Five Things to Do When ..... Your Child is Resistant to New Tasks, Books, Information, Etc
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Preview: Don’t “surprise” your child with a new book or method or schedule. Show them a week (or for some kids even longer) ahead of time. Say something like, “Here is the new math book we are going to start next week. I’ll leave it here on the table if you want to look through it later.”
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Discuss Coping Strategies: Acknowledge that you know new things are hard. Discuss ideas of how your child can cope with the impending change. When they do cope (or even try to cope) PRAISE them!!
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Move Slowly: Aren’t we sometimes in such a hurry to move on!! Give yourself permission to move on slowly!! If you are introducing a new concept - do only 10 minutes of the new thing and 20 minutes of review (pick something to review that you know your student can be really successful doing!!).
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Model: When you introduce something new, do it yourself several times and just let your student watch you. Don’t hurry this process. Most of our kids need to process things slowly and multiple times before they can work on their own.
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Use Error-less Teaching: After you model, have your student work WITH you and if they make a mistake - tell them the right answer!! This is such an important way to build success and make new things less anxiety-filled. We are way too worried about “testing” our kids to see if they “got it.” Don’t test - teach. You will both be less frustrated!!