Question - Answer....

 This is a question asked by a parent (name and other details have not been mentioned) of our school i.e. Sneha School in its monthly news bulletin.
            I have two daughters. Elder one is in 5^th standard, younger one is in 3^rd standard. Both are studying in Sneha School. Elder daughter reads sincerely but while writing makes mistakes. Younger daughter will answer orally to all the questions asked at home, but does not answer when her teacher asks in the class. Why?     

I have tried to address the problem in following way:

Socio- cultural influence:

It is difficult to give a clear cut solution as the family background of the children which plays very important role in the cognitive development of children has not been mentioned. But still I will try to answer in a generalized way.

Regarding first child’s problem:


Possibility of learning style:

Even though both reading and writing are verbal exercises, there exists a difference in reading and writing. In what way mistakes are taking place while writing has not been mentioned. Whether it is writing wrong spelling, or omitting some spellings or writing a letter in a wrong way and so on. I think the child is not a visual learner. Further details like whether she remembers the things that have been taught in the classroom is also not mentioned, which could be an important evidence to make whether she is an auditory learner.

Learning the information and memory:

It has been mentioned that she reads. But how she reads is more important than whether she sits to read or not. Many children consider by hearting the information is an easy way to score marks and get appreciation from teachers and parents. The practice of by hearting starts initially from learning tables which later extends to learning of other information also which is not good always. More emphasis should be given to the understanding of the concept. While learning also, child must not be in a pressure of getting marks in the examination i.e. focus of learning should not be exams. Instead it should be towards gaining the information. Parents should see to it that the child is not overlapping the information which is similar in nature. For example, it doesn’t learn the chronology of history and a scientific discovery. There are chances of mixing of years i.e. interference of information between the two.

                It is important to see the method through which child encodes the information. If there is some fault in encoding the information then there will be problem while writing and in order to plug the gaps in the information which is stored in the memory, the child may undertake the action of confabulation or it may simply guess and write. If there is some problem in storage then over learning i.e. frequent recall of information is necessary which will also facilitate the retrieval.        
                Make sure that your child is sitting straight and reading the book. If it reads lying on the bed, then parents must advice the child not to read like that. Apart from strain to eye sight, the learner will find it difficult to recall the information due to ‘context effect’ i.e. there should be an overlap between the condition in which one recalls the information and the condition in which the information was encoded.
                Ask the child to write the information soon after reading. The problem of writing may also arise due to lack of writing practice. But since the child is in 5^th I presume it has got enough practice of writing by now.  
                In case if child is missing with the letters like writing 9 instead of 6, or writing q instead of p etc. then it is a learning disability which is referred to as DYSLEXIA, for which you need to take proper suggestions from a psychologist and teach the child in a different way and not in the conventional method.  

Regarding second child:

                Child answers at home but not in school. This may have following reasons like attitude of the child towards the teacher, lack of self efficacy or response bias.

Attitude of the child towards teacher:

                It has not been mentioned whether the child does not answer to a teacher or to all teachers. If the child is not answering to only one teacher then we can make sure that the child has some negative attitude towards the teacher due to some past experiences. If it is not answering to any teacher then teachers must ensure that the child doesn’t not have fear towards teachers. Even though teachers might not have induced fear appeal in the child, there is a possibility of induction of fear towards teacher by parents, peers or relatives etc. Then it is the work of the teachers to change that attitude by showing love and affection towards the child and bring a feeling in the child that teachers are very friendly people and there is no need to fear to them.

Self efficacy:

                The lack of self efficacy may also make the child not to answer. If in its past experiences it has been a laughing stock by peers for answering wrongly then it might have affected greatly on the child’s self efficacy. This may lead to escaping from the problems also. In order to address this problem we need to increase its self efficacy. How can we increase the self efficacy? By noticing some positive things in it, making it to do small and easy things and appreciating it for doing it, make it to mingle with its peers more than leaving it to stay solitary etc.

Response characteristics:

                We can’t discard the possibility of this problem also. Many children neglect the importance of answering a question in the classroom, which is very necessary to increase the self efficacy in them. Some children answer in the same way to all the question and some will not answer for no reason. If this is the case, then child must be convinced the importance of answering the questions in the classroom.

             In addition to these measures, there must be a motivation for learning in the children. Without motivation, learning can not take place. Parents should motivate the children by appreciating their performance, by small rewards whenever they score good marks and so on. This will definitely impact in a positive way towards the learning. So both parents and teachers must take active participation in the learning process of a child.