If you’re a parent, you’ve been actively helping your children to learn new concepts and skills since the moment they were born. They learned to talk by imitating you and when they were old enough to go to school you helped them to study and do their homework, you see the challenges they face and try your best to teach them how to overcome those challenges and learn.

But sometimes, some things seem to be more challenging than usual, and no matter what you do the result doesn’t seem to change. The explanation might be obvious sometimes, or maybe you can’t quite grasp what’s the reason why your kid struggles so much at school and nothing seems to work.

If that sounds familiar, your kid might be a slow learner. Here we’ll tell you about some signals that your kid might need a specific approach to help them learn.

What is a slow learner?

Let’s start by clarifying what a slow learner really is, a kid that has been diagnosed as a slow learner it’s capable of learning academic subjects and skills, but at a slower pace and depth than others. There is usually more than one reason involved and it isn’t an exclusive diagnostic, the reasons could go from medical conditions to environmental factors. 

It’s important to note that this is a broad concept, every case is different and it doesn’t mean that your kid is unable to learn, but that they need specific tools and methodologies to show their potential. Now let’s talk about the signs that will help you identify the situation and take the right measures to ensure your children’s education

Short attention span

When you’re talking to your children, do they lose focus a bit too easily? You might think that this is normal, after all, they are young and are surrounded by distractions and stimuli. But sometimes we notice that it happens a bit too much, they even seem unable to keep focus for long enough periods no matter how hard they try.

There are some conditions that could explain this, mostly ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). We can write an entire article about what is ADHD and how it affects children and their studies, but right now what you need to know is that if your children have problems to focus they will find it very difficult to learn at the speed of other students. It’ll be easy for them to miss important lessons or process new concepts because their minds move too fast to a different topic.

Interestingly enough, if your children suffer from ADHD, you might also note hyper-focusing moments, but when this happens they can’t decide what to focus on, it could even be an academic subject that it’s not relevant to them at the moment. For example, they could need to improve their math but they can’t stop reading about chemistry. It’s important that you remember that this is a medical diagnosis and punishing your children for something they have no control over will do more harm than good. A tutor, along with treatment, can help them surpass their obstacles in the proper way.

Poor memory

Another signal that your children are slow learners is when they show difficulties to remember things, even simple concepts. As with everything, there could be more than one cause, a student with a short attention span won’t pay enough attention to remember what the teacher was explaining, but if the problems seem to be that they don’t remember even if they try then it’s a good idea to check them to make sure that there isn’t an underlying medical condition and acknowledge that they might need a specialized approach to learn

Difficulties to distinguish letters from numbers

Apart from other reading disparities, some kids have problems distinguishing letters from numbers. As a consequence, they will have problems reading, writing, and understanding that other students don’t have. Since students find it hard to see a difference between symbols, it might not be easy for them to communicate what is their real problem so you need to put special attention to figuring out if they can read properly.

There are techniques to help students overcome these problems, so don’t forget to encourage them and reassure them!

Following instructions is hard

Some students struggle to follow instructions, you might think that this is merely a behavioral problem, but that isn’t always the case. Some kids have problems ordering sequences and take actions in the right way or the right order, this causes them trouble to understand assignations and do simple tasks.

If your children show problems following instructions or putting things in the right order, they might be slow learners.

Reading and writing seems hard

Apart from distinguishing between numbers and letters, there’s a wide range of reading disparities that make it difficult to learn at normal speed. Paying attention and asking the right questions will help you identify or discard these problems to offer your children the right solution so that they can learn better.

Their understanding of time is blurry

Bad time management causes problems to perform tasks and study. Some students struggle a lot to develop a good understanding of time by themselves and need help to improve their learning habits as they acquire better time management skills.

Conclusion

Pay attention to the signals, ask questions, and observe your children if they aren’t performing well. You might discover an underlying problem that needs a different approach. If you identify any of these signs finding the right tutor for your children will help them to improve their results, develop more confidence, and feel better with themselves and their studies in general.

If this sounds familiar to you, check our academic tutoring service and request a test class!