Why Kids Hate School and What You Can Do About It
For children with learning disabilities, the start of school can be a mixed bag of emotions.
Excitement at seeing friends.
Curiosity about their new teachers and classes.
Along with these typical emotions, kids with learning disabilities may also experience another emotion that outweighs the positive ones.
Anxiety.
Anxiety about understanding the material.
Anxiety about being able to do the work.
Anxiety about appearing smart or “normal” in front of their friends.
Anxiety about their teacher misunderstanding their behavior as bad instead of confused or part of their natural wiring.
Anxiety about feeling overwhelmed and lost.
Learning disabilities and ADHD–ADHD is not an official learning disability but a diagnosis that often goes hand-in-hand with either a LD or lower academic performance–makes school much more challenging. It isn’t uncommon for children with these diagnoses to struggle with the normal academic or behavioral classroom expectations.
Even though students may know what is expected in the hallways or understand why they need to learn multiplication may not be able to actually master these skills.
Being repeatedly unsuccessful can cause kids to feel disengaged and hopeless about their school efforts. But this isn’t the only reason your child may hate school.
A variety of reasons could factor into a healthy dose of disliking school–feelings of isolation, boredom, or even something as simple as too many transitions, to name a few.
No one wants to see their child cry on Sunday night or refuse to get out of bed on Monday morning because it’s a school day. And it would be wonderful if there were one answer to sweep away all the pain and anxiety.
There’s not. But one of the best places to start is here.
Paying attention and try to tease out what’s going on. Observe. Notice.
Yes, I know a magic wand would be easier but they’re out of stock right now, unfortunately. ;)
And then what?
Well, now some good news.
There are many ways to help your child improve their situation so that they start liking (or tolerating) school more.
No daily rewards or punishments.
No complicated systems or yelling.
