Additional Needs

When Children Ask Questions!

Posted by Rochelle Followes on 15th September 2016 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities

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We wonder how much information is too much for children, we ask ourselves, ‘Will they be able to take in what we are saying’ etc.

But the fact is, children want the truth and if they don't quite understand they will either take what they do understand and move on or ask more questions.

This is all fine. Take their lead with it.

It got me thinking about an answer we could all use to try and explain why children are all so different and here is what I came up with...

Just like butterflies fly at different paces and in different directions, children learn at different paces and reach different goals.

This doesn't make any child better, more clever or more intelligent than any other child.

It makes them all special and all different with their own uniquely designed wings!

We should never compare children against one another but measure their own progress and see how they've achieved their own personal goals.

Would you race a cheetah with a snail? No we wouldn't so we shouldn't compare children with other children.

I know that this answer wouldn’t be appropriate for all children but it’s a base.

We never know when children are going to put you on the spot and start asking questions, so I believe it is best to have done some thinking about it.

Likewise I believe it important to teach children that intelligence is not everything, and it certainly doesn't define us as a person.

We all have characteristics that make us stand out and we have our own methods of learning and our own obstacles to overcome.

A child with a visual impairment may not learn to talk as quickly as a child without, as more often than not we learn to speak by watching the lips of others and copying the movement.

For a child with a visual impairment this will not come easy. 

They need more time as they learn by listening and feeling your lips movements instead.

I wrote this blog to make us all think about what we are telling the children around our little ones and encouraging you to be honest with them as they are more alert than we give them credit for at times.

I love my Son and everything he teaches the children around him.

Rochelle, Mummy to Zachariah xx