I wanted to clarify what the phrase ‘joy of learning’ means to me as this underpins my work on Parenting Dyslexia Direct.

Defining ‘Joy’?

If you Google the word ‘Joy’ you will see the following definition…

“Joy - a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.”

When we think about our children or young people who have a diagnosis of dyslexia (a language disorder that brings about a range of strengths and weaknesses), so often we wouldn’t describe the learning process for the child as something of great pleasure and happiness.

For a child with dyslexia, often their focus is keeping up, worrying about being caught out or being made fun of, getting things wrong, being judged as well as many other concerns. This is all going through the mind long before there is any chance of thinking that the learning process could include feelings of joy and happiness. The bottom line? Their focus is protecting themselves and NOT learning.

Defining ‘Learning’?

Googling ‘Learning’ brings up this definition…

“Learning - The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience or being taught.”

If the learning process relates more to feeling unsafe than feeling great pleasure and happiness, then the child isn’t going to want to learn which means that they lose out on the opportunities that come from learning.

Ironically, the focus on protecting oneself, is a response to stress and anxiety that exacerbates the challenges that dyslexia brings about. So our children therefore not only experience the ‘academic’ challenges of dyslexia but there is also a huge negative emotional impact too that can run in a mental loop that ultimately pulls the young person away from enjoying the opportunities that good effective learning can bring about.

I have summarised this in the diagram below:

As parents we need to find strategies that can help a child to have a more ‘joyful’ perspective on learning so as to increase the chances of enjoying the opportunities that learning brings.

Three strategies for helping your child have a more ‘joyful’ learning experience.

• Encourage less catastrophic thinking about situations at school.

  • We all do ‘catastrophic thinking’! We think about a looming event or experience that may not be pleasant and our brains extrapolate the risk, we get anxious and that informs behaviour e.g avoidance etc. We can inadvertently teach our kids to think this way too!

  • Children are BRILLIANT at catastrophic thinking! This is NOT a good thing!

  • Let’s teach our children/young people to assess situations objectively rather than subjectively. Assess the good AND the bad in a situation, not just focus on the bad. As the parent, if you struggle with this then I can help you to start to change your way of assessing situations. If your child sees you doing this then they will start to learn from you.

• Encourage your child to understand the challenges with learning.

  • A difficult classroom situation doesn’t have to be a disaster. Let’s encourage our children/young people to think about the upcoming challenges and really understand them.

  • Once they fully understand the challenges then maybe they will have a better sense of what they need to help with those challenges.

• Encourage your child to ask for help as they learn.

  • If I asked you to climb Mount Everest, you would be mad if you set off without planning your expedition and getting what you need to climb the world’s highest peak. So why would we expect our children to face what may seem to be insurmountable challenges without helping them to identify what they need to overcome those challenges?

  • Once a child can articulate what those challenges are then we can ask them about what they think that they need to support them as they deal with those challenges. With clearer articulation, comes understanding from others including teachers and SENCO’s etc.

  • Even if the school isn’t providing support, there are ways to help in these situations that the dyslexic learner can employ. Small changes lead to big results. Want to know more? Send me an email and we can work it out from your perspective and your child’s needs.