Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Reading, numbers and learning differences
A child who talks well, listens well and seems bright will have their reading failure read as laziness. The strengths are exactly what makes the blame stick.
Strong spoken language, decent attention and an easy manner give an impression of capability that nobody can square with work coming back unfinished. So the gap gets explained by effort, because effort is the only thing an observer can picture. In the meeting, say the numbers out loud: here is where this child is strong, here is where this child is at the floor, and both are true of the same person on the same morning.
Qur’an and Sunnah
No one group of men should jeer at another, who may after all be better than them (Quran 49:11). The verse assumes the outward impression can be exactly wrong, which is worth holding on to when a child's manner has been mistaken for their capability.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لَا يَسۡخَرۡ قَوۡمࣱ مِّن قَوۡمٍ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُونُواْ خَيۡرࣰ ا مِّنۡهُمۡ وَلَا نِسَآءࣱ مِّن نِّسَآءٍ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُنَّ خَيۡرࣰ ا مِّنۡهُنَّۖ وَلَا تَلۡمِزُوٓاْ أَنفُسَكُمۡ وَلَا تَنَابَزُواْ بِٱلۡأَلۡقَٰبِۖ بِئۡسَ ٱلِٱسۡمُ ٱلۡفُسُوقُ بَعۡدَ ٱلۡإِيمَٰنِۚ وَمَن لَّمۡ يَتُبۡ فَأُوْلَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلظَّٰلِمُونَ
Believers, no one group of men should jeer at another, who may after all be better than them; no one group of women should jeer at another, who may after all be better than them; do not speak ill of one another; do not use offensive nicknames for one another. How bad it is to be called a mischief-maker after accepting faith! Those who do not repent of this behaviour are evildoers
Qur’an 49:11read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A comparison study found students with learning disabilities reported more academic procrastination and lower belief in their own capability than their peers, which suggests being seen this way over years does something to what a student thinks they are able to do. It is cross-sectional, so it cannot say which came first. Either way, the word lazy is worth arguing with early rather than late.
Hen M, Goroshit M. (2014). Academic procrastination, emotional intelligence, academic self-efficacy, and GPA: a comparison between students with and without learning disabilities.. Journal of learning disabilities doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
People judge how hard someone is trying from what they can see, and the visible part of this child is their strength.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Before adding more content, look at what the child has to receive it with: attention, memory for what was just said, language. Two children given the same lesson do not take away the same amount, and that difference is usually where the real gap sits.
Ask a struggling ten year old what division actually is and you will often get a blank, or a method with no meaning under it. Going back to what each operation does is usually worth more than another go at this term's work.
Invent words together. Say a made up word, pull it apart into its sounds, put it back, then take one sound out and hear what is left. The nonsense is the point, because there is nothing for memory to fall back on.