Encouraging children with learning disabilities-advice for teachers & parents

Do not label a child as lazy or difficult, rather try to understand them patiently and calmly!

Despite improvements in instructional quality and functional literacy, there will always be a few kids in every classroom who find it difficult to keep up with their peers' rate of learning and task completion.

Many kids who struggle to complete their schoolwork are made to feel like they are stupid or lazy, which can have a negative impact on how a person develops as a person. These kids are frequently unaware that they may have a specific type of learning disability that prevents them from completing tasks as expected.

Imagine how a child with dyslexia would feel if they were teased in class for having problems reading aloud. Or how a youngster with ADHD feels when days of studying for an exam yield a poor grade, leading them to begin doubting their intelligence.

These kinds of mini-traumas and disappointments can have lasting effects on an adolescent's personality development and severely affect that individual for the rest of their life.

It is the responsibility of both teachers and parents to support students who have been identified as having a learning disability by structuring the learning process in a way that makes it as psychologically tolerable and frustrating as feasible.

This blog will offer some suggestions on how to encourage and assist a child as they go through the emotionally trying processes of trying to fulfil their academic duties.

Advice for teachers and parents on assisting kids with learning disabilities:

The character, aspirations, flaws, and virtues of every child are distinctive; when a disability is added to the mix, it is more challenging for teachers and parents to choose the appropriate strategies for aiding learning and performing school obligations/tasks. However, there are some supporting strategies that can be broadly/comprehensively applied to every single child.

1. Foster the intellectual curiosity of children:

Every youngster begins their life with a healthy degree of curiosity, if you pay attention. As kids get older, however, if they consistently receive harsh criticism from their parents and instructors, their curiosity is frequently stifled.

Curiosity is one of the most important qualities for kids with learning difficulties when it comes to keeping up with their routines and coming up with original solutions to issues.

Therefore, instead of discouraging kids when they ask a lot of questions, give them the information they need and direct them to resources where they can learn more about the topics that interest them. Finding the area in which the youngster can excel requires exploring the fields about which they are curious.

2. Praise effort rather than results:

Parents and teachers must convey to kids with learning disabilities that effort should always come before the actual result because they can't always get excellent scores. By putting too much emphasis on the outcome, the kids may become discouraged and frustrated, especially if they constantly comparing their performance to that of other kids.

The secret to success is to outperform yourself and your capabilities, and this is only attainable by putting up the effort to master a particular talent or acquire a specific knowledge. It is only a matter of time until enough effort is put forward for the desired outcome to be realized.

3. Give them role models:

Every person aspires to fulfil their archetypes, and they typically do so through by looking up to role models, who are frequently well-known people. You might possibly inspire them to stay motivated and advance in the achievement of their objectives by giving instances of famous people who have the same or comparable learning issues.

For instance, Richard Branson has dyslexia and views it as his "biggest strength," whereas Michael Phelps received an ADHD diagnosis in the fifth grade. Leonardo da Vinci also displayed symptoms of dyslexia and ADHD.

4. Break the task up into manageable pieces and provide clear directions:

Any child should heed this counsel, but those who have ADHD should pay particular attention. It would be helpful to break a task into steps so that the youngster can progressively grasp the task's larger context by looking back at the finished portion after each step owing to their attention impairment.

The regular release of serotonin, the hormone of happiness, and a reduction in the likelihood of giving up due to the size of the job and the delayed payoff are two additional advantages of task division.

5. Encourage them and monitor their feelings on a frequent basis:

Children with learning disabilities frequently experience difficulty both inside and outside of the classroom. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the parents and instructors to keep an eye on the child's emotional state. And chatting to the child is the best approach to uplift them while they're feeling down.

There are various ways to help a youngster through talk with an issue they are having:

• Show them how to respect themselves -

This could be the best strategy for getting out of a bad circumstance and averting others like it in the future. You may support a child's development of a solid, positive personality by encouraging them and highlighting their comparative advantages.

• Partially breakdown the unfavorable circumstance - By taking this strategy, you'll be able to see the primary contributing factors to the first conflict and comprehend what truly occurred.

• Give them examples based on your own experience - Any advice is appreciated, but it's ideal if it comes from someone who has successfully navigated a scenario like the one being faced. For this reason, it's a good idea to see whether you or someone in your circle of family and friends has encountered a situation like this before and ask them how they handled it.

6. Create a genuine connection with the child:

The best way to start helping a youngster who has been diagnosed with a learning disability is to establish a true rapport by outlining what a learning disability actually entails. Because of this, depending on the child's age, you must explain that having a learning handicap does not make them any less valued; rather, they simply require a little different method of learning in order to achieve the same outcomes as their classmates in the classroom.

The teacher can experiment with various learning strategies based on the difficulty in question to determine which works best for the particular child. Finding the strengths of kids with learning disabilities and adapting those strengths to these broad supportive techniques will help them stay out of many uncomfortable situations at school and elsewhere.

It is your responsibility as a teacher or parent to put these strategies into practice and, over time, observe how well they contribute to the attainment of all of the students' desired goals and a healthy psychological growth.