EFFECTIVE LEARNING SERIES: Dyslexic? Don't Worry. These Qualities/Attitudes Will Help Him/Her To Learn To Spell, Read And Write Very Well.
"I 'm just paying huge sum of money every year for nothing. In all these years that you have been going to school you haven't even learnt to read and write well enough for your younger sister's age. Children that attend schools that ain't as prestigious as yours have no difficulty reading and writing. I don't think I can continue with this. Very soon I'll take you to Alaba market to learn to sell electronics." - Mr Onyekachi scolding his dyslexic son, Chris.
"Favour, I don't think you can cope in school any longer. We have tried all that we could to make you improve with your spellings and reading but all to no avail. Yet your parents won't stop complaining. You can't continue to set the other pupils in the class backwards. Maybe I will tell your parents to allow you to go and learn some trade or to find another school for you. We have tried our best here." - The principal of one of the famous private primary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria talking 'unprofessionally' to a dyslexic pupil after the boy's class teacher went with the boy to his office to tell him how the innocent boy "has refused to learn and thereby frustrating me in the class." (The teacher's words in quote.)
Many children and sometimes adults with any form of learning need/challenge face serious harshness from several quarters in Nigeria. At home, their parents scold them with obvious hatred; and their siblings make jest of them a lot. At school, the supposedly knowledgeable teachers worsen the matter. They treat these children with untold harshness calling them names: dullard, olodo, slow-learner, playful lot, 'coupon', empty brain, block head and the like. It's always very pathetic whenever I see teachers who should know better 'molesting' these children like this.
The friends of these young boys and girls are never left out of the list of people that intimidate them.
Most times, the child with dyslexia or dysgraphia or dyscalculia or any other learning need is a very intelligent pupil. He or she only has a 'little' difficulty in a certain part of his or her mind. In life everyone has his peculiar challenge. There are people that are shortsighted, there are those that have rickety legs, there are people that have challenges with fatness, some have hearing and/or vocal needs and so on. No one is perfect. Children with special education challenges only need some help. The help having to do with their ability to learn and do certain things. They are very excellent in other aspects of life. No sane parent, teacher or whoever will blame a child for being shortsighted and so for not being able to see the board well in class. Of course, it isn't the boy's or the girl's fault. It is Mother Nature's fault. Likewise nobody in his right sense should blame or scold a child for having a learning challenge.
Rebecca was an SS 1 or year 10 student. A new teacher in her school asked everyone in the class to write their name and home address on a piece of paper. When the students submitted the paper to her she was surprised to see something like this: "rebbca Akidobe house 9 ....... GRA IKEla".
As the teacher glared at the list with suprise, some of the pupils began to smile and talk silently.
"Is anyone here Rebecca or something like that?" The teacher asked.
Immediately, the whole class burst out laughing hysterically.
"Class, what's the problem?"
"It's Rebecca ma. She writes very poorly.
The teacher could not manage the situation well enough, unfortunately. And that day became Rebecca's last day in school.
There are numerous stories of how parents, teachers, headteachers, siblings, classmates and friends have frustrated children with learning needs out of school. These people, in ignorance, do things that worsen the challenge rather than alleviate it. Many young ones that could have grown up to become highly successfully people in laudable careers have rather become touts, nuisance, gangster, drug addict and so on all because there was no one to manage their learning or psychological challenge rightly.
Kayode was an eighteen years old boy. He had noticeable difficulty spelling, reading and writing. He had good SSCE(WAEC) result. He was admitted into a polytechnic when he was seventeen. After being there for a year he could not continue. And he dropped out.
Some months ago one of our clients at the Be-Noble Home School, Lagos introduced us to Kayode's mother. On meeting the boy's parents the father insisted that he had nothing to do with the boy's formal education any longer. He said Kayode's mother in conjunction with the authorities of the primary and secondary schools the boy attended pushed him through school until he got to SS3 class. The man said he was rather surprised that his son had very good 'WAEC' result even while hr could hardly read.
He further told us that had his wife, Kayode's mother, listened to him while the boy was much younger, things would have been better for the boy. According to him, he said he had always told the mother to allow the boy repeat classes. But his wife would not hear of it. He said the woman got many teachers for him but they only came, collected their money and not changed. Kayode's father told us that if all the teachers, both at home and in the school, that have taught his boy while he was much younger could not achieve anything tangible with him, then there was nothing we could do also "especially now that the boy is an adult. He said we had only come to collect his money just as other tutors did in the past.
We told him that we had four guiding principles which we follow in dealing with our students and most especially those with special learning needs.
At the Be-Noble Home Tutors, Lagos, we have used these four attitudes to drastically better the lot of our students with one learning challenge or the other. They are:
1.) LOVE,
2.) PATIENCE,
3.) CONSISTENCY and
4.) PERSONALIZED LEARNING SESSION WITH AN EXPERIENCED TUTOR.
"Favour, I don't think you can cope in school any longer. We have tried all that we could to make you improve with your spellings and reading but all to no avail. Yet your parents won't stop complaining. You can't continue to set the other pupils in the class backwards. Maybe I will tell your parents to allow you to go and learn some trade or to find another school for you. We have tried our best here." - The principal of one of the famous private primary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria talking 'unprofessionally' to a dyslexic pupil after the boy's class teacher went with the boy to his office to tell him how the innocent boy "has refused to learn and thereby frustrating me in the class." (The teacher's words in quote.)
Many children and sometimes adults with any form of learning need/challenge face serious harshness from several quarters in Nigeria. At home, their parents scold them with obvious hatred; and their siblings make jest of them a lot. At school, the supposedly knowledgeable teachers worsen the matter. They treat these children with untold harshness calling them names: dullard, olodo, slow-learner, playful lot, 'coupon', empty brain, block head and the like. It's always very pathetic whenever I see teachers who should know better 'molesting' these children like this.
The friends of these young boys and girls are never left out of the list of people that intimidate them.
Most times, the child with dyslexia or dysgraphia or dyscalculia or any other learning need is a very intelligent pupil. He or she only has a 'little' difficulty in a certain part of his or her mind. In life everyone has his peculiar challenge. There are people that are shortsighted, there are those that have rickety legs, there are people that have challenges with fatness, some have hearing and/or vocal needs and so on. No one is perfect. Children with special education challenges only need some help. The help having to do with their ability to learn and do certain things. They are very excellent in other aspects of life. No sane parent, teacher or whoever will blame a child for being shortsighted and so for not being able to see the board well in class. Of course, it isn't the boy's or the girl's fault. It is Mother Nature's fault. Likewise nobody in his right sense should blame or scold a child for having a learning challenge.
Rebecca was an SS 1 or year 10 student. A new teacher in her school asked everyone in the class to write their name and home address on a piece of paper. When the students submitted the paper to her she was surprised to see something like this: "rebbca Akidobe house 9 ....... GRA IKEla".
As the teacher glared at the list with suprise, some of the pupils began to smile and talk silently.
"Is anyone here Rebecca or something like that?" The teacher asked.
Immediately, the whole class burst out laughing hysterically.
"Class, what's the problem?"
"It's Rebecca ma. She writes very poorly.
The teacher could not manage the situation well enough, unfortunately. And that day became Rebecca's last day in school.
There are numerous stories of how parents, teachers, headteachers, siblings, classmates and friends have frustrated children with learning needs out of school. These people, in ignorance, do things that worsen the challenge rather than alleviate it. Many young ones that could have grown up to become highly successfully people in laudable careers have rather become touts, nuisance, gangster, drug addict and so on all because there was no one to manage their learning or psychological challenge rightly.
Kayode was an eighteen years old boy. He had noticeable difficulty spelling, reading and writing. He had good SSCE(WAEC) result. He was admitted into a polytechnic when he was seventeen. After being there for a year he could not continue. And he dropped out.
Some months ago one of our clients at the Be-Noble Home School, Lagos introduced us to Kayode's mother. On meeting the boy's parents the father insisted that he had nothing to do with the boy's formal education any longer. He said Kayode's mother in conjunction with the authorities of the primary and secondary schools the boy attended pushed him through school until he got to SS3 class. The man said he was rather surprised that his son had very good 'WAEC' result even while hr could hardly read.
He further told us that had his wife, Kayode's mother, listened to him while the boy was much younger, things would have been better for the boy. According to him, he said he had always told the mother to allow the boy repeat classes. But his wife would not hear of it. He said the woman got many teachers for him but they only came, collected their money and not changed. Kayode's father told us that if all the teachers, both at home and in the school, that have taught his boy while he was much younger could not achieve anything tangible with him, then there was nothing we could do also "especially now that the boy is an adult. He said we had only come to collect his money just as other tutors did in the past.
We told him that we had four guiding principles which we follow in dealing with our students and most especially those with special learning needs.
At the Be-Noble Home Tutors, Lagos, we have used these four attitudes to drastically better the lot of our students with one learning challenge or the other. They are:
1.) LOVE,
2.) PATIENCE,
3.) CONSISTENCY and
4.) PERSONALIZED LEARNING SESSION WITH AN EXPERIENCED TUTOR.
Comments
Post a Comment