How Does Your Child Feel About Learning?

How Does Your Child Feel About Learning?

Children may not enjoy learning because they dislike school, feel pressured, have a lack of self-confidence or struggle with motivation or concentration. There are many reasons why children can feel disengaged or worried about learning and finding the root cause is often complex and involving more than just one factor.

However, identifying the fundamental reasons is vital in order to be able to make learning fun again.

In this article, we take a brief look at some ways to start helping a child to become more engaged and less worried.

Authentic Self
One of the most important places to start is to encourage the child to be their unique and authentic self. Children want and need to feel seen and heard so paying attention to their strengths and interests is essential. Recognising and developing their unique gifts will encourage them to feel that they are being seen.

Praise
Being mindful and innovative when choosing words of praise can really make all the difference. ‘Your understanding of the topic is really growing’ or ‘you stuck with it and now you really understand it’ are examples of acknowledging the effort the child put in, as well as the result they achieved.

Confidence
It’s common to hear children talk about themselves negatively and using self-doubting language. As tempting as it is to counteract these statements with positive encouragement, unfortunately it rarely has an effect.

Supporting the child to learn self-acceptance and realistic self-assessment is crucial. We can do this through techniques such as active listening, creating calm, safe spaces to learn, giving choices and progressing in small steps.

Understanding
As previously mentioned, finding the cause to a child’s barrier to learning is vital. Listening to and acknowledging the child’s feelings is more effective than insisting on better academic results. Validating a child’s feelings by asking questions about their experience.

Validating how children are experiencing an event, even if different to how the parent is experiencing it, can be powerful but it’s a skill that needs to be practised.

Conclusion
Even when it feels difficult or something may not seem practical, keep going. Celebrate each win, no matter how small it might be.

When exploring a problem sufficiently, we need to create a safe space to give the child the chance to reset their energy and change their self-image as a student. Making learning as much fun as possible is the most enjoyable way to achieve this.

Interest-led projects, real-life scenarios, educational games, movement, and art can all form part of this approach.