Concrete Answers: Why is my Child Struggling in School?

The brain grows in stages. Each stage lays the foundation for the next stage. In stage #1the cerebellum grows from birth to 7. In stage #2 the left and right hemispheres take their growth spurt from 7 to 13. The cortex starts its rapid growth spurt at 13. At 17 the frontal lobe begins its growth.

The earlier your child gets help with the learning skills that develop in each stage of brain development, the easier learning, attention and behavior will be.

If you’re trying to help your child succeed in school, you may have tried lots of programs and looked at lots of resources, but you are still looking for answers to the question:

“Why is my child struggling in school?”

Often bright children are able to use their intelligence to strategize their way through the early years of school. When these children suddenly start to struggle their parents are confused by the change. It may take a year or two to realize the extent of the difficulties.

Some children have a sympathetic teacher who doesn’t let on the extent of the struggle and the child gets to the next grade before the difficulties are noticed.

Many children have problems sitting in their chair and staying focused on the lesson they need to accomplish. Their learning struggles can be overlooked because of the difficulties with movement and attention that are easily noticed.

Children who are very verbal often don’t receive help early enough with their difficulties because they are good at talking and studying their homework out loud and the difficulty getting their ideas out on paper isn’t addressed until they have gotten way behind.

Sometimes children have strategies that are very effective that compensate for their weaknesses until the amount of school work increases and they are no longer able to cope with the larger workload.

Children who start to struggle when they get to middle school have been able to get by when they just had to learn at school but when they also have to move from class to class and remember books, belongings and turning in homework the difficulties can become overwhelming.

Many students are in high school before their parents realize they are not working to potential. The difficulty of the classes and the need to organize projects, tests and daily homework can cause some students to fall far behind before the problem is spotted.

Wherever you child is, the sooner you are able to correct their learning skill weaknesses the more effective your efforts will be. Ideally, starting to strengthen the learning skills earlier will build the strongest learning foundation in the brain. However, whenever you start, once the weaknesses are identified and corrected your child will begin to learn more easily. Your child will start to feel happier and more successful at school.

If your child is struggling with learning, attention or behavior and you’d like more information to clearly identify the struggles, go to www.hardybraintraining.com and download my report.