Things You Can Do to Encourage Your Child with a Learning Disability

Posted by Groshan Fabiola
7
Nov 27, 2019
2049 Views

For a child with learning difficulties like dysgraphia, dyslexia and dyscalculia it can be challenging and sometimes even impossible to accomplish the same results as her peers. Kids who struggle with these impediments usually get to develop low self-esteem, especially when their learning disability goes untreated or undiscovered at the right time.

 As a parent whose child has  a learning disability, the first step you should consider is to understand your child’s difficulties and to find out how these might affect his self-help skills, discipline, play, independence and communication. Focusing on your child’s strength might have an extraordinary effect.  This can build his self-esteem and boost his communication skills. Although you must offer him the necessary attention and care, you must learn the delicate balance between according too much or too little assistance. It is important to have patience because in time you child’s needs can change with age, expectations at home, school and in other social contexts.


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Learn to Put Things in Perspective 

Make your child aware of the fact that people in general, have various things that they’re good at and things that are too complicated for them. This should be the first things a parent whose child must acknowledge. Everyone is different and beautiful in their own way, and everyone can have strengths and weaknesses.

You should remind your little one, every time you get a chance, that perfection is not important and mistakes are the core of the learning process. This should be an essential part of the healing process when your child starts to accept mistakes and use them as a guide to learn better. The way your child is perceiving things is very important. Once he has learned to use mistakes in order to get better will make it easier for him to maintain a positive attitude and take care of his self-esteem.

Keep Them Motivated

We know how complicated can be to keep your child’s motivation high while he struggles with inferiority feelings. Often there is a certain subject or area where he just can’t make it right. A great solution for that would be to choose something that already has sparked some interest and pleasure in your child’s taste. Be kind, patient and explain to him why a certain task is worth doing. 

A great alternative would be a speech and language therapy group, which is perfect if you wish to increase your child's speech abilities and self-esteem. Many parents have chosen this alternative and you should consider it too. Keep in mind that whenever you start doing homework together, you should let him decide which way is easier for him and what he likes to do more. Make a schedule, plan a day with all sorts of fun activities to make studying more enjoyable.  

Praise their efforts over performance

You should learn how to praise your child's efforts rather than the outcome. Whenever he is trying his best, you must recognize his efforts and even praise him for that. It doesn’t matter how small the efforts are, they exist and your child should be aware of that.

 Many people usually forget about the importance of parental motivation. Rather than focusing on the right or wrong answers, eliminate this judgmental thinking and praise him as much as you can for the little efforts. Mistakes are very humanly and you must teach your child about that. To encourage you child properly it’s not the hardest thing to do, and you must take as a necessary tool to boost your child’s self-esteem and beat his learning difficulties.

Share your Own Experience 

Because everyone at some time has experienced more or fewer difficulties in learning, your child needs to associate with different aspects of the learning process. Every parent or teacher might explain how they dealt with a subject that proved difficult or just wasn’t their favourite. Not everyone realizes how important is to share your past experiences with your child. They will automatically learn how to be more open about their feelings, and this might be a great time to create a bond with your children.

 It’s important to find in school sometimes that your child enjoys. This is how you hook him into learning. There is always something your child craves after, and you should discover what. Make time to find out what he enjoys and reward him for the smallest achievement.  

Give Them Time 

 Don’t just jump to help your child when he encounters difficulties with his homework, just wait to see if he can figure it out by himself. Another he mistakes that parents whose children are struggling with learning difficulties might be that they don’t even allow them to figure it out by themselves. They often are over-protective or they just don’t have enough patience. 

Your child can, and he will in time, manage to untangle things by himself if you motivate him enough. Create a schedule for you and your child. You can even create a habit from studying, reading and playing together. Create a routine from reading together a book every night before sleep. Show him the fun part of studying, don’t push him to do what he disagrees. Between the hard task, he has to handle, create a space between them with easier tasks so he can have a moment to enjoy and be aware of his advancement. After every study session, make a routine reward him with whatever sparks his joy.  

 

For any child with a learning disability is necessary to be integrated into everything that requires reading or speaking. You should consider literacy activities such as reading, writing and speaking. Read him aloud, teach him about the multiple ways in which he can express himself and how this is the best thing he should do to conquer his learning fears. Usually, reading to children can help them perceive the difference between written and oral language and accentuate meaning. There are various creative ways to engage your child reading and speaking skills, you only have to find which one suits him the best.


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