compulsion to appear unskilled/forgetful/incompetent

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone, I am *so* behind on this list! I offer a general welcome to all the

newcomers and hope (and know) you will find the collected wisdom here very

helpful as I have.

I have a question for all the resident e & rp experts--my five-year-old Kellen has

had some good outcomes using e & rp techniques. She has a newish compulsion that

is really bothering her (and me) which is to pretend not to know something that

she does in fact know and/or to pretend not to understand, remember or be able

to do something that she's been doing well for years.

The first grading period recently ended and Kellen received unsatisfactory marks

in several things that she is in fact proficient at such as cutting on a line,

tying shoes, knowing her name and address, etc. (She's in kindergarten.) She

was even " unsatisfactory " in skills such as hopping on one foot, skipping,

etc.--this kid is a natural athelete who has been doing the skills on the

physical checklist for years! I clued the teacher in on this compulsion and she

noticed that Kellen can do the skills, but when asked to do them, suddenly she's

confused or unable. Unfortunately the marks on the report card come from

several days of the teacher testing the kids on these types of skills, not

informal observations.

Can anyone suggest an e & rp approach to this type of compulsion? She has others

along this line which all have " Kel is bad, Kel is a failure " as their bottom

line. It's killing her to have the teacher and the other kids think she's dumb,

but making ocd very happy, so says Kel. She asked me to ask the other " ocd moms

and dads " what to do! :-)

Kathy R. in Indiana