Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

Do you have a child that you know is very smart but seem to have problems when it comes to formal learning? Medically you know there is nothing wrong. So, what is going on?

I asked a dear friend of mine who has spent many years in childhood education to share her experience with us. I believe all parents should OPEN THEIR EARS AND HEARTS to her message as usually, parents are contributors to their child’s learning problem. My friend’s name is Poh Lin and she currently teaches from her home. She is especially good at working with children who are not motivated to learn. Parents usually turn to her whenever other “tuition” options can’t solve their child’s learning problem. I will give you more of her profile when she finally decides to write one for me

Below is her answer to this question of mine:
“Based on your experience, what kind of learning problems do you encounter?”

ANSWER:
I believe that home, environment and parental influence play an important part. What I am sharing here is my own personal experiences.

Generally, children with learning problems fall into these 3 categories: (Please note we are referring to normal, healthy young children. Medically, there is nothing wrong with them.)

• Age Factor or Readiness
  Nowadays parents are pushing their young children to school as early as 2 years old and to tuition centres or language centres as young as 3 years. They claim that they can do wonders and miracles to these innocent children who are still sucking thumbs, wearing diapers or still drinking milk from the bottles. No doubt, I agree exposure is important but you can do as much wonders at home spending quality time with your own children eg: playing, talking, reading, taking the child out to the park, just spending time… etc….. Every child progress at a different rate and every child will learn when they are ready.
• Short Attention Span
  This is getting common nowadays. Examples of short attention span for normal children: can’t sit still for long, fidgety, restless, easily bored, lack of focus, unmotivated, can only handle one short story at a time or a short activity at a time. One of the main factor I commonly observed is that children as young as babies are put in front of the “square box” (TV) while the maid or babysitter or mommy is busy. Most young children are kept entertained by the “square box” nowadays.
  They have no problem in retelling all the stories or movies they’ve watched from the TV or from the cinemas. They have no problem re-enacting as Transformer, Spiderman or as Gabriella from High School Musical or Barbie, but if you ask them to sit for one hour to do reading and writing, believe me it’s a HUGE challenge for some of these children. Some of these children even have problem sitting down for storytelling.

  I have a student that I am currently teaching. A very typical story nowadays. She is the only child in the family. She is very bright and intelligent. She can express herself very well in English. I believe she will score distinction for her storytelling and very dramatic as well. She was sent to me because she can’t read and write that well. She was only five then. After working and observing her for a short period, I realized that her problem was this:

  First, she doesn’t have a “big” problem.
  Second, she is just like any other normal child who just likes to play and has lots of imagination.
  Third, she has many thoughts running at the same time in her mind.

  She enjoys art and craft. She loves TV shows, movies and music. That is her main form of entertainment. To her reading from storybooks and writing may not be as exciting as watching “The Bee or High School Musical or Happy Feet”. Now how do I compete with this?



• Temporary Shut Down of the Brain
  The child is normal and smart but is bored with the same routine e.g. too much drilling of the same thing. The same story of starting school at an early age, lack of creativity, lack of stimulation, too much of rote learning or drilling of letters, words etc… When this happens, the child just turned off his/her brain to whatever that is given to him/her. They will act like they don’t know how to read simple words or recognize letters, etc…. The brain is just bored and waiting for new ideas, something fresh and stimulating.
  Just to share with you one experience I had with this special child who is very, very smart. His mother sent him to me when he was about 4 years old. At that time, he was sent to many schools and language centres. His mother wanted the best for him. He was at this popular language centre and the problem was this — he could already read but they put him in a level whereby he was drilled to write pages and pages of letters. In the end, this child just shut off his brain and refused to learn. He started to not recognize the letters when asked by the teacher. To plainly put it, he started acting “dumb”. His mom got frustrated and panicky because she realized that her son is regressing instead of progressing. She came to me and asked for help. After observing and assessing him, I realised his problem and I told his mom that she had to trust me. Believe me, it is not easy to ask a typical Malaysian mother to let me play with her child while she is paying me. It was during the school holidays and I worked with this child everyday. Instead of giving him more work to do, I decided to do the opposite. I tried to create an environment where he can play and be happy in a learning environment. I tried to get to know him and to build a close bond between the teacher and student. I try to find out what he likes and what he thinks. After that I slowly and indirectly gave him some work to do in between his play. There is learning, there is teaching but the child doesn’t realize it. It’s all in a fun way! Everything worked out fine. This child is now in Primary 4. He is doing very well in his school and he is very vocal, expressive in his thoughts and ideas, he is smart and he reads and writes very well. His plus point is his creativity in his writing.

Well, I hope this little insight has been beneficial to you. May we learn from mistakes that have been made and strive to make decisions to help, instead of hinder our children’s learning.