As a speech and language therapist supporting children in their speech and language development, I work with parents and support them too.
If you are a parent helping your child with any area of school work they struggle with, (not necessarily just with language), here are principles you should be aware of:
1. Do remember that if your child is struggling with a skill or a concept, and you are the one trying to explain or teach it, the two of you have very different ways of thinking, or processing. What seems to be a good, logical explanation that you make up, using your way of thinking may not be the best way for your child to understand, with his or her way of thinking.
(There is a name for this phenomenon, coined ‘the curse of knowledge’. While the name may sound very serious and threatening, my understanding of what the author is saying is that, in effect, once you know something, it is hard for you to know what it is like to not know it; i.e. if you are a teacher, teaching something you know how to do, it is hard to understand what it is like for your student who does not know. You can Google the term for more information if you wish.)
What this means for you is that it is important to observe your child and do your best to ‘get inside his head’ to find the best way to help him understand from his perspective. Ask him to show you, or observe how he approaches a problem or question before jumping in with your ‘better idea’ or solution. Be aware that there are alternatives, and seek out ideas.
For example, if a child is already struggling with language and having difficulty answering questions about ‘When…?’ or “Why…?’, it is probably not a good idea to add more lengthy explanations and linguistic information that is taxing for him to understand. It may be logical and ‘easy’ to you, but it likely is not going to be easy for him. (If it were, he wouldn’t be having trouble in the first place!)
A really compelling case for this pitfall is presented in the book ‘Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World’ by Jeffrey Freed. While targeting ADD or attention deficit, this book is highly relevant to understanding children with language difficulties because the language areas of the brain are predominantly (though not exclusively) in the left brain.
I will be posting more of ideas I find myself sharing with parents. These are tried and tested techniques that have proven effective, not because I think so, but because hundreds of children have proven them so.
Please join in the discussion and share your tried and tested ideas or simply post your biggest frustrations. Has this helped you?