Children

IS YOUR CHILD WEAK AT ACADEMICS ?

(Learning and Intellectual Disabilities)

It may be that your child is not doing well at school and this makes you very concerned. This issue may have been consistently present or may have come up now. There can be several reasons for this:

a. Your child may have difficulty learning in school. This issue becomes more prominent as the child progresses through school. He/she may be weak in reading, writing or mathematical abilities in comparison to his/her peers.

b. He/she may not have any problems in learning, but may have trouble concentrating.

c. Your child may not be doing well at school because his/her brain may have not developed as well as his/her peers. This may indicate a low IQ (intelligence quotient) or intellectual disability.

d. It may also be that your child is not motivated, wants to miss school or complains a lot about fatigue or illness. This might be because your child is having depressive feelings or is feeling very anxious about school related situations for example, tests, bullying.

Does your child have emotional troubles? (Emotional issues)

It is normal for children to feel moody but there are instances where these emotions can be debilitating. These emotions are shown in the following forms:

a. A child may be so introvert that he/she refuses to leave the house to go anywhere.

b. Your child might have the potential to do well at academics or at sports but may have low self-esteem or confidence issues, which prevent him/her from actualizing this potential.

c. Your child may be very anxious and may have troubles communicating with peers, teachers, parents or others around him/her.

d. Your child may show behaviours like excessive crying, extreme sadness or in serious cases, self-harm like cutting.

Solution

1. It is important to find out whether this pattern of behaviour is a passing phase or if it is actually a problem.

2. Your child may be stressed because of a particular situation or because of one aspect like academics. You need to understand that children feel stress differently than adults do, thus, you need to help your child cope with this stress.

3. Your child may be extremely shy and have trouble leaving you and being by himself/herself. It is important to slowly help him/her open up rather than pushing him/he into social situations as this may cause more emotional problems.

4. Your child may have fears or is deeply sad due to a specific traumatic situation like bullying, death of a loved one, divorce of parents. It is important to figure out if his/her emotions are a consequence of a specific situation or general condition of your child's life. In both cases, you need to support your child and help him/her cope with these situations.

5. It is also important to not put further pressure on your child and show him that you support him/her and are there for him/her.

6. If the emotional troubles go out of hand, for-example, if the child feels suicidal, it is best to contact a doctor or specialist.

For further queries, *Ask the Doctor*