What Is a Discouraged Learner?

[muskanislam99]

According to Ranstad, a discouraged learner is a student who lacks confidence in their skills or abilities at school and feels hopeless about the prospect that their situation will ever change. This negative self-talk often translates into a child choosing to fail rather than risk the embarrassment and disappointment of trying and failing anyway.

Another hallmark of a discouraged learner is tremendous anxiety about school, explains Ranstad. This anxiety manifests in repeated attempts to get out of going to school, excuses like illness, and fears surrounding the social environment at school. “In many cases, the child’s anxiety follows her home, where homework time becomes a battle zone because the child would rather fight with her parents or declare that she ‘just can’t do it’ than make an effort that could result in failure,” says Ranstad.

When parents or teachers offer help, the discouraged learner email data rejects the new learning strategies because she feels every technique she has tried in the past has failed. She would rather focus on the problems at school than talk about solutions. In essence, she has given up.

How Parents Can Help

“Parents are their child’s first teachers,” says Ranstad. Because parents have a strong influence early on, there are a number of steps they can take to prevent discouragement, or catch it before it’s too late.

Manage Your Expectations

A discouraged learner’s feeling of helplessness sometimes makes the parents feel helpless themselves, or angry that their hopes and dreams for their child are not being realized, despite the child’s immense potential and the parents’ own history of academic success.

“It’s only natural for parents to have expectations and plans for their child,” notes Ranstad. “I raised three children and expected that because I found school to be a wonderful experience, they would go on to achieve great success there as well. It was a real learning process, even as a trained educator, growing to know and accept them for who they are.”

Though high expectations are essential to your child’s success, those expectations must also be realistic, based on a firm understanding of your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Just as not all children excel in every area, despite having the greatest potential, not all children share the same interests and abilities. Liberating your child from the obligation to be like her parents or fit a pre-determined mold sets her free to excel in her own right.