Supporting Children with Learning Difficulties

Every child learns at different speeds and in different ways. Learning doesn’t come easily to everyone – in fact, an estimated one in ten kiwi kids suffers from dyslexia or similar learning difficulties, such as dysgraphia or dyscalculia. If your child has been diagnosed with a learning disability or you suspect they may have one, we have a few tips on how to help them on their learning journey and nurture their confidence. Read on to learn more about supporting children with learning difficulties.

Get an assessment

Knowing what difficulties your child is facing won’t magically fix everything but knowing the specifics can make it easier to cater to their specific learning needs. An assessment will confirm whether there’s a difficulty with some area of your child’s learning or development, and whether your child has mild, moderate, or high learning support needs. It can help you determine if there are different styles of teaching that may help them learn more effectively. Based on the assessment, your child’s teachers and specialists may also work together to develop an Individual Plan (IP) for student learning support to help your child.

Praise effort, not results

Getting straight A’s may not be a realistic goal for students with learning difficulties, but if they are putting effort into their schoolwork, this deserves recognition. Keeping your child motivated and keen to learn is important, and if you are only focusing on results, they may feel inferior and quickly lose any motivation and enthusiasm they had. If your child is investing effort into mastering a skill or acquiring knowledge, be sure to praise and celebrate this!

Play to their strengths

Some people learn best by seeing or reading, others by listening, and some others by doing. You can help a child with a learning disability by identifying their primary learning style and using these strengths to develop learning strategies that you know will work. Once you’ve figured out how they learn best, you can take steps to make sure that type of learning is reinforced in the classroom and during home study. Help your child develop their strengths and passions. Feeling passionate and skilled in one area may inspire hard work in other areas too.

Ensure they know it is OK to ask for help

Strong support systems are key for people with learning disabilities. Successful people are able to ask for help when they need it and reach out to others for support. Help your child nurture and develop good relationships with teachers and others. Demonstrate to your child how to ask for help in different situations, such as a classroom or tutoring scenario.

Find extra help

Many children with learning difficulties can benefit from working outside of a traditional classroom environment. In an ideal situation, teachers would like to be able to invest time in helping every student whenever they’ve fallen behind, but that time just isn’t always available. The demands of classes, lesson planning, and marking means they already work long hours. 123 Tuition offers maths and English tutoring in NZ, bringing a virtual private tutor into your home seven days a week. Our tutors are real teachers who will explain each step of the learning process.

123 Tuition can offer the support you need

123 tuition is a great tool for parents who want to actively help their children grow in confidence and achieve their full potential. We provide an affordable, home-based learning and tutoring service in maths and English. Our expert course advisors are available to meet virtually with you and your children at your convenience to fully explain the benefits of our programme – book a free assessment and we’ll contact you to arrange a time suitable to you.