Encouraging a Struggling Learner- (Part One)
Doggie boy riding a horse
A Struggling Learner
– A child which takes a longer time and
effort to learn as compared to their peers.
Doggie boy has been a late developer as compared to his elder brother. It takes him quite a long time to process certain information and has difficulties transferring information learned in one situation to another situation.
Application of concepts doesn’t come as naturally for him and he needs to be shown step by step ( and sometime repeatedly) before he is able to understand what is being taught.
Doggie boys way of processing information is very different from his elder brother. He is more visual and tactile while Monkey boy is able to understand perfectly well by just having text or verbal instructions. You can say that he is a more “hands on ” person and needs to be able to physically internalize any instruction before taking action on it.
He gets frustrated rather easily and have been having problems expressing himself clearly to others. He can get lost if the instructions are too lengthy or if they come in multiple steps.
Even though he is hardworking and willing to try he has difficult retaining the information taught. Previously I have tried building up his Auditory skills by focusing on the tips suggested by Thinkerbox when we went for an assessment last year. I have been trying audio books with him but it didn’t really seem to work.
Intently listening and focusing on certain key items while listening is not something that is easy for Doggie boy. Although there is a wide selection of Audio books within the library many of them are rather lengthy and I feel that it makes it more difficult to train his listening skills using this audio tool.
Doggie boy might be better of reading the passage or article aloud and listen to his own voice as the listening to the audio books were not helping him.
It is not that he is unwilling to learn but he simply can’t and it has been frustrating both him and me.
In the next part of this post I will be sharing the what I have been doing with Doggie boy to improve on his memory and learning ability.
Post in this series
– Parenting with Less Stress ( An Introduction)
– Teaching Kids about coping with the fear of Failure (Part 1)
– Teaching Kids about coping with the fear of Failure (Part 2)
– Encouraging a Struggling Learner (Part 1)
– Encouraging a Struggling Learner (Part 2)
-Dealing with a Strong Willed Child (Part 1)
April 7, 2014 @ 7:23 pm
I hope you find a method so he can learn faster. It would be good to follow your post and the methods you’d be using.
April 8, 2014 @ 10:23 pm
@Franc,
yes I am trying out some new methods on him and will elaborate more in Part 2 of this post 🙂
April 7, 2014 @ 8:07 pm
It’s very important to let your child be himself, and do things in his or her own time.
April 8, 2014 @ 10:24 pm
@Momfever,
I agree so I’m letting him lead and giving him encouragement and help along the sideline.
April 7, 2014 @ 8:25 pm
As a former teacher, this is very common. As you mentioned, a lot of it has to do with the fact that everybody has a different learning style. Effective teachers take this into consideration and make sure their lessons include all types of learning styles whether its visual, auditory or hands-on. I can definitely see (and relate) to how frustrating this could be for the both of you, but it is great that you recognize his learning differences and are addressing the issue. I cannot wait to see what you have been doing to encourage this!
April 7, 2014 @ 8:26 pm
It is amazing how different our children can be, especially in their learning styles. Each of my 7 children has learned best in their own way. It is so important to be patient and to seek new ways to present the information until you figure out which way your child learns best. Sounds like you are doing a great job helping your son!
April 7, 2014 @ 8:58 pm
It’s normal for kids to be a bit slow in learning. With patience and determination, they will get it and some people even become smarter than others as they grow up.
April 7, 2014 @ 10:43 pm
Great information as most parents I know are concerned (as in interested) about their children’s education. I have three children and they have vastly different learning styles. We try to adapt our ways of teaching them the same skills or concepts so that our way of teaching matches their style of learning.
April 8, 2014 @ 3:21 am
Hats off to parents like you. Im pretty sure, you will accomplish any work you have with you child.
April 8, 2014 @ 10:52 am
I think the key is to just find out what the learning style of your child is. The three kinds are Auditory or language learners,Visual learners or Kinaesthetic/tactile learners
April 8, 2014 @ 10:26 pm
@Leria,
True but sometimes the learning style is not so clear cut as they can be in between styles as it with my boys so I’m working on using techniques that work on all his stronger senses.
April 8, 2014 @ 3:24 pm
Oooh I like this blog series. I know this will be very beneficial to moms especially homeschooling ones. I believe it’s very important to evaluate a child’s learning style in order to help them learn optimally.
April 8, 2014 @ 7:43 pm
though I consider myself as a really fast learner since I can grasp an idea quickly, my problem is that I easily lose interest in something.. it just starts to bore me out. Is he experiencing the same? Because if he is, based on my experience, what I suggest is for you to try teaching him in various ways like acting, singing, dancing just so he can grasp them faster since it’s easier to learn if you are using your motor skills.. 🙂
April 8, 2014 @ 10:28 pm
@Justin,
thanks for your suggestion. What I have realized that it is topic/subject selective with Doggie boy and he can learn certain things- like playing games such as Minecraft really fast while other things like learning English or Maths takes really much much longer. I guess with him there is some selectivity in memory retention.
April 8, 2014 @ 9:14 pm
Looking forward to part 2. This sounds very much like Isaac.
April 8, 2014 @ 10:29 pm
@Irene,
will tag you once I put Part 2 up 🙂
April 9, 2014 @ 7:23 am
I home schooled my kids when they were young and my son has dyslexia, so it was a struggle to teach him to read and do math. I think the main thing is to be patient and allow the child to help guide their learning.
April 12, 2014 @ 3:08 pm
Thanks for sharing this one. I am looking forward for the next part.
April 16, 2014 @ 9:19 am
We all learn differently so I’m glad that you are paying attention to his style of learning… He’ll do great