DANVILLE — Like they are for a lot of kids, Dalton Kropp’s middle school years weren’t his favorite.

Most people can identify with feelings of awkwardness, and all the new experiences kids face in the ‘tween years.

But Dalton, who will be a freshman at Danville High School this fall, had a lot more on his mind than first crushes, class schedules and adolescent blues.

He had ghosts following him.

Dalton will share his story with the world July 14, when his episode of the show “Psychic Kids” premiers on A&E.;

The show depicts his first experience with the paranormal.

If Dalton and his family fully believed the teen’s psychic gift, he might have beat law enforcement to the resolution of one of Vermilion County’s highly publicized unsolved missing person’s cases.

Dalton believes his psychic abilities showed him what happened to Ryan Katcher, a local teenager who disappeared six years before.

A discovery

Dalton and his dad, Larry, were fishing at Kickapoo State Park in July 2006. The father and son often went on fishing trips, and this one started out like any other.

Dalton jumped into the water to cool off when suddenly, he started feeling strange.

“He was very anxious, and he wanted to leave,” Larry said. “He wouldn’t say why, but he was freaking out.”

Why his 13-year-old was suddenly afraid of the lake completely baffled Larry, but Dalton was adamant.

The two began getting the boat out of the water. Dalton put his hands in the water to pull up the anchor, and he got what he describes as a slideshow of events in his mind.

He clearly saw a truck going into the lake with a person inside.

Even though the sudden vision frightened him, Dalton told Larry what he was seeing.

He said the teen, whose body was well-preserved, was at the bottom of the lake in good condition in the vehicle.

Larry refused to believe it, and he told Dalton the park had been combed by investigators. They searched the lake and didn’t find anything.

“At first he didn’t believe me for like two weeks,” Dalton said. “He said, ‘you’re just paranoid.’”

But his dad’s opinion began to change later that month when Katcher and his truck were found with the help of new sonar equipment.

“Two weeks later, they pulled him out,” Larry said.

When the family saw the headlines, they were dumbfounded.

Larry felt terrible for denying Dalton’s experiences and apologized to him.

“He actually saw him,” Larry said. “He knew he was there.”

His family didn’t know what to think of Dalton’s gift.

“They really didn’t say that much,” he said. “My dad was pretty creeped out; my mom didn’t know what to think.”

Although it seemed a case had been solved, the haunting had just begun for Dalton.

“I was getting pretty frustrated with him,” Larry said.

Every time Dalton went into their basement, he got scared and wanted someone to go with him.

“He wanted me with him all the time,” Larry said.

“I didn’t know what to say. I had a suspicion that something was going on with him.”

Dalton’s newfound powers were a distraction at school.

As classes started that year, Dalton found it harder to concentrate. He describes his new sensitivity as an awakening.

“I could feel what other people were feeling,” Dalton said.

At South View Middle School, he would sit in class and sometimes hear other people’s thoughts as he tried to do his work. He had visions that constantly raced through his mind.

He said he would sit in class worrying about his own sanity.

“I would be thinking about ways to deal with it,” he said.

His grades were low enough that year that he had to repeat seventh grade.

Dalton’s best friend, Michael Hubbard, wasn’t sure what to believe about Dalton’s experiences at first either.

“Every once in a while, we’d talk about it,” Hubbard said.

“I didn’t believe him, but I wanted to.”

Larry feared for his son’s sanity at times, and had him evaluated by doctors.

But all tests and evaluations revealed that Dalton’s mind is normal.

WATCH THIS

The “Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal” episode featuring Dalton Kropp’s story will premier this month on A&E.; Air times are 9 p.m. CDT July 14 and 1 a.m. CDT July 15.

Visit Dalton’s blog at http://www.freewebs.com/daltonkropp/index.htm. In his blog, he gives advice to kids who believe they’re haunted or having paranormal experiences.