Eldest (8) is...inappropriately social. He'll approach total strangers and ask them to give him things, he'll rattle off his name, address and phone number without prompting, he'll do silly dances in public in order to amuse small children.
(This last managed to really upset a woman with a baby at the barber shop a few months back; he just WOULDN'T leave the woman and her child alone until I got him sufficiently distracted.)
Physically he's eight. Intellectually, maybe a little older. Emotionally, he's maybe four. It's led to a few problems.
But....
Last week, we attended a series of five plays that his school put on -- 2nd through 4th grades, with Eldest being one of the second graders.
All-in-all, something like 80 different kids, with maybe 2/3rds of them having speaking parts.
Eldest was the ONLY child who delivered his lines audibly. Every other child talked quietly, or mumbled. But Eldest enunciated, and he emoted, and he chewed the scenery like Brian Blessed...only shorter, skinnier, and a lot less hairy. Multiple people told us how impressed they were.
I'm still a bit amazed, in truth. A little less so now that I've learned that he puts on "shows" after school out out front window for the little kids who attend the in-home daycare next door...but still.
It bodes well, I think.