Factors Effecting A Child’s Success with Curriculum
Academic Factors
There will always be times when academic deficits will impair a child’s ability to function in the classroom. Factors that can contribute to academic dysfunction include but are not limited to:
- developmental reading disorders
- developmental math disorders
- developmental writing disorders
- developmental spelling disorders
- poor prior teaching
- lack of basic skills
- inconsistency during critical periods of skill development
- problems in concept formation
- lack of reinforcement
Whatever the cause, academic factors need to be remedied as quickly as possible because of critical stages of skill development.
Underachievement due to academic factors, in spite of adequate intelligence is very frustrating to students, professionals and parents.
Many times, these problems can be resolved with extra help, tutors, reinforcement, and so on.
However, if unidentified for a long period of time, then other secondary factors will begin to develop as well( i.e. psychological.)
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors are defined as those factors that the child may be exposed to at home or in the community that may have a profound impact on the child’s ability to function in school. These factors may include home issues such as:
- parental abuse
- parenting fighting
- separation
- divorce
- family illness
- economic hardships
- loss of parent’s job
- moving into a new neighborhood
- serious sibling rivalry
- family mental illness
- relatives residing in the home
- alcoholism
- drug abuse
Environmental factors may also originate from community issues such as:
- problems with neighbors
- poor reputation in the neighborhood
- isolation of the family from neighbors
- problems with the law
These factors tend to add a great deal of tension to a child that may manifest itself in school symptoms. One needs to be aware of the possibility that classroom symptoms resulting in dysfunction may actually have their roots in issues outside of school.
Intellectual Factors
There may be times when a child’s difficulties in school may be the result of intellectual factors. When these factors are present, a child’s stress may be manifested in a variety of symptoms. The factors that fall under this category include:
- Undetected limited intellectual ability
- Undetected gifted intellectual capacity
Limited intellectual ability can cause a great deal of stress in a child for fear of social ridicule, professional reaction and disappointment, parental reaction and disappointment, and so on.
This problem may not always be detected early. Some professionals may misinterpret this factor as immaturity, stubbornness or lack of motivation.
When this factor is not quickly identified, the child deals with the stress of the situation through many symptoms (i.e. avoidance, procrastination).
Language Factors
Language provides the foundation upon which communication, problem solving, integrating, analyzing, and synthesizing knowledge takes place.
Therefore, deficits in language can have a profound impact on the ability of an individual to learn and function competently and confidently as he interacts in the world.
Difficulties may arise in a child’s language development resulting in classroom symptoms. These language issues may arise from difficulties in:
- nonverbal language
- oral language (i.e., listening and speaking)
- written language (i.e., reading and writing),
- pragmatic language (e.g., using language for a specific purpose such as asking for help)
- audiology
- word retrieval
- articulation
- receptive aphasia
- expressive aphasia
- bilingualism
How quickly a person can access words or ideas in memory further influences his or her use of language.
A child who must struggle to find an appropriate term is at a great disadvantage in a learning and social environment. As he grapples to retrieve a word, others have moved on.
The student may miss critical pieces of knowledge, connect incorrect bits of information in memory, and have an ineffective means of showing others all that he knows.
Such problems can result in lowered levels of achievement and in feelings of confusion, helplessness, and frustration.
Before embarking upon an extensive (and expensive) battery of tests, examiners should ensure that any apparent speech or language impairment is not actually the result of a hearing impairment that, in effect, prevents the child from hearing words clearly and learning to use or understand them.
Similarly, many children with physical disabilities may not be able to speak clearly enough to be understood but, when provided with assistive technology (e.g., speech synthesizers, computers), may show themselves to be competent users of language.
Medical Factors
Medical factors that may contribute to a child’s academic dysfunction can be numerous. While professionals are not asked to be doctors, certain medical conditions may manifest certain symptoms in the classroom.
For the most part, one would assume that any serious medical condition may have already been identified by the child’s pediatrician or parent.
Medical problems that may impair a child’s ability to function adequately in the classroom may include but are not limited to:
- attention deficit disorder
- vision problems
- hearing problems
- neurological problems
- muscular problems
- coordination problems
Perceptual Factors
There are times when perceptual issues can impair a child’s ability to function in the classroom.
While perceptual deficits are often misunderstood or undiagnosed, they do account for a large number of high-risk children.
Being able to identify the symptoms that may be caused by serious perceptual deficits can only reduce a child’s frustration, both in and out of the classroom.
The learning process is like an assembly line through which information received travels.
It is therefore imperative that professionals and other professionals identify those areas that may have a direct impact on a child’s ability to adequately process information and possibly interfere in his academic achievement as soon as possible.
Psychological Factors
Psychological factors which may be contributing to a child’s dysfunction in school may include but are not limited to:
- clinical depression
- mental illness
- anxiety
- eating disorders
- personality disorders
- schizophrenia
- phobias
- obsessive compulsive disorders
- psychosexual dysfunction
- substance abuse
- sleep disorders
- brief situational disturbances or adjustment reactions
- conduct disorders
- separation anxiety
- oppositional defiant disorders
If serious enough, these factors will create an inordinate amount of tension and subsequent behavioral symptoms.
Once the problem is identified, then a useful treatment plan can be devised which includes the home, the school psychologist or outside therapist, medication(if necessary) and classroom management techniques to reduce the secondary effects of the symptoms generated by these problems.
Social Factors
Social factors may contribute to a child’s stress and consequently interfere with learning.
While social status is a crucial factor at many ages, it becomes more of a factor as one approaches adolescence.
Social pressures and peer influence sometimes create an imbalance in a child’s functioning. This imbalance may often result in lower available energy for school related issues because of the intense need for energy to cope with his social world or social conflicts.
Social factors which may lower available energy and result in academic dysfunction include:
- peer rejection
- preoccupation with boyfriend or girlfriend
- low social status
- social victimization
- scapegoat
- difficulty with social intimidation
- victim of bully behavior
- social control issues-the need to be in control
- peer competition
- social isolation
- social overindulgence
When children have serious social concerns, their thoughts may be obsessive and may preoccupy much of their energy. These symptoms can be intense and if not identified quickly can lead to numerous secondary issues.
