacher and in addition have Bluebird tested by a special ed. teacher. After this we would meet to disucss her further treatment.

The tests showed no sign of dyslexia, but an accumulation of related spelling mistakes, suggesting that she had missed out on effective learning during her first years in school. Because of her age and the gaps in her education she began the third grade again the next fall, half a year after our initial contact with her.

After extensive psychiatric observation, including the use of sandbox, fingerpaint, and clay, I was able to confirm her father's assumption that Bluebird's learning disability was rooted in distinct emotional conflict. This had already resulted in serious problems in school, and I therefore arranged with her parents that she start a long-term once-a-week psychotherapy. I would brief her parents after half a year of therapy, and otherwise be in touch if need should be.

At the