7 Common Mistakes Parents Make when their Child has Difficulty with School Part 5

When smart kids struggle in school, it’s confusing and frustrating for all involved. In my experience both as a parent and working with thousands of parents, we suffer along with our kids and we will do anything to help them be happy and successful.

But since kids don’t come with instruction manuals, we have to figure it out as we go. Making mistakes is unquestionably part of the process of figuring things out.

We’ve been looking at some mistakes that many parents make when trying to deal with their children’s learning challenges.

Here’s Mistake #5…

Mistake #5 – Buy Into The Myth That Nothing Can Really Be Done To Permanently Fix Learning Problems

Old thinking insists that students with learning problems, including dyslexia, will just have to learn to live with them or find ways to get around them.

NOT TRUE!

Brain research over the last 25 years has destroyed the myth. Unfortunately, schools and colleges just haven’t caught up.

Fix the Tires

Having a learning problem is like trying to ride a bicycle with flat tires. All the effort in the world won’t make the bike not have flat tires.

Schools often provide an adult to help steady the bike seat. They keep the rider from falling, but they don’t solve the real problem.

Some tutoring places teach better techniques for riding a bike that has flat tires.

But the BEST approach is to fix the tires!

Once the tires are fixed there is no need for someone to hold the seat.

Over the last 30 years of working with thousands of children and adults with learning disabilities and dyslexia, we KNOW these challenges can change because we do it everyday.

What Does It Take to Make the Changes?

Academic and social skills are built on a foundation of underlying processing or learning skills. When underlying skills are weak, it will cause students to have to work harder and longer than they should.

In order to eliminate learning challenges, we have to identify and develop those weak underlying skills and remediate the basic academic skills (reading, writing, spelling, or math) that were affected.

While it is not an overnight process, it is not a forever process either. It takes time, commitment, and targeted and intensive training, but the brain is amazing. New and more efficient neuropathways, or connections for learning can be made, and learners who previously struggled can become comfortable and independent learners.

Is your child struggling in school? Work with the teachers and the school to get support and accommodations and to make sure that your child is understood.

But don’t assume that the school will fix the problem or that learning challenges can never really be changed. Bright but struggling students CAN be in regular or honors classes and learn as easily as the rest of the class, BUT it takes understanding and developing the weak underlying learning/processing skills at the root of the problem.

To take the first step towards correcting the problem:

Quick Answers

Can learning problems be permanently fixed?

Yes. Brain research over the last 25 years has destroyed the myth that students with learning problems just have to learn to live with them. It is not an overnight process, but it is not a forever process either.

Why aren’t school supports and tutoring enough?

Schools often provide an adult to help steady the bike seat, and some tutoring places teach better techniques for riding a bike that has flat tires. They don’t solve the real problem. The best approach is to fix the tires.

What does it take to eliminate learning challenges?

We have to identify and develop the weak underlying skills and remediate the basic academic skills that were affected. It takes time, commitment, and targeted and intensive training.