Every child's development is unique, complex

 

 

Every child’s development is unique and complex. A child’s development is also influenced by factors and experiences in his or her environment. 

 

The ability of a child to learn a concept, like counting numbers depends on the child’s readiness and how that concept was taught. 

 

Young children do not learn in the same way adults learn. The concepts are best internalised when they are repeated over and over again. That is why kindergarten teachers use songs to teach almost everything. Songs and rhymes enable the child to learn with fun and the repeated words help to aid memory. Rhymes like ‘One, two, buckle my shoe…,” “Five little pumpkins sitting on a fence…,” are an effective way to teach a child about numbers. 

 

During early years, children find it difficult to learn numbers in abstract form. They enjoy counting when numbers are matched with a tangible object like cars, crayons or anything they can relate with. 

 

Interactions at home create golden opportunities for teaching about numbers. When setting the table for dinner, you can name and count the number of family members expected to eat. You can say one plate is for mummy, one for daddy and one for you. One, two, three plates. 

 

At his age your son is expected to have a deeper grasp of numbers. An average child begins to use logical reasoning to solve everyday problems at the age of four. A four- year- old child can also count and recognise written numerals ‘0’ to ‘9.’

 

At the age of five, a child’s language skills are more developed. They pronounce words clearly, speak in complex and compound sentences, use correct grammar for the most part and have reasonable vocabulary that continues to grow rapidly. The mathematical thinking of a child at this age becomes more abstract and expands to include a greater understanding of shapes and numbers. They can count out a collection of up to ‘20’ items, conduct simple addition and subtraction and identify which number in a set is larger.

 

This does not mean every child must acquire these skills at the prescribed age. These are developmental milestones expected of an average child. There are different reasons why a child might lag behind his age mates in mental development. He might be a late bloomer or he could be facing developmental challenges. Late bloomers are young children, who develop skills such as language, reading, or social interaction later than others of their age.

 

It is also possible that your child’s forgetfulness and failure to grasp numbers faster might be as a result of a learning challenge called dyslexia. Dyslexia is impairment in brain’s ability to translate written images received from eyes into meaningful language. It is a reading disability characterised by difficulty in making sense from letters and words. Dyslexia is not caused by mental retardation, brain damage or lack of intelligence. 

 

One area that dyslexia affects is memory. People, who have dyslexia tend to forget instructions, have problems learning multiplication tables and easily track of what they are doing. However, it is not a disability. A dyslexic child has an intact intelligence and given a chance and guidance, is capable of excelling in school and succeeding in life.

 

It is not possible for you to establish your child’s educational challenge before the child is assessed by an educational psychologist. Issues to do with a child’s education cannot be dealt with through rumours. 

 

Get the right information from professionals. If your child is found to be dyslexic, he can be helped to get the right education early. If he is a late bloomer, his teachers will know how best to help him.