If Your Child Is a Slow Learner, Be Patient and Go Slower

Many mothers are concerned when they observe that one of their children is a slow learner. Today, we'll tell you how to respond.

Although many mothers and education professionals still fail to understand it, each child learns and matures at their own pace. Therefore, if your child is a slow learner, don’t be alarmed. It’s absolutely normal and doesn’t necessarily indicate any type of cognitive impairment.

Logically, some children will develop certain skills and knowledge more quickly than others. So here, there’s no need to win a race and force children to reach goals as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter how slowly the child learns.

What’s really important in this process is not to stop supporting children so that they can continue learning. If your child is slower than others, just slow down and walk patiently beside them at a slower pace.

If your child’s a slow learner, take short but firm steps

If your little one’s a slow learner, stay calm and be patient. Don’t appear frustrated, upset, or angry under any circumstances. Your child already has enough weight on their shoulders due to the pace of learning that they have. The last thing they need is the burden or pressure of trying to make you happy and feeling inferior or discriminated against.

Here, it’s important to be careful with the words you use to motivate and help them. It’s not about forcing or accelerating the acquisition of knowledge with more material and more demands. In many cases, it simply takes time.

For this reason, if you’re dealing with a slow learner, reduce the speed and intensity of teaching. Start taking slow but steady steps during this hike. Either way, the important thing is to walk this complex path together, hand in hand.

Attitudes to avoid if you’re child’s a slow learner

One of the golden rules if you find yourself in a situation where the learning and development of a child are delayed a little more than what’s considered normal is not to yell, punish, or hit them for presenting any of these difficulties.

Similarly, making absurd and hurtful comparisons is strictly forbidden. Always respect the little one’s own rhythm and don’t promote a competition that does nothing to help and makes them feel like they’re less than others.

However, it’s important to clarify that, in these cases, the secret doesn’t consist at all in simply denying this minor obstacle. Rather, you must overcome it with your little one by applying the highest doses of perseverance, patience, dedication, and a lot of love.

How to act if your child learns slowly

First of all, you must learn to help them. This doesn’t by any means mean that you should do things for them. If you do, you’ll be sending them the message that it’s mom or dad who know how to do things and that your child isn’t able to achieve things without the intervention of the adult.

Here, it’s also very important to be careful with the phrases you use to achieve this mission. This will prevent your child from feeling inferior, incapable, or even humiliated. The key is to motivate and stimulate but without hurting your child or injuring their self-esteem.

It’s especially important to review the goals set and the proposed methods, as these must adjust to the child’s age. Also, remember that teaching must be constant and that you must avoid any type of distraction throughout this crucial moment.

It’s also pertinent to focus on the teaching of basic skills that are fundamental to their adult life, such as reading, writing, and basic mathematical operations. But always making sure that the content is appropriate for the age of the child.

Lastly, don’t forget to reinforce all kinds of learning progress. As minimal as this may be, you should positively strengthen their interest in studies. Remember that in the education of children with these small difficulties, each small achievement represents a great advance.