Slow child: causes, developmental norms of children, type of temperament and recommendations for parents

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 12:45

The phlegmatic type of character makes the child thoughtful and unhurried, but this is the norm, due to scrupulousness and prudence. Problems in the functioning of the nervous system make the child very slow, when the lethargy causes excitement of the parents. Negativity in the family, constant scandals and quarrels, causing a slowdown in mental activity and a feeling of anxiety, also become the reason for slowness.

Reason for slowness

The first reason is the congenital slowness, expressed in the physiology of the nervous system, violations of which are manifested in high school. Lack of development is noticeable against the general background of peers.

An unknown game or task faced by children causes an uncharacteristic slowness due to the arrival of new information and lack of experience in processing it.

The type of temperament affects the reaction rate and activity. A slow child with a melancholy or phlegmatic character is normal from the point of view of psychology, but additional classes with him are not excluded.

Feeling badcan also affect the speed of interaction with the outside world, but such a reason is immediately visible and is associated with infections and other diseases.

Characteristic of the pace of life of children

The most striking features of a slow child are slow speech and writing. In everyday life and school, slowness is seen in the difficulties of switching from one task to another, misunderstanding of teachers and parents. Slow children constantly lose things, long and hard looking for them, delaying the fees, the beginning of the lesson, the class, and other people. A characteristic feature is the slow completion of tasks of varying complexity, to which children approach with all scrupulousness, bringing to the end. The fact that a child treats any matter carefully characterizes him on the positive side, but excessive slowness makes one suspect the presence of functional disorders of the nervous system.

Development standards

Development standards depend on many parameters, mainly on the mental and cultural characteristics of the environment. Psychologists say that there is no objective concept for this definition, but there are subjective parameters applicable to a family in which a slow child grows up. All children are different, so their development takes place separately and depends on the social and emotional perception of the world around them. Development occurs non-linearly, as the child spends part of the time at home, and part - at school or kindergarten, receiving different information and incentives.

Determining the degree of development of preschoolers

Development of preschool and school childrenage is estimated differently. Those who go to the garden or are in the care of their parents are able to develop through games, which characterizes the degree of their intelligence. The complexity of the game and the reaction to it show whether the child is inhibited or his nervous system is in a depressed state. The degree of complexity of the questions that children ask will also help determine the norm.

Degree of student development

What should a slow child do at school if his development lags behind the level of his classmates and this difference is noticeable? After all, for a schoolchild there are no objective indicators of the norm of development, since the simplest games are changed to tasks that are more complex in terms of mental abilities. Participants in olympiads and competitions a priori have a developed nervous system, effectively absorb information and also use it to achieve the assigned tasks. But two-thirds of children do not participate in such events and have sufficiently developed intelligence to quickly respond to requests from adults. Here the teacher determines the speed of reaction, and then reports his observations to parents and participates in determining the level of development of the child.

Temperament Addiction

With the help of special literature, determine the type of temperament according to the description. A slow child corresponds to a phlegmatic character, is characterized by lethargy and indifference to the world around him. Phlegmatic children are silent, calm, quiet, play little. They quickly get tired during physical exertion, losinginterest in action. On the other hand, children with this temperament are careful to fold their own toys and clothes, and use only their own utensils for drinking and eating.

Since temperament is the result of higher nervous activity, it is used to judge the process of the formation of the psyche, but behavioral disorders are more often determined by upbringing, the methods of which conflict with the characteristics of the child.

What parents should do

If children show slowness not out of malice, the screams and rage of parents will not help. On the contrary, family negativity serves as an impetus to the oppression of the nervous system, breaking character, becoming a nightmare for a very slow child. What to do in this case, the parents do not know, gradually moving on to beatings, more and more injuring the child's psyche. Wrong actions of adults have a negative impact on the state of the child as a whole, prompting him to resist on purpose, to be capricious.

Slow action always hides a specific meaning, the understanding of which will solve half the problem. Before you start working with children, you should accept the fact that procrastination in some cases can be a normal phenomenon common to all people, including adults.

Recommendations for self-influence

If the reasons for slowness are not obvious, before visiting a psychologist, you can try to influence the slow child on your own. The advice for parents is simple and consists of the following actions:

• Teach him to feel the time. Children are unable to feel its flow, spending minutes and hours aimlessly. In this case, it is pointless to push the child until he learns to tell the time. To do this, you need to teach him how to use the clock, hang them in the most visible place so that the child constantly looks at them. Also, as a preventive measure, time games are used, with a stopwatch.
• Interrupt him when necessary. Young children are not good at switching from one task to another, especially if the game is replaced by housework or other service for parents. In the latter case, they have aversion, resistance to a new occupation, which causes inhibition of reactions and actions.
• Praise for speed. If the child has done something quickly, it is reasonable to point it out to him in the form of praise, to note the effectiveness of his actions, in fact, developing the desire to receive a positive assessment from the parents. This method is applied to a slow child at school and consists not only of a high mark for completing the task, but also of praise in front of the whole class. Do not forget that in some cases a material reward is more significant than verbal praise.
• Don't give more than one task at a time. An adult does several things at the same time, as his brain is saturated with experience of working with different situations that require switching attention. Moreover, young children are unable to immediately build a chain of sequential actions in the event thatif the result of the parent is implicit.

When you need help from a psychologist

What to do with a slow child if he is stubborn and resists all parental influences? In this case, you can not do without the help of a psychologist. The doctor prescribes a comprehensive treatment designed for both the child and his parents to bring family relations back to normal.

The psychologist also helps in a situation where the child cannot begin to follow the instructions of adults at all, constantly postponing the approach of the denouement. This behavior is due to an excessive burden on the child's mental state or an exciting future event that causes fear.

Sometimes a child needs the help of a pediatrician if his slowness is not related to the functioning of the nervous system. For example, a child may not respond to parental tasks from another room because they have hearing problems. Violations of the ability to learn, in the perception of words, their decoding are also detected by the doctor.

School development

What to do to a slow child at school, who is out of the zone of attention of parents, the psychologist will tell you. This can be pre-explained instructions or the help of a teacher who takes an active part in the development of children. There are many sections where children go after classes for further specialized development of their abilities.

Basketball, football, martial disciplines are suitable for children in whom slowness and fatigue are noticed whenperforming physical actions, but do not appear when solving intellectual problems. Chess, dancing, drawing, design circles develop in children the ability to use the higher nervous system and concentrate, look for quick ways to solve problems, taking into account rivalry.

Additional recommendations

Parents should participate in the life of a slow child on the advice of a psychologist or pediatrician, if his inhibition is not related to neurology. Adults carry out the first actions in relation to themselves - they choose the rhythm of life that is more suitable for children. The reaction rate in an adult is significantly higher than in a child. There is no need to rush all the time, even the normal walking speed for an adult can become physically impossible for a child.

Emerging events in life that require the close attention of children should be discussed with them, and in sequential order. Children adjust to tasks that lead to rewards. Watching their favorite TV shows after doing their homework encourages them to finish their homework faster. Ultimately, this leads to the correct prioritization. Interest in children's lives, questions about future plans encourages interest in future actions.

Instructions issued from afar can develop a kind of immunity. To avoid this, you need to constantly establish eye contact, and do not call, but approach yourself to voice the order.

Following the instructions of the doctor, surrounding with care, to ensure thata slow child will become faster and more active, it’s easy. Only rare cases lead to treatment in institutions when children suffer from serious neurological diseases.