Wellbeing 

Success is about discovering what you are good at, developing those strengths and applying them to other areas where possible. 

Some children believe that unless they a good at everything, they are not smart or successful. If this belief persists they lose motivation, fear making mistakes and avoid learning. 

A child whose parent knows how to help them discover their learning strengths and how to use them to build success in other areas is much more likely to remain confident and motivated. 

-awareness- knowing your learning strengths and your child’s patterns assists you to consider similarities and differences between you both. Not every child shares the same strengths as their parent. Valuing strengths your child has, that you do not share, is a voyage of discovery for most parents. 

-planning activities-parents are powerful teachers of their children. By focusing on activities that your child already has learning strengths in, you are likely to get greater engagement and enjoyment. 

-extending activities to develop learning- learning strengths start with what is strong to improve what is not yet strong. 

For example, if your child has a learning strength in perceptual-motor areas (sport, dance, craft, construction) and you wanted to improve their strengths in number smarts, you might find ways to discuss how numbers play a role in those areas. 

Concepts like arcs, trajectories, sports statistics, percentages, right angles and number sequences all become more meaningful when we relate them to something a child is already good at. 

At home a child who has concentration and memory learning strengths but is yet to develop planning and sequencing strengths may struggle to clean up their room. 

A parent could help them by using what they are already strong at (concentration and memory) by turning room cleaning into a memory game i.e. ‘what we need to do next?’ This will make learning a new sequence easier. 

-success creates success- the fastest way to help children to become passionate about their learning is to have their early attempts and successes acknowledged. 

(Andrew Fuller)