We may have had something similar to this already, but I wanted to share a moment involving my granddaughter.
My11yo granddaughter plays hockey. At a recent game, they smoked the other team 12-1. She made her first goal of the season during that game. It was the 8th goal of the game. She has been VERY hungry for a goal since the season started. But instead of celebrating her goal, she skated up to the opposing team’s goalie and said, “you’re doing a good job”. I still get a little choked up when I think about it.
My 9-year-old grandson plays organized soccer and is stuck in the goal for most of the game because he’s really good at being goalie. When the game ends, win or lose, he walks over to the forwards on the opposing team and congratulates them on a good game. He started doing this on his own after a particularly hard fought game which they won.
I’ve mentioned this before. Twenty-some years ago I used the word “retard”. My son approached me and explained why it was a bad word. He’d befriended a learning disabled classmate and he told my it would hurt his friend’s feelings to hear me talk like that.
My best friend’s daughter (age 10) has a very pronounced stutter. Sometimes my nieces (11 & 13) and I hang out with her. I’ve never seen a problem with my nieces reacting to her stutter, even when they were younger. One time I asked them if they noticed she talks differently and they said yes. I asked if they knew they had to wait to let her finish her sentences and they said yes. And it’s just never been a problem. It makes me feel good.
When my daughter was in middle school, some boys were mocking one of the special-ed boys in the cafeteria at lunchtime. My daughter and 2 girlfriends got up and went over and ate their lunch with him.