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- Herausgeber: Independent Thinking Press
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
Education is like a sherbet lemon: we need the structures and systems - the hard exterior - but we can easily lose sight of the magic that is at the heart of this; the teaching and learning - the fizz in the centre. Nina Jackson's mission in Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons is to put the fizz back into classrooms by solving some of the toughest dilemmas facing teachers. You know the child in the class who never asks that burning question because they worry it might make them look silly, even if everyone else is thinking the same thing? Sometimes teachers can be like that child. And they don't know where to turn to get the answers. That is where Nina comes in. The teachers' questions in Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons have been anonymised, but Nina's answers will resonate with teachers everywhere, offering support and practical advice. Nina doesn't have a magic wand but what she does have is years of experience, honesty and a commitment to help everyone be the best they can be. After all, second best just won't do! Whether you are wondering about difficulties and disagreements with colleagues, pushy parents, promotion and ambition or losing the love for teaching, Nina has plenty of tips and advice. There is wise guidance on what to do when learners keep shouting out, or chit-chatting, or won't say anything. Nina also shares her valuable insights into inclusion and learning differences including dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, ADD and ADHD, stutters and stammers, as well as addressing the sensitive issues of bereavement and self-harm. Topi covered also include: learner engagement and motivation, group work, learning styles, spoon feeding, feedback, unveiling learners' skills and talents, music in the classroom, transition from primary to secondary school, digital leaders, action research, school councils and INSET days. Suitable for all teachers - from NQTs to experienced teachers - across all subject-specialisms and phases; from primary to higher education.
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PRAISE FOR OF TEACHING, LEARNING AND SHERBET LEMONS
Nina’s book is so refreshing – and just like sherbet lemons, it’s full of fizz! But don’t be fooled by the relaxed style and easy readability. This book is packed with some serious advice and guidance which will be of use to anyone working in a school. Whether you’re an experienced head teacher or just starting out as a classroom assistant, you’ll find plenty to make you think, to challenge you, to help you, and yes, even to amuse you on those difficult days. The user-friendly layout means it’s a useful guidebook for when you’re seeking help or inspiration in a specific area, but it’s also a book you can read through from start to finish. You won’t put it down without being left with some great ideas.
John Kendall, head teacher, Risca Community Comprehensive School
If life is a box of chocolates, as Ian Gilbert reminds us in his foreword to Nina Jackson’s Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons, teachers and learners are bound to bite into some unexpected hazelnuts. We don’t need to spit blood. It’s a short step from Turkish delight to tyranny, as Edmund found in Narnia.
‘Ninja’ Jackson is a well-known and much loved educator, learner, teacher and sharer of ideas. Inspiration pours forth from her like a fountain, a chocolate fountain perhaps, and catching the drops and putting them down on paper for us all to share is her aim in this book. The process is a dialogue not a lecture: she wants to hear from us, to improve, to tweak, to learn and learn again.
The book is divided into a series of real-life questions, answered with helpful hints, think-points and resources to share. The sherbet lemon analogy refers to the gains to be had from working your way through to the fizzy centre of an idea or practice. It’s hard but utterly worthwhile. Nina discusses tough learning support issues, such as ADD/ADHD, inclusion and dyslexia. Lest this seem a little dry, Nina turns each question into a mouth-watering midget gem by asking apposite questions and suggesting leads and approaches. Difficult colleague? Ways forward are suggested. Issues with a colleague’s boring lessons? Try this.
Nina’s whole approach is collaborative, civilised and compassionate. Not for her the certainties of ‘one size fits all’. She has suggestions not solutions, openings not dead-ends. This book is a celebration of the diversity of 21st century education written by woman who is not wedded to the certainty that someone else is wrong and she is right. As a reader you can pick and mix from Nina’s sweet jar and relish the variety of flavours and styles. Nor are they all old-fashioned humbugs-in-a-jar. Nina is up on her apps and down with the digital leaders. What holds it all together is a guiding philosophy of education which has been built on and practised for several generations, as the frequent references to her family members testify. Crucially, these offerings are to be savoured and relished. Nina’s sherbet lemons are classics: instantly recognisable, totally distinctive and utterly memorable.
Dr Robert Massey, director of scholars, Bristol Grammar School
This book is packed full of practical advice and stunning resources covering many different issues that teachers, learners and parents face every day. It would make a great reference book for trainee teachers (and those already in the profession) as it provides not only a toolkit for dealing with those challenges that we all face but it also helps us to realise that we are not alone. At its heart is the importance of learning for all – teachers included.
Nina makes the simple but pivotal point that learning how to motivate and engage your learners is essential for great teaching. This is an issue that is right at the heart of every day teaching and learning. She also offers a refreshing approach to holistic education. Teachers are there to encourage all learners to be the best they can be and to develop the whole child. Later on in the book, this idea comes through more strongly with the beautiful phrase, ‘the invisible stamp’, which sums up what should be every teacher’s approach to every learner in their class.
There are some helpful ideas on coping with the reality of inclusion – the SLIM resource is wonderful. It should be printed out and put in every staffroom! And I like the way that dyslexia is seen as a gift and not a disability, if the child is also made aware of their strengths and talents. The chapter on INSETs makes some crucial points about the importance of continuing professional development ‘as long as it serves to make us even better at what we do’. The posters and artwork are powerful and meaningful. Just fantastic.
Julia Stevens, organisational development director, Halesowen College
I had the great good fortune of attending, in the 1970s, a primary school blessed with a group of highly innovative teachers for whom the child was very much the centre. The mantra of George Hartley, the head who had recruited them, was that each child had his or her own unique talents and that it was the role of the school to fan these into a flame. The range of talents within the pupil body might be very diverse, but each was to be celebrated as a God-given gift that should be developed, not only for the good of the children themselves but ultimately for society as a whole. The head’s vision for his students was ambitious and saw beyond the day when they would leave the school to move on to the local secondary schools. Allied to this was his desire to encourage learners to pursue intellectual lines of enquiry as far as they could take them, using the resources of the school and local library and enthused by the passions of the teachers. The message we, as children, received loud and clear was that learning was meant to be exciting and fun, an exploration of the wonderful world around us and of the ideas of those who had shaped it. There was a good dose of 1970s optimism about all this, but the feeling was palpable that the old, more rigid educational philosophies of the past had been thrown off and more creative approaches to learning embraced.
Hartley would, I feel, have recognised a kindred spirit in Nina Jackson. Her latest book, Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons, advances an equally pupil-centred and humane view of education, one that, while grounded in academic research and sound pedagogy, is thoroughly imbued with the author’s infectious, almost missionary enthusiasm for the process of teaching and learning. The reference in the title to sherbet lemons is not accidental. As Jackson makes clear in her introduction, ‘fizz’ is what the book is all about and refers to the excitement generated in the best lessons when the learning process suddenly comes alive for the students. Pursuing her metaphor, she talks about breaking through the hard but necessary exterior of the sherbet lemon to access the fizz within, a theme that shapes her whole thesis with its balanced but stimulating emphasis on the need for teachers to recover the motivation that brought them into teaching in the first place.
The book is remarkable for the range of topics it covers. Jackson deals with issues as diverse as pushy parents, dysgraphia, the digital revolution, learning styles and self-harm, as well as the area for which she is perhaps best known, the therapeutic value of music in education. In all, she is keen to engage readers in lively discussion, encouraging us to try the very practical hints she gives and to get back to her with feedback. Her energy and enthusiasm, with the sense she gives of being on the side of teachers overwhelmed by bureaucracy and form-filling, mean that one is swept along by her positive vision of how wonderful the teaching vocation can still be. The book is best read a chapter a day in the first instance, each being a self-contained whole that can be absorbed and reflected on before moving on to the next. After this, it can be treated as a resource to be dipped into as time allows, its value being not only to enthuse the jaded professional but also as a call to action. The question-and-answer format that begins each chapter quickly draws the reader in, the imaginary teacher asking the question always being treated with respect and sensitivity and the dilemmas posed being a compendium of contemporary teaching’s hot topics.
There are so many valuable ideas and references here that no one who feels inclined to follow up Jackson’s insights will be short of material. What makes the book especially appealing is that she wears her learning lightly, and anyone who has ever been put off by educational jargon when approaching a book of this kind will soon be reassured. Jackson is aware that tired teachers sometimes approach INSET in a mood of terror mingled with boredom, and she is clearly determined to avoid the pitfalls that lurk at every corner for the author straying into this territory. There is a very real sense that she cares about the difficulties teachers face in the classroom and that, not only does she want to help, she also wishes to inspire. I recommend Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons unreservedly to anyone who feels that their teaching lacks the fizz their students deserve. If you feel you spend all your time sucking a sherbet lemon, only to find that nothing lurks within, Jackson amply fulfils her aim of putting the inspiration back.
Stephen Oliver, principal, Our Lady’s Abingdon
Teaching is a profession to be proud of. Every day, as practitioners, we are faced with a wide range of situations which require us to find quick solutions or to think long and hard about finding the best way to support our learners to progress and achieve their full potential. Every day we ask ourselves questions and wonder whether we have done the right thing or are strong enough to carry on! Learning never stops for teachers.
Nina Jackson offers us a book full of those tricky questions that teachers have asked her over the years. Some practical and factual questions but also some delicate and moving ones. Questions about learners with learning differences, like mutism, dyslexia or dysgraphia; learners with mental health issues, self-harming or grieving; learners transitioning from primary to secondary school. Questions about educational theories like assessment for learning, target-setting, feedback and learning styles. Questions about how to use information and learning technology and move into the digital era of teaching. Questions about our teaching career, self-reflection, continuing professional development, becoming a manager or dealing with pushy parents.
With her accessible and humorous style, Nina offers a safe platform from which we can observe a range of tried strategies and possible paths, reflect on the resources available and review our own preferences and motivation, so we can move forward feeling more confident and re-energised, ready to sort out an issue or tackle the next challenge. As teachers try to cram in every last drop of the curriculum, tick every box created for us and complete endless reports, Nina reminds us of our core purpose with learners: feed the heart to feed the brain. She encourages us to break the mould if necessary, to push the boundaries and to try innovative, fun and engaging activities with learners.
The strength of this book comes from the fact that Nina mixes new and recognised pedagogical theories with hands-on practical activities and visual posters for displaying in classrooms or in the staffroom. Technology features throughout the book with useful pointers to websites, creative apps or information and learning technology tips to encourage engagement, learning or reflection. Music is also discussed with passion to demonstrate how it can feature in classrooms and act as a motivator and learning aid for learners.
Teachers always want to be the best they can be for their students, and Nina reignites our passion for teaching so we can continue to change people’s lives through education. If we can also share best practice with colleagues to reassure ourselves that we are not alone in tackling these multifaceted issues, we will benefit endlessly both on a professional and personal level. Nina Jackson, the Ninja, reminds us of the many reasons why we decided to become teachers and engages us in a thought-provoking dialogue.
This is a book to keep handy for years to come as its structure allows us to dip in and out of it easily. As our classes change and we meet new students, all with very individual learning needs, we might find ourselves asking for Nina’s honest advice again and again, safe in her embrace (cwtch) and ready for the bumpy but exciting ride of our teaching career!
Dr Barbara Van der Eecken, associate director for quality, Birmingham Metropolitan College
For Tadcu (Grandad) – Diolch
FOREWORD
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for teacher training. There are many perfectly satisfactory teachers out there who started off not knowing Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons and who now get the job done, day in, day out, and it’s their training that got them to that point. Some people, however, well, they are just born to teach.
Nina is like that.
Think about your own school days. For many people there is one teacher who made it all worthwhile, but what was it that teacher had that the others didn’t? I suggest that, like Goldilocks, these great teachers had things ‘just right’. Strict but not too strict. Up for a laugh but not out of control. Caring but not soft. Unconditionally supportive but no pushover. Relentlessly optimistic about you but honest enough to tell you when you were heading for a fall. Enough of a teacher to help you learn and enough of a human to make you feel special.
At a time when the teaching profession is being dumbed down by accepting unqualified teachers in front of our neediest classes, combined with a ‘what works’ hype machine telling us to trust neither our own senses nor our professional judgement, encouraging deeply intuitive teaching from people who genuinely care about children seems rather out of step.
But don’t underestimate the Ninja!
An experienced teacher in a number of challenging mainstream and special school settings, Nina has also been involved in teacher training at university level, has a master’s in education through her own research on the use of music for learning and motivation, is a growing expert in the use of iPads in the classroom, is regularly asked to speak on issues to do with the health and well-being of both staff and children in our schools, and is in demand across the UK and as far afield as Chile, Ghana and Thailand.
So, when people from all walks of educational life come to her for help and advice she is pretty well-placed to help.
It is this very special spirit of care, intuition, creativity, professionalism and love that drives Nina and that drives this book. Use it to reconnect with what you came into the job for in the first place. Use it to help you out of a tough spot with that difficult child. Or that difficult colleague. Use it to better understand issues around special needs and inclusion. Use it to reassure yourself that what you intuitively feel is the right thing to do may well be the very best thing to do. And use it to put the fizz back into your life and practice as a teacher, as a colleague and as a professional.
After all, if life is a box of chocolates, then teaching and learning is definitely a sherbet lemon.
Ian Gilbert
Hong Kong
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons would not have come to fruition were it not for the dedication, understanding and overwhelming support of so many people who have worked tirelessly and sympathetically with me to get this book into your hands today.
When a book is published and you see the name of the author and editor on the front, most ordinary folk think that it’s all been created by those whose names appear there. Trust me, that’s not the case. A book is created by a team of people who sometimes work day and night to meet deadlines, who collaborate to get the message ‘just right’ and who all pull together to create something they hope will give the reader joy, inspiration and with this book … allowing you to put the fizz back into teaching and learning.
Ian Gilbert – thank you for editing my work and getting my thinking right in the form of beautiful text and messages for learning. For encouraging and supporting me to just ‘be me’ – whether it’s the Ninja (who continues to move in mysterious ways in teaching and learning) or the Nina Jackson with her academic, intellectual and pedagogical stance. You started something over 20 years ago when you believed in me, and continue to be my mentor, coach and supporter. You have put the fizz back into my thinking on so many occasions that I am beholden to your wisdom and friendship. I couldn’t have done it without you. Diolch.
Crown House Publishing and Independent Thinking Press – what a team you are. You are the personification of sherbet lemons at times, and I am so grateful for your time, energy and persistence in keeping me on track – well, sometimes anyway. Special thanks to Caroline Lenton, Beverley Randell and the awesome Tom Fitton for making my text come to life on the pages, and my slight obsession with fonts and visualisations and layouts. Thanks also go to Emma Tuck for her work in copy-editing. You are indeed a patient bunch of professionals. Rosalie Williams for her superb marketing and international connections and for making Sherbet Lemons arrive in the hands of so many.
To the Independent Thinking Bubble Team who always have the coffee and tea machine running and for being at the end of the phone when anything needs resolving – in minutes, voilà … it’s done.
To my dear partner, Dic Hamer, who sees my own fizz overflowing on so many occasions and knows when it’s time to step away and let me work. Few of us have someone so patient and understanding in times of deadlines, late night typing, always knowing when it’s the right time to play jazz and not to play jazz! And yes, I’m a challenging individual at times, but his understanding of the Ninja, always on tour, and with my special peculiar ways – you get me, you tolerate me, you love me and you support me … thank you.
Olivia Loder, Olivia Gilbert and Mark Anderson, thank you for allowing us to use some of your work in this book.
This book would not be full of sherbet lemons if it wasn’t for the mastery of super illustrator and magician of all things ‘Hmmm …’ @Sparkyteaching. Thank you for making what was in my head come alive and creating fizzy visualisations, just the way I had imagined them. It is indeed an honour for Sparky and Sherbet Lemons to have a beautiful relationship in print. Thanks for being you – sparky, enthusiastic, understanding my thinking, making it real and turning the book into a wonderfully illustrated compendium of careful advice for teachers.
Finally, my thanks goes to you, the readers, the educationalists, the mums and dads, the people who want to make teaching and learning right and totally fizzy … for the children you work with or care for.
Let’s decide to be the best we can be – for the children we teach are our future.
For now it’s over and out … but do let me know what you think, won’t you?
I’m off to the shops to get some more sherbet lemons …
Nina Jackson
Craig Cefn Parc
INTRODUCTION
Do you ever wonder if how you see yourself is not the same as how others see you? Have you ever had the privilege of other people telling you what you’re really like? There was me thinking I was Nina, the teaching and learning Ninja moving in ‘mysterious ways’, but when others told me what the real me was like, I was quite shocked. Not in a bad way, but in a ‘Is that really how you see me?’ way. Wow!
I just wanted to help others as much as I could. Why wouldn’t I? I was a Ninja, but a caring one, with fire in my belly and sparkle in my eyes, wanting everything in education to be full of that special fizz that I felt when I was in the classroom. But then a friend described me as ‘one of life’s givers’ and pointed out how many people turn to me, both in the real world and online, for help, ideas, reassurance and support when it comes to the pressing sorts of problems professional teachers have but that they don’t feel they can go to their colleagues about. So, rather than a Ninja book with me on the cover in something black and tight-fitting, I’ve decided this is actually a book about sherbet lemons. Sherbet lemons? I hear you ask, why sherbet lemons?
I’ve always been rather partial to a sherbet lemon. Not just because of its hard exterior and beautifully shaped lemony looks but also because the real essence of a sherbet lemon is getting to the ‘fizz’ in the centre. When I was in a really boring lesson at school, I would always reach for a sherbet lemon from the bag I had bought from the tuck shop. Being a rather brilliant secret eater in class, I furtively used the sherbet zing to keep me awake through the direst of lessons.
Of course, getting to the sherbet centre takes a while, you know, and you have to work at it. This ain’t no easy come, easy go soft centre! For me, this is what education, schools, teaching and learning are all about. We need the solid exterior – the rigour, the rules, the systems and the structures – to make everything work. Without a hard exterior you’re all Dip Dab, and that’s not half as much fun. Getting through the hard shell makes going in search of the fizzy centre that much more satisfying, and it is here, at the core of teaching and learning, where the most magical things take place, where the real fizz happens. This is the part that really makes everything worthwhile – the chemical reaction that produces outstanding, innovative and motivational teaching and learning for everyone in our classrooms, not just the few. And fizzy teaching and learning is great. It’s exciting, it wakes you up and, boy, does it give you some zing.
However, in any jar of sherbet lemons there is always one that seems to have lost its fizz. It’s all hard exterior and no exciting middle. Not so much a sherbet lemon as one of those travel sweets that help pass the time on long, tedious journeys. This book is dedicated to the teachers I’ve met who feel like they’ve lost their zing, their fizzle, their buzz. The ones who want things to be better, who genuinely care about their practice, who want to be more than just hard exterior through and through, and who want to find the fizz again. The teachers who want the sherbet back in their sherbet lemons.
So, here we are – Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons: a compendium of careful advice to help all teachers find and re-find their fizz.
But what gives me the right to write this book, apart from a predilection for sherbet lemons? Well, looking back at my varied and interesting career in classrooms, as well as my experience working with teachers in all sorts of schools around the world, teachers, parents, friends and colleagues have always come to me when they needed someone to listen and give them advice, whether on a personal or professional level. My life to date has been full of wonderful and dreadful experiences – some very wonderful and some very, very dreadful. And each experience has contributed to me being what I like to think is a well-rounded individual, even if I am a little crazy around the edges at times. But you know what they say, ‘The cracked ones let in the light’!
That said, I have no magic wand to make things better and I certainly don’t have all the answers. In education, no one does, no matter what they claim. What I do have, however, is years of experience, an honesty in approaching whatever it is I do or want to do, and a commitment to help everyone be the best they can be. After all, second best just won’t do.
What I’ve discovered in writing this book is that is is often difficult for teachers to find someone they can approach to help them with their professional questions or queries. We are so much like the child in the class who never wants to ask that burning question because they worry it might make them look silly, even if everyone else is thinking the same thing.
Ridiculous really.
More worrying is that, with all the external pressures on schools and teachers these days, many are concerned that asking their colleagues or superiors some of the questions that are in this book might make them look like they are incapable of doing their job. And then where would they be?
Now, that’s really ridiculous.
And what about you? If you asked your head of department or head teacher the sorts of questions about learning and teaching that are in this book would they think you ‘weren’t quite up to it’?
Of course, it’s complete nonsense, but it’s a worry for many, many teachers. And this is why Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons came into being – it’s like an impartial, caring, experienced educator not linked to your school and there to offer help without judgement or bias. Here to put the sherbet back into the lemons without blame, guilt or a hidden agenda.
All the queries in this book are genuine questions from genuine teachers working in schools like yours all over the country. Of course, I have left out their names, where they teach and where they are from, but I know you will recognise many of the situations and predicaments that I address.
The answer for each query contains my thoughts as well as some background information. You’ll also notice that the answer for each question contains different icons:
I hope you enjoy the book as well as learn a tremendous amount from some of the, let’s call them ‘tricky and delicate’, questions posed by teachers. Let me know if the advice helps you, won’t you, and, of course, if you have a friend or colleague in need and they want to ask anything – and I mean anything – then send them my way. I have plenty of sherbet supplies to top up those hard lemon exteriors. And if the sherbet lemons fail then I can always slip into that tight-fitting black number and be the Learning Ninja too – or maybe that’s for another book.
1
THE DRAGON DEEP INSIDE
Q THERE IS ONE LITTLE GIRL IN MY CLASS WHO NEVER TALKS EITHER TO ME OR TO HER PEERS. WHAT CAN I DO?
A This is an important question but, in return, I have so many questions for you to consider too:
Have you seen or heard her talk to anyone else in the school?
Is she just a ‘selective mute’ in school?
Have you spoken to her parents about this problem?
Do you know if she has an existing condition, such as a speech and communication difficulty (SCD) or speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)? If so, what is the current level of support within the school? Is any medical intervention with a speech and language therapist taking place?
Has she stopped talking recently or has it always been this way?
How do you get her to communicate her thoughts, her learning, her thinking and her emotions?
Is she a happy child? For example, does she smile?
Does she look sad or is she just shy?
Does she have difficulty maintaining eye contact?
Is she reluctant to smile and at times has blank facial expressions?
Are her body movements often stiff and awkward?
Is she always alone or does she play with others without speaking to them?
Have you discussed your concerns with the head teacher or special educational needs coordinator (SENCO)?
When a child doesn’t talk at all there may be a developmental delay or they may have a medical condition. However, when a child speaks and understands language, but doesn’t speak in certain situations, they might have selective mutism. This is a condition that was once commonly associated with autism but is now recognised as an anxiety disorder. This is why it’s essential for you to understand the ‘bigger picture’ of this child’s social behaviours.
Sometimes children displaying the symptoms of selective mutism may just be considered quiet or shy at first. Often a parent or someone else (you in this case) who is familiar with the child will see that they have some or all of the symptoms. A healthcare professional who is experienced with anxiety disorders will be able to diagnose selective mutism. Early diagnosis and treatment can minimise the effects of the disorder, which can in turn reduce further issues later in life.
I will share with you my thinking and possible courses of intervention. However, I must stress that you should consider the questions above and the statements below in order to best help your pupil. There could be a number of underlying problems that are leading to her not talking.
The child is consistently unable to speak when it comes to certain social situations, like school, even though they are able to speak elsewhere, such as when they are at home and with their immediate family. This can be a vicious circle that leads to further social isolation and withdrawal. This will interfere with the child’s educational achievement and social communication. Later on, if left untreated, it will also impact on their occupational achievement.
A child will need to show signs of not talking for at least a month in order for it to be considered a possible anxiety issue. However, the first month of school does not count since a lot of children are quite shy during this time, so this shyness needs to be ruled out first.
Take into account that a child who has selective mutism may also have a tendency to worry about things more than other children do.
A child with selective mutism will be extraordinarily sensitive to noise, crowds and busy situations. They may also fear going into public places like shops, toilets or generally crowded areas.
The child will have difficulty with both verbal and non-verbal expression, which means that they can be very much in their own little world and may not always hear everything you say.
A child with selective mutism may have frequent temper tantrums at home. These can often be physical rather than verbal.
A young child with selective mutism may often cling to their parent or carer. This makes school a difficult place to settle, hence them choosing not to talk. It could also be that, due to anxiety, they are physically unable to talk due to throat spasms.
Selective mutes may appear to be excessively shy when, in reality, they have a fear of people.
A child with selective mutism may also have an anxiety disorder such as social phobia, which means they do not play well with their peers.
