As4Me

Sharing My Efforts to Apply God's Word to My Life as Mom. Wisdom Is the Principal Thing.

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Why Does God Give Learning Troubles?

How do you help your children work through discouragement academically, particularly if they struggle with dyslexia or some other disability? What if they’re just not good readers, and are discouraged with the difficulty?

I love being able to respond to these difficulties as they have them, but sometimes it’s helpful to have something to share with kids that can help them find and evaluate Scripture on their own before you discuss it with them.

If you’re interested, I’ve uploaded a document I wrote several years back on this topic. It’s a worksheet for children in 4-6th grade, although younger children will do fine with it if a parent or teacher reads it with them. Included in the document is a list of ways that God uses learning troubles in people’s lives. I love seeing how God actually turns learning disabilities into assets. What an amazing example of God’s power and love! Here is the disability worksheet ESV. Let me know if you’re able to use it, or if you have feedback!

How God can use my learning problems:

  • Learning problems help me to be aware of my need for God.
  • Learning problems help me to be kind to other people because I know what it’s like to feel stupid, feel sad about failing, or be made fun of.
  • Problems help me learn perseverance.
  • Problems help me to know how to help others who struggle to learn (That’s because I know the pitfalls and have sometimes learned how to overcome them.)
  • Learning problems force me to think creatively because the normal ways of learning or reaching a goal don’t always work.
  • Learning problems teach me that God has great power, and he delights in using anybody.

If we don’t learn to follow God, how can our problems be a burden?

  • We may have self pity (“I can’t learn the Bible, I can’t read well.”)
  • We may feel despair (“Every time I try something new I fail.”)
  • We may feel envy (“Why can’t I be like Julie who is so smart?”)
  • We may become discontent (“If only I didn’t struggle, I’d be happy.”)

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Spiritual Instruction for a Child with Learning Disabilities

(Or simply, Spiritual Instruction Outside of the Box)

An excellent  missions blog I read on occasion has a link to a website that I found fascinating, not merely for its implications in missions, but also for its implications on teaching non-standard learners.

Our American churches emphasize the written word heavily, and well they should. God’s Word was written down, and this is but one reason that we should read it carefully. What, though, for children who are not, and never will be, good readers? What about the teenager with Down’s Syndrome who cannot read? Or the child that simply doesn’t remember what he reads, even though he can recite every episode of his favorite television show from start to finish? What about adults who are embarrassed to try to read aloud in church, or can’t read the songs in the hymnal (or overhead)? Are these people destined to be immature believers simply because they cannot read well?

I’m giving extreme examples, but I’ve long been intrigued with nonstandard ways of teaching God’s Word. Especially for children with disabilities, we are often insensitive to their difficulty with abstract topics, truths that can be learned if taught correctly. Take salvation. Most kids figure out quickly that when we “ask Jesus in our heart” we’re not going to get a physical person invading our organ. An average child will have some confusion. But some children will continue to wrestle with an unintentionally confusing approach to salvation.

Now, back that that website. They’re focussing on orality– characteristics of culture that doesn’t have a written language. Such cultures often respond well to certain approaches to teaching God’s Word.

Here are the strategies they develop:

  • Chronological Bible Storying
  • Bible Stories on Topics (What’s a Bible story that will teach me how to share?)
  • Film and Story
  • Bible on Film
  • Deaf (Bible in Sign Language)
  • Visual Arts
  • Proverbs
  • Radio
The website sparked an enormous amount of thinking on nonstandard learners and standard learners alike. The implications for thinking deliberately in this way are many. Then I started thinking about how and what I teach my own children. We’ll talk about two of their strategies.
First, I’m particularly interested in their observations on Proverbs, because it reminds me of God’s great wisdom in using a variety of genres to reveal himself. God knew we needed poetry. He gave us Proverbs. I don’t have any problem incorporating new proverbs (as the website suggests), but I think we underestimate the value of the book of Proverbs in our teaching. They use concrete examples to teach spiritual truths. They are easy to remember. They require meditation.  Now I ask myself: Self, am I connecting Proverbs to their everyday lives, not just as correction, but also as a means of explaining why we do what we do?
God also filled his revelation of himself with stories, and Jesus taught extensively with stories. I was fascinated by their discussion on the need for teaching topics through Bible stories. Listen to what they say, and see if it’s like what we moms do with our children.

An ethnic group in South America where there were no Christians heard an initial set of stories that presented the gospel. They wanted to follow Jesus, but had great fear of doing so. They were terribly afraid of what the spirits might do to them if they ceased honoring the spirits and followed Jesus instead. They also feared that members of their community might persecute them.

Christians ministering among the group used a concordance to locate every place in the Bible where “fear not” or its equivalent appears. From this list they then selected stories that showed how God helped people overcome their fear as they obeyed him.

Here is a list of the stories on fear that they broadcast on radio. The list inspires me to continue thinking this way. What do my children need spiritually right now? My children have thoroughly enjoyed our “silly putty discussions” which are simply questions about what verses might fit certain situations. They’ve discovered that there’s a concordance of sorts in the back of their Bibles. I’ve been interested to see their interest. Or maybe they just like playing with silly putty. 🙂

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