Hereditary traits get the blame for many of life’s frustrations. Whenever a trait is deemed negative, parents of children start searching the family tree for answers. Often, the trait is not one of those easily passed along. I guess it’s just human nature to look for a scapegoat.
I often deal with hereditary learning problems as an educator. Children from families with a history of learning disabilities often have such problems themselves. However, it is not always a matter of fact. Diagnosing and treating learning disabilities is as difficult as diagnosing and treating sickness. I think that is why it is called a “medical practice.” It is often necessary to just pick and choose and try anything which holds some promise of help.
Most people are quick to suspect dyslexia when a child writes some letters backwards or starts reading a word from right to left. However, all children in the beginning stages of learning tend to make reversals. These tendencies usually go away by third grade for sure. The learning-disabled students I have known had more than reversals to contend with in learning. The problem is much deeper and far-reaching than just a few inverted letters or words. With time and attention, these students were able to recognize their disability, cope with it, and find a means of communicating with others which was acceptable.
The hereditary part of children which often is overlooked is that part which is sexually based. It is a known fact that little girls develop skills in speaking, reading, and language far sooner than most boys. Boys, on the other hand, develop gross motor skills before girls. Traditional schools play to the girls’ strengths far more than to the boys’ need for greater movement, contact, etc.
I like the quote from Leslie Hart in How the Brain Works: “We must keep reminding ourselves, when we discuss humans, that one great difference between us and other animals is difference. Because we are, to such an extreme, learning animals, acquiring much of our nature after birth, individuals within the species differ enormously in all ways affected by learning.” In other words, our little children do not come to us with their “learning” set in stone!
If I did not believe I could help change a child, I would not be an educator. It is my calling to do all that I can to help that child grow into a better and wiser person…or as I so often say…”to be better than the average bear!” Rather than blame certain acts of a child on heredity, we need to work much harder at providing consistency.
Caleb Gattegno researched and noted that young children paid great attention and focus on TV commercials because they “repeat exactly.” Leslie Hart points out, “Much evidence fits together to suggest that repetition may well have a tremendous influence on the child’s confidence. The stable home, the loving routines, the bedtime rituals, the consistent parents, all may be essentially important because they involve and permit this factor of exact repetition….As motor or recognition or evaluation patterns become reliable – the child gains confidence that his inner image of his environment fits his world well enough to enable him to function with a tolerable number of corrections….The child usually indicates quite clearly when its need for particular repetition ends. Though adult patience can be strained, cheerfully tolerating the child’s need seems the obvious part of wisdom.”
Mr. Hart contacted me long ago about my work with applied brain research. I refer back to his writings now for new readers because I have seen the value of his observations over my 50+ year career in the field of education. I watch people gladly pay to trace their genealogies online. Yet, they overlook some of the fascinating human hereditary traits that make us unique in the animal world. I recommend his book if you can get a copy: ISBN 0-465-03102-1.
- Kay