Self Confidence May 22, 2020
The ideas a person has about himself are based largely on what he sees and hears about himself from others. He may begin to take on the characteristics of the person that other people think he is. If he’s told, either directly or indirectly, that he’s “slow” or “dumb”, or that he “never does anything right”, he may come to believe that he is stupid and cannot learn. The older the student gets, the more entrenched these ideas may become. Being unable to learn is all too often a “learned behavior”.
* Let the student know that you believe he can learn.
* Make sure every session ends with success. Even if the best thing you can say is, “I liked the way you stayed on task for five whole minutes today”.
* Be patient. If your student’s confidence has been eroding away for years, it will take time to build new experiences that will reverse the trend.