Things You Should Know About Slow Learners

Learning is an essential but complicated process that anyone pursues throughout their life. In the education sector, changes are inevitable to meet current needs. Although some children can adapt to the rigid, fast-paced style of learning, some may have a difficult time adapting to it. This creates a learning gap between their true ability and performance level.

For most Asian parents who think that their child is a slow learner, they assume that he or she isn't trying hard enough. Though it can be difficult for parents to accept the reality about their child's learning ability, parents need to know that only they can take the steps to help make their child's life easier.

Moving forward, we’ll discuss some of the things that parents should know about slow learners and how they can help make their child’s life easier.

Who is a slow learner?

A slow learning child is one whose thinking skills develop at a much slower rate than those of his/her peers. Also, it’s commonly misunderstood by parents that their children fail at learning as opposed to learning at a slower rate, when in fact every child learns at a different pace.

Depending on their learning ability, slow learners tend to have specific difficulties which affect their development growth. Some of which include listening, speaking, and writing. Regardless, there will always be a developmental gap between the child’s potential and achievement.

Characteristics of Slow Learners

There are many ways for parents to identify whether their children are struggling to learn and achieve basic developmental milestones. This can be categorised into four – developmental, social, personal, and educational.

1.  Developmental

Children with developmental learning disorders may exhibit poor memory and experience speech delays which can affect their language learning ability. This means that your child may take longer to start speaking or require prolonged and repetitive lessons to be able to learn some concepts.

2.  Social

Children with social learning disorders typically relate or play with children who are younger than them and avoid interacting with their peers. Their behaviour also tends to be less mature and often mimic those of younger children. The social exclusion may lead to these children being labelled as introverts due to their inability to connect with their peers.

3.  Personal

Children with personal learning disorders tend to have lesser control over their emotions, causing them to feel angry or frustrated more quickly, express anxiety over minor issues or get depressed over setbacks. If these children are left uncared for, they're more likely to experience issues with their self-esteem and are prone to emotional instability.

4.  Educational

Children with educational learning disorders typically take longer to understand and process any information that’s given to them. In some cases, they may be unable to retain what they learn. Also, they have a short attention span that causes them to have poor concentration skills. For these reasons, slow learners have often dubbed underachievers.

Causes of Slow Learning in Children

There is no right or wrong in the ways you nurture your children. When it comes to caring for slow learning children, parents need to be patient as it takes time to fully grasp the situation. While there’s no clear cause of slow learning in children, there are several reasons that may cause slow learning in your children.

1.  Trauma

If your children have gone through shocking events in the past, it may cause them to experience developmental delays. Besides, it’s widely known that trauma of any nature, be it physical or psychological, can have the same impact on children as they’re more sensitive during their younger years.

2.  Medical issues

Much like experiencing a trauma, children with medical issues especially those related to their brain may experience slow learning while growing up. Also, diseases related to the nervous system can affect the children's progress in achieving various learning milestones. Oftentimes, medical issues are treatable but in some cases, they can only be managed.

3.  Parental issues

In many instances, parents fail to realise that their actions or behaviour can affect their children’s learning ability. For example, parents who are always busy with their work may neglect their children’s affairs, causing them to feel insecure and keep everything to themselves. Also, it may cause their children to develop poor communication skills.

4.  Pampering

Some parents tend to over-pamper their children, from solving the little problem to solving every single problem in their life. The learning process requires action and some failure. Pampered children, however, don't get the opportunity to learn what they should due to their parent's overpampering nature. Thus, causing a delay in their learning process.

Challenges Faced by Slow Learners

Slow learning children tend to face many challenges throughout their lifetime. This includes keeping up with their peers in school, difficulty in staying focused or motivated during their learning process, the struggle to communicate and build connections with people. For you to fully understand the possible challenges of your slow learning child, it’s best to seek a child learning and developmental specialist.

Slow Learning vs Learning Disability

As we mentioned earlier, slow learning children are those whose thinking skills develop at a slower rate than those of their peers. Children with learning disabilities, on the other hand, have difficulty in one or more areas of learning despite their continuous effort and regardless of their intelligence level or motivation.

Treatment for Slow Learners

There are various ways for parents to help improve their children’s learning abilities. Some of which include special education and counselling, as well as a little bit of patience and tolerance.

1.  Special Education

When you provide special education for your slow learning children, it may help them to fully understand a concept after several tries and repetitive lessons. However, note that the improvement may be slower than expected due to below-average intelligence. 

Perhaps with more stimulation, your children may begin to understand what they’re learning as well as improve the social aspects of their lives.

2.  Counselling

Much like your regular counselling for any misbehaviour, going for a counselling therapy can help your children cope with the daily demands of their lives as well as develop socially appropriate behaviour. That said, you should also attend the counselling session to better understand your role in helping to improve the life quality of your slow learning children.

Every child has a different talent, including those with slow learning ability. Instead of focusing on their shortcomings, give them your full attention and support to boost their confidence and motivation. At Well Rehab, our counselors will help you improve your children’s learning ability.