The Slow Learner!
As a home school parent I wish I could say I don't compare my children to other children... But the truth is I tend to rate my children by well my other children. I compare how they preform at the same age or grade doing the same task. So today is an encouragement to my self and hopefully others. My daughter has in my mind been my slow learner....
As I researched how to help and enable her learning style I came across what the true definition of the term I called slow learner.. The clinical term slow learner is described as a student who has the ability to learn all of the academic skills, needed but at a rate and depth below their average peers. So the example they gave was if it takes a average 1st grader 16 week to learn a task, it could take a slow learned 32 weeks or more for the same task. The explanation behind this is that most slow learners reasoning skills are typically delayed, this makes picking up new concepts difficult for the child to learn and understand. This next lesson was really hard for me because we're taught as parents to try to fix what we see and consider broken.... The fact is that most slow learners don't need special help, no special educational tricks ( they don't need to be fixed). To be honest research shows that with support and patience more often than not the problem areas become less and less.
We worry as parents, as home school moms and dads we want to make sure we give them everything they need to be successful. That's a lot of pressure.... Be encouraged that many famous people were what the system would now consider a slow, non progressing learner! Albert Einstein was labeled a slow learner, average, he struggled with long division and had a hard time with anything he had to memorize. He went on to become a noble prize winner. My point to all of this and I find myself guilty of this, we have to watch what we say but also what we think, We unknowingly label our children and ourselves, I find myself saying or thinking how difficult a child is, how she would learn more if she day dreamed less,,,, I don't see the effects of what I do to myself and them...
My thoughts turn into words and my words into actions, both which might inhibit them from becoming who they were meant to be, What if I/we were to start saying our children are genius, as with adults these little people have their strengths and weaknesses. Thank God.... What if this educational box that is set for everyone might not be a fit for everyone. If having to be scored on this perfect triangular box many will fail. They fail not because they are failures but because their round not triangular... So as this new years starts lets be committed to embracing our learners no matter the shape...
As I researched how to help and enable her learning style I came across what the true definition of the term I called slow learner.. The clinical term slow learner is described as a student who has the ability to learn all of the academic skills, needed but at a rate and depth below their average peers. So the example they gave was if it takes a average 1st grader 16 week to learn a task, it could take a slow learned 32 weeks or more for the same task. The explanation behind this is that most slow learners reasoning skills are typically delayed, this makes picking up new concepts difficult for the child to learn and understand. This next lesson was really hard for me because we're taught as parents to try to fix what we see and consider broken.... The fact is that most slow learners don't need special help, no special educational tricks ( they don't need to be fixed). To be honest research shows that with support and patience more often than not the problem areas become less and less.
We worry as parents, as home school moms and dads we want to make sure we give them everything they need to be successful. That's a lot of pressure.... Be encouraged that many famous people were what the system would now consider a slow, non progressing learner! Albert Einstein was labeled a slow learner, average, he struggled with long division and had a hard time with anything he had to memorize. He went on to become a noble prize winner. My point to all of this and I find myself guilty of this, we have to watch what we say but also what we think, We unknowingly label our children and ourselves, I find myself saying or thinking how difficult a child is, how she would learn more if she day dreamed less,,,, I don't see the effects of what I do to myself and them...
My thoughts turn into words and my words into actions, both which might inhibit them from becoming who they were meant to be, What if I/we were to start saying our children are genius, as with adults these little people have their strengths and weaknesses. Thank God.... What if this educational box that is set for everyone might not be a fit for everyone. If having to be scored on this perfect triangular box many will fail. They fail not because they are failures but because their round not triangular... So as this new years starts lets be committed to embracing our learners no matter the shape...
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