Mother & Child
Dealing with A Slow Learning Child A “slow learner” is a term used to describe a student who has the ability to learn necessary academic skills but is slower than average students, he doesn’t have learning deficiency or intellectual disability (known as mental retardation), he just needs more time, repetition and additional help in order to well understand and comprehend new concepts or lessons. A slow learner has an IQ in the range from 70 to 85. Moreover, he can be having a problem with particular subjects and not necessarily with all what he is learning. This article deals with the problem of slow learners whose ages are between 3 to 10 years old.
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Do you have a slow learning child
In order to know whether a child or a student is a slow learner, you need to know the characteristics of slow learners. They cannot solve complex problems, work very slowly, and have poor concentration skills. They do not easily master skills that are academic in nature such as the times tables or spelling rules. They are sometimes immature in their relations with others. They lose track of time and cannot transfer what they have learned from one task to another well. They have difficulty in time management and determination of long-term goals. This doesn’t mean that any child who is not an excellent student necessarily falls into the category of slow learners as no one is good at everything. Also a slow learner might show only some of the previous characteristics. It’s very important to know the factors that may result in having a slow learning child so that they could be avoided. - The environment and the psychological climate in which children grow largely affects their behavior and personality especially since brain development in children takes place within the first three years. So if a child grows up in an environment that has many shortcomings, this will affect him/her.
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- Illiterate or busy parents are examples of a problematic environment for the child. At the age of three to six years, children start learning from their parents and their personality starts to take its shape. So they need their parents during that time and it’s important that their parents know how to deal with them. - Family size also plays a major role in the development of the child. In a small family a child gets attention of the parents and enough resources will be available to him/ her whereas in a large family things get more difficult. - Untrained teachers and wrong teaching methods affect the rate at which the student learns and understands. An untrained teacher cannot understand the psychology of the child, cannot identify his problems, and cannot know why the child is not learning and how to help him. On the other hand, a qualified teacher will be able to use different methods in class so that every student understands. - A big class is another problem that helps in producing slow learners. There should be only twenty to thirty students per class. Large number of students in class makes it difficult for the teacher to give attention to and communicate with all students. In addition, inappropriate course material increases the number of slow learning students in class.