Anxiety, concerns and fear of school failure of children with learning disabilities
Fear and anxiety are common emotions that accompany a person throughout life. They are negative emotions, as a result of which the quality of life deteriorates, decreases or becomes unpleasant.
In the school environment, students feel fear and anxiety when evaluating their performance and fulfilling their school duties. Evaluation gives them a feeling of success, or failures. Feelings of fear and apprehension are quite justified in this regard. The evaluation of the teacher determines, among other things, whether they managed to achieve the expected performance. If they do not succeed, fear and anxiety increase and a sense of failure arises. They often simultaneously experience fear and concern related to the reactions of the immediate environment.
Anxiety is, as stated by Praško (2008), a normal state of the body, a normal reaction to danger or stress. It causes more serious problems for a person only when it is disproportionately strong in relation to the triggering situation, or lasts too long. Anxiety prepares the organism for a possible dangerous situation, and the induced fear leads to an immediate reaction of the organism when the danger appears. Although both emotions belong to the less pleasant ones, they are definitely useful for a person. Anxiety does not harm a person, it does not cause physical or psychological damage. A certain degree of anxiety can even positively affect our performance. It becomes a problem when we cannot control it.
Anxiety is manifested by tremors, dry mouth, increased blood pressure, rapid breathing and pulse, or buckling of the knees. They are the body's responses to potential threats and non-specific fears. These bodily sensations appear even in ordinary, undemanding situations, which often leads to the fact that we gradually avoid these situations. When a person feels anxious, they stop doing the things that make them anxious. By stopping doing them, he begins to believe less that he can handle them and therefore avoids them more and more often (Praško, 2008).
Some anxieties are pre-programmed, others are acquired by learning from your immediate family environment. They are often passed from mother to child. As stated by Matějček (1994), the social environment in which the child grows up and the educational action to which he is exposed have a decisive influence on the child and the development of his personality. Appropriate educational leadership has a calming, strengthening, healing effect. Inappropriate leadership, on the other hand, has a debilitating and aggravating effect on children. Professor Cyril Höschl (2004), in his lecture, also mentions the influence of the mother on the child, which determines its resistance to stressful situations. He states that if a child grows up in a safe environment and is adequately stressed, he becomes tougher and develops a sense of security. He will learn to distinguish between what is a real threat and what is not in an unknown world. Thus, along with social learning, the level of general anxiety that we are born with decreases. By overcoming them, we prepare to handle difficult life situations.
Fear and anxiety are part of life and everyone experiences and manages them based on their genetic makeup and the determining influence of the social environment. A certain amount of anxiety improves our performance and affects our success. If we focus on children with learning disabilities, it is obvious that they are more often exposed to situations leading to more intense experience of these feelings.
A child with a learning disability often experiences school disadvantage and perceives school differently than his successful classmate. School is the place where the child is most confronted with his possibilities to perform the required performance and achieve the desired results. Some children are not able to achieve them because they do not have the prerequisites for it, or they cannot use their abilities. It can create negative feelings towards school and education. They begin to feel the fear of failure. Their needs for security, recognition, friendship are not sufficiently satisfied. For them, school becomes a place of fear, anxiety, uncertainty and tension (Ďurkovičová, 2011). Long-term exposure to stress, experienced failure and lack of positive evaluation often leads to a disruption of their personality development. Long-term tension triggers neurotic symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, sleep disorders, loss of appetite, etc. The fear these children experience is an expression of their feeling of helplessness in the face of the difficulties they face (Zörklerová, 2013). Children with learning disabilities have difficulties in understanding and subsequently processing new learning material, which leads to the creation of increasingly large gaps in learning. Fear increases their uncertainty and inability to concentrate, they panic when they have to perform. Fear creates barriers, they contribute to deepening failure, failure increases fear. This creates a circle from which the child usually cannot get out on his own without help from the outside (ibid.).
Matějček (1997) draws attention to the causes of difficulties and adds that the child is the cause of the difficulties, but the child himself is perfectly innocent. The mechanisms by which the difficulties arose are quite beyond his grasp. They are most often given genetically or by adverse influences before, around and after birth. The problem arises when important people from the child's immediate surroundings are not aware of these causes. This is when their external manifestations are misinterpreted and misunderstood.
Experts (special and therapeutic pedagogues, psychologists, etc.) play an important role in correctly understanding the interpretation of the manifestations of the problem. Their task is to guide the child to find his own value, they focus the child's attention on the achievements he has achieved. This change is often enough to resolve the situation and leads to improvement - an increase in self-confidence. An environment of constant nit-picking, fault-finding, and criticism threatens mental health. Those who support and encourage you help you give your best and develop your abilities to the highest possible extent. Providing emotional support affects our self-confidence, which is the source of success. If we don't get it, our self-confidence is gradually eroded and slowly disintegrates completely (Harley, 2008).
When working with children diagnosed with a learning disability, it is important not only to provide them with emotional support, but also, as stated by Matějček (1997), to try to get to know and understand the child.
Matějček (1997) developed a system of recommendations, principles, the adoption and application of which helps to prevent many difficulties that could arise in other circumstances.
- Focus more on helping children and guiding them than on quickly achieving independence.
- Adequately distribute the load and rest. Do not forget that they make excessive efforts to cope with their school duties and therefore it is advisable to teach them good habits and appropriate work procedures.
- When preparing for school at home, focus on anticipating situations in which children could fail. It is essential to stop them, lead them to the right solution and immediately praise them. Praise and appreciation increase a child's self-esteem.
- Direct the children's attention to what they have achieved. For example by proving their knowledge to them and not focusing on their ignorance.
- When working with children, adhere to the rule that interest leads attention. It means making learning attractive and, if possible, fun for the child.
- Never forget encouraging words, praise and the importance of building and protecting a child's self-esteem.
- The goal of working with children with learning disabilities and their families is to make them realize that success is not having the desired grades, success lies in coping with school duties without stress, anxiety and without losing self-worth.
- When working with children with learning disabilities, their bravery must be taken into account. Bravery is not only doing something extraordinary, but also enduring something extraordinary and processing it positively.
Author: Mgr. Liliana Šimečková, PhD. medical teacher Used literature: ĎURKOVIČOVÁ, T., 2011. Problems and disorders of pupils with learning, source internet: http://spsdub.edupage.org/files/70fc76c5871ff913898232765584de26 HARLEY, W., 2008. My desires, your desires. Bratislava: Porta libri, 2008. ISBN 978-80-89067-49-7 HŐSCHL, C., 2004. Fear and anxiety manifest themselves completely differently and have a different meaning. Psychiatric Clinic of LF UPJŠ, Košice – unpublished lectures. MATĚJČEK, Z. , DYTRYCH, 1997. How and why children trouble us. Prague: Grada, 1997. ISBN 80-7169-587-4. MATĚJČEK, Z. , DYTRYCH, 1994. Child, family and stress, Prague: Galén, 1994. ISBN 97880858024063 PRAŠKO, J. et al., 2008. Anxiety and worry. Prague: Portal, 2008. ISBN 978-80-7367-986-6 ZŐRKLEROVÁ, R., 2013 Specific learning and behavioral disorders Teach me to read, write and count correctly, source internet: http://www.predys.szm.com/spu123.htm