Why doesn’t my child enjoy school and learning ?
Children often get labelled as lazy, not smart, slow, naughty etc because they have been triggered to stop learning. Once this cycle starts, it often becomes harder to reverse. It could be because they are bored, or they are being pushed to recite, recite, recite , or they have been force fed information in the wrong way at the wrong time. There are many other reasons – many of which would seem almost irrelevant to an adult – but of upmost importance to a 3 year old.
The thing to remember is this. ABC’s and 123’s do not have a natural interest for young children – it is only through positive interactions with learning experiences that they gain confidence and an interest in practicing and improving. They must have a natural willingness to advance. As soon as they feel overwhelmed or unhappy with “learning’ the easiest thing for them is to switch off, stop trying, and regress to easier happier activities!
This behaviour is seen all the time – sometimes it is for a small time period and then the child regains their learning confidence – but many times, especially with pressure to perform, homework to be completed etc, this switching off, of their learning development can last for months and even years. It is not until a child is 5 or 6 that he moves to the next phase of his development and thus has another chance to reengage with the world of learning.
