Why does the Learning Difficulty Clinic cause concern?
Expert: There is no "panacea" to create a "scholar"
Recently, "learning difficulties" clinics in various places have frequently appeared on the hot search.
Many netizens are very curious about this clinic, "Is it actually a disease if you don't study well?" "Is it effective?" "Can you really become a 'student master'?"... In the past, if a child did not study well, most parents would blame it Since children are unwilling to learn, in fact, from a professional perspective, there are also some children who "can't learn", and the "learning difficulties" clinic solves the problems of these children.
On August 13, the "Learning Difficulty" clinic of Tianjin Children's Hospital reopened after a lapse of nearly 20 years. On the first day, it was difficult to find No. 1.
This surprised Shi Ping, director of the psychology department of the hospital, "We tentatively placed more than 20 accounts, but we didn't expect it to be filled so quickly."
What exactly is "learning difficulty"?
What is its main performance?
In what situations does the child need to go to the "Learning Difficulty" outpatient clinic?
Can this disease be cured?
...With these questions, the reporter conducted an interview and investigation.
Most children of psychologists are "difficulty in learning"
Why did the "Learning Difficulty" clinic suddenly become popular?
According to the analysis of Professor Liu Xiping from the Department of Psychology of Tianjin Normal University, there may be three reasons.
First, parents do not know whether their children's learning is normal or abnormal.
Due to insufficient communication with teachers, parents may only see that their children's grades are not satisfactory, but do not know whether their children have problems in actual learning and what causes the problems, and mistakenly think that their children have "learning difficulties".
Second, in the past, some parents relied on training institutions to improve their children's grades, but under the "double reduction" policy, the transformation of training institutions has left parents at a loss.
They want to help their children progress academically, but don't know where to start.
At this time, the "learning difficulties" clinic has become a helpless choice.
Third, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has repeated, and school teaching is sometimes online and sometimes offline. Children do need a process of adaptation.
In the case of distance teaching, children's learning environment is not guaranteed.
Children with conditions can study at home; children without conditions have to follow their parents to the workplace or even the construction site to learn.
This is indeed a challenge for children.
Some children adapt well, and the learning effect is not bad; some children adapt poorly, and there will be adverse consequences such as weakened motivation and reduced efficiency, and if this negative effect continues, it may lead to a decrease in children's self-efficacy in learning. , so as to be tired of learning and abandoning school.
But such "difficulties encountered in learning" and "learning difficulties" are not the same concept.
According to Professor Liu Xiping, "learning difficulties" refer to poor performance in information acquisition and information application in listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematics.
In fact, most of the learning problems encountered by children belong to "difficulties encountered in learning" and should be solved with the cooperation of schools, teachers and parents, so they are not "learning difficulties" in the true sense.
As a parent, you can first make a relatively objective assessment of your child's learning status, and then have a relatively comprehensive understanding of your child's learning status by communicating with your child, your teacher, and comparing with your child's classmates to confirm whether your child is suffering from " learning difficulties".
Which children really need the intervention of a "learning difficulty" outpatient specialist?
Professor Liu Xiping said that before taking their children to see a doctor, parents can make a simple assessment based on the following criteria: First, whether the child is about as smart as most of the children of the same age.
The second is whether there is one or several items that are significantly behind in Chinese listening, speaking, reading, writing, mathematical operations and logical thinking.
The third is whether the child is not as good as children of the same age in terms of social interaction and self-control (note that some children are introverted, not social problems).
Fourth, when learning new knowledge, is it slower than most of the children of the same age to accept, and the understanding is often wrong.
If all of the above are present in your child, you may need to take your child to a "learning difficulties" clinic.
What should parents do if they do not have the above symptoms, but their children's academic performance is declining?
Professor Liu Xiping suggested that if it is just a general learning problem, parents can understand whether the child's problem is due to insufficient motivation, lack of concentration, lack of solid grasp of original knowledge, lack of grasp of subject structure, or from inappropriate learning methods and learning. The use of strategies is inflexible, the time arrangement is unreasonable, the personality is not strong enough, etc., and the children's academics should be counseled accordingly for different reasons.
Parents can communicate with their children to understand their learning status, classmate relationship, teacher-student relationship, subject preferences, etc., understand the situation their children face, and induce their children to tell the reasons that may cause psychological distress to them.
Parents can also communicate with teachers about how their child is doing at school to help understand their child’s plight.
Qualified parents can also communicate with their children’s classmates to understand the root causes of their children’s problems from the perspective of their peers, help confirm whether physical, psychological or environmental factors are causing their children’s problems, and then formulate corresponding study plans to help children overcome these questions.
The new school year is approaching, and Professor Liu Xiping also reminded the parents of new students not to interfere too much with their children's studies, and to let the children understand that the matter of going to school is the children's own business, not the parents' business.
Maybe in this process, the child runs forward on his own, and the surrounding classmates are helped by his parents to run together, and the child can’t outrun the surrounding classmates for a while, but this attitude of the parents is to cultivate the child’s belief that he is responsible for his own affairs. As well as enhancing the ability to learn independently is helpful.
To instill a concept in children, learning is a social responsibility that must be fulfilled.
Of course, let the children know that if they encounter difficulties in learning, parents will provide unconditional help and support.
For those parents who are unknowingly involved in their children's studies, they need to do a good job of psychological construction, gradually withdraw from their children's studies, and let their children complete their learning tasks independently.
As for how to help children improve their learning efficiency, Professor Liu Xiping explained that in short, if there is an opportunity to cultivate children's observation ability, memory ability, thinking ability, and attention, it will definitely help children's learning.
She suggested that parents collect some videos or books related to cognitive ability to learn, which will be helpful to their children; parents can also directly ask their children's teachers, which learning strategies are suitable for children to grasp, I believe that the suggestions of front-line teachers should be more Targeted.
Education experts don't easily label students "students with disabilities"
According to Zhang Liping, associate professor of the Department of Education of Tianjin Normal University and tutor of master students, the phenomenon of "learning difficulties" has attracted the attention of parents and schools, and generally speaking, it is a concern for the healthy growth of students.
Students' learning problems, interpersonal problems, school life adjustment problems, self-concept problems, and adolescent psychological problems are also called the mental health problems faced by contemporary primary and secondary school students. Timely guidance and resolution are of great benefit to students' full self-realization and integration into society. .
However, society and families must be cautious in treating students with so-called "learning difficulties", and do not easily label students as "students with learning difficulties", let alone classify students' temporary learning difficulties into the category of pathological or psychological problems.
First of all, it is necessary to understand the manifestations of students' "learning difficulties" and what aspects are reflected in them.
Is it just poor academic performance, or poor study habits?
Poor academic performance may be reflected in grades that are below the average or standard for their age and are an explicit result of student development.
From the perspective of students' development process, poor study habits include inattentiveness in class, difficulty in completing homework, lack of self-management, fear of participating in teacher-student activities, lack of independent thinking caused by inertia, and poor resistance to setbacks.
Students' study habits are influenced by both personal cognitive development and personality development.
This requires teachers and parents to pay attention to students' cognitive differences when educating students, guide students to actively participate in teaching activities, properly cultivate students' ability to solve developmental crisis by themselves, and promote students' personality development.
It is neither possible to simply require all students to have uniform academic standards, nor to attribute the temporary habit of students to an "incurable disease".
Secondly, it is necessary to find out what causes the students' "learning difficulties" and what causes them.
Is it an imbalance of intellectual development, or a difference in cognitive style?
According to Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, human intelligence can be divided into eight types: speech, mathematics, space, music, physical fitness, social interaction, self-knowledge, and nature.
These eight kinds of intelligence are relatively independent and do not develop synchronously. Each student has at least one kind of superior intelligence. As long as they make the best use of the situation, each student can become a talent in a certain area and acquire a certain area of expertise.
In traditional education, the practice of judging whether students are excellent based on verbal and mathematical intelligence is both biased and harmful.
In addition, the cognitive styles of students are quite different. Some students are better at the natural sciences that focus on contemplation; while some students are easily dominated by extrinsic motivations and show certain advantages in social sciences.
In addition, learning motivation, learning strategies, types of knowledge, teaching methods, teacher-student relationship, campus culture, family environment, parenting styles, etc. will all have a greater impact on students' learning.
Finally, according to the "learning difficulties" of different students, a file is identified and established, and families, schools and society will work together to manage them.
From the perspective of nutrition and health, balance the quality and quantity of students' diet, sleep, exercise and free play to ensure the vitality and endurance of students' bodies.
From the perspective of metacognition, students develop the ability of self-planning, self-monitoring, self-regulation, self-evaluation and self-direction strategies.
From the perspective of non-intellectual factors, cultivate students' good learning motivation, learning interest and learning quality, improve parent-child interaction and teacher-student interaction, and create an excellent environment for students to grow.
When the above efforts do not work, the school can consider the combination of subject teachers and psychology teachers to intervene in students’ problem behaviors.
Despite positive actions, students still exhibit long-term problem behaviors such as aversion to learning, truancy, low learning efficiency, dyslexia, dyscalculia, test anxiety, school phobia, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. At this time, professional medical institutions intervene. It becomes necessary, through psychotherapy, medication and other appropriate interventions, to effectively help students with learning difficulties.
Children aged 7 to 12 years old on the first day of follow-up
At about 13:30 on August 13, the reporter saw in the Psychology Clinic of Tianjin Children's Hospital Longyan District that the "Learning Difficulty" clinic was located in the fourth clinic.
There are four or five parents waiting at the door with their children, and the children are basically school-aged children.
Mr. Liu, a citizen, said that his 7-year-old daughter has difficulty concentrating in school. She is either playing with erasers or fiddling with pencils. With a little trouble, her attention will be immediately drawn away, and she always bites her hands. Her fingernails have not grown for more than two months. Now, he suspects that his daughter suffers from ADHD, so he wants to intervene early to avoid affecting his studies.
But the number was not easy to hang up. On August 10th, the hospital announced that the "learning difficulties" outpatient follow-up consultation was completed. On the morning of August 11th, his registration appointment was full, "I started to swipe my mobile phone this morning, hoping to hang on to the same day's number until the same day. Finally got a number at 1pm and I got it."
Director Shi Ping introduced that on the first day of the "Learning Difficulty" outpatient clinic, the children who came to the clinic were between 7 and 12 years old. Emotional problems, as soon as parents let them study, they lose their temper.
What exactly is "learning difficulty"?
Director Shi Ping introduced that "learning difficulties" refers to low learning ability and poor academic performance. Mental and psychological problems, cultural and environmental adverse factors, etc.
The more common manifestations are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These children have difficulty concentrating, causing easy distraction, daze, fear of difficult homework, carelessness, and frequent mistakes in learning and class, which affects their academic performance.
Special learning skills developmental disabilities, the child has normal intelligence, but there are problems in a specific learning ability, such as dyslexia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, the child has no problem listening to lectures and speaking, but there are many mistakes in reading, repeated practice Also can not be fluent, difficult to remember words and so on.
Some "school adjustment disorders" and "anxiety and depression" can also affect children and cause learning difficulties.
There is also a class of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, mental retardation, intellectual disability, etc.
It is not just academic problems for these children, his social problems, independent living problems, partnerships, etc. will also cause difficulties in school life and growth.
How is Learning Difficulty Treated?
Director Shi Ping said that after a detailed clinical evaluation, doctors will help parents to distinguish whether their children "can't learn well" or "unwilling to learn well", and find out the reasons for targeted treatment to help parents understand the problem and choose the most appropriate treatment. appropriate method to deal with.
Symptomatic treatment is the key.
For some neurodevelopmental disorders, targeted drug treatment can help children improve symptoms, such as simple attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, drug treatment can benefit children by 60-70%, significantly improve attention and improve performance.
For children who do not need drug treatment, systematic family therapy and management will enable children to establish good study habits and interest in learning.
In addition, there is physical therapy to assist.
In short, learning difficulties require comprehensive treatment, which is a process of chronic disease management.
Treatment only relieves the condition
Director Shi Ping pointed out that the "learning difficulties" clinic is not a "panacea".
For children who do have learning difficulties, even if they come to the outpatient clinic, they cannot be completely cured, because this is not a physical obstacle, and there is no medical standard for so-called recovery.
"Learning difficulties" are mostly children's attention and special development problems, and the professional treatment of doctors can only alleviate the situation.
5-year-old Xiaomi (pseudonym) is a preschooler, and his brother has already gone to college. There is a large age difference between the two.
His family, especially his grandparents, loved him very much.
Xiaomi has been active and naughty since he was a child, and his persistence in doing anything is relatively poor.
When he saw other children in kindergarten being praised by the teacher, he would deliberately pull the chair under him while the other child stood up to answer the question, causing the child to fall. conversation.
In desperation, his mother brought Xiaomi to the doctor. Director Shi Ping formulated a systematic family guidance method for him, rewarding Xiaomi for his good performance, choosing to ignore his bad behavior, and helping him establish good living and study habits.
Soon, Xiaomi's situation improved. By the first grade of elementary school, his various assessment results were relatively normal.
However, in the third grade, the situation repeated, Xiaomi always lost in the study, often finished the first page of the test paper, and forgot the second page, and his attention was obviously lower than that of children of the same age. Director Shi Ping used drugs combined with behavioral therapy, After about 3 months, Xiaomi stopped taking the medicine and the symptoms were relieved.
A 7-year-old girl, Xiao Jie (pseudonym), was hired by her teacher as a parent when she was in the first grade of elementary school.
"The teacher said that she couldn't leave her seat during class. She walked back and forth in the classroom with a desk. The teacher suspected that my daughter had a mental problem, but her father and I both graduated from a bachelor's degree with good grades. How could this be?" Xiaojie The mother reluctantly took the child to find Director Shi Ping.
After evaluation, Xiaojie's IQ reached 123, which is much higher than the average level of normal children.
Director Shi Ping observed that Xiaojie's movements are clumsy, especially her poor hand-eye coordination. "According to her mother, Xiaojie's father was clumsy when he was a child and failed in sports. Her problem may be inherited from her father." Shi Ping The director formulated a set of sensory integration training plan for Xiaojie, let her skip rope, shoot a ball every day, and practice more coloring and drawing to exercise her coordination and muscles.
Three months later, the parents reported that Xiaojie seemed to be a different person, with high learning efficiency and quick response.
How to determine the child "learning difficulties"?
Director Shi Ping told reporters that there are 7 doctors in the Department of Psychology, and the annual outpatient volume is 30,000 to 50,000.
Among them, 50% of the children were brought to the doctor by their parents because of "learning difficulties".
Not all of these are children's problems, and some parents are too anxious about their children's learning problems.
Some children's academic performance is acceptable, but their motivation to study is insufficient. Parents rush to take their children to see the "learning difficulties" clinic.
In fact, parental emotional problems are also the direction of treatment. For example, behavioral therapy for children is usually once a month, that is, the doctor communicates with parents and suggests that parents change the way they raise their children.
So how to determine the child has "learning difficulties" problem?
Director Shi Ping said, for example, the child's academic performance has been stable in normal times, but something has happened recently, which has led to a decline in academic performance, or the child has other emotional problems.
For example, some children have inattention and emotional problems since the first grade of primary school. Parents have been paying attention to it, but the effect is not good, which in turn affects the relationship and self-confidence of children and partners.
Generally speaking, younger children have learning difficulties with hyperactivity and impulsive personality, while older children have obvious attention deficits.
"To determine whether a child has learning difficulties mainly depends on whether their social functions are impaired. Some children have good academic performance, but they have not met their parents' expectations, or they may just have a little inattention, hyperactivity, impulsive behavior, and If it doesn't affect others and doesn't affect one's own daily life, then it's not a 'learning difficulty'."
"Children with 'learning difficulties' are inseparable from the way their parents raise them. In many families, parents, one with a smartphone and the other with a tablet, sit next to the child and have fun, but let the child go to the Learning.” Parents should teach by example and deeds, children can’t play next to them when they are studying, and if they adjust their daily management, the children’s learning status will be different.
"Learning difficulties" clinics are not open at will
"Learning difficulties" outpatient clinics have become popular, and parents have more needs. Some people think that since the treatment of "learning difficulties" belongs to the category of psychology, can institutions with psychology qualifications, such as psychological counseling rooms, etc. "Learning Difficulties" Clinic?
Can this "learning difficulty" clinic be opened at will?
In this regard, Cui Hualei, vice president of Tianjin Children's Hospital, said that the "Learning Difficulty" outpatient clinic is a specialized disease clinic, not a department.
If it can be called "outpatient clinic", it needs to see whether there is psychotherapy in the entire business license and practice scope of the hospital. If there is this item, there must also be a doctor. If the above conditions are met, it can be called an outpatient clinic, and it can be given to patients. Diagnose, prescribe medicines, and treat accordingly.
If other institutions cannot meet the above conditions, they cannot open outpatient clinics, nor can they be called outpatient clinics.
(Reporter Han Aiqing of this newspaper)