Evaluating homework and determining consequences for undone assignments is the teacher's work. Learned helplessness can be a problem for the child with learning disabilities. Parents may have to make special efforts to empower the child to talk to teachers about frustrations and work out solutions by role playing with him to provide him with the confindence needed to approach the teacher. A key advocacy strategy is stay in the background as coach and cheerleader. Stay in touch with teachers about homework expectations so that you can feel confident that your child has enough work to challenge him but not to overwhelm him.
Parents do well to build on the child's strengths outside the classroom environment.
An evening of soccer or skating that allows the child physical release and happy success may be doing more to enhance his school performance than extra hours at his desk. Stress and Self-esteem Children with learning disabilities live with chronic stress. One of the ways that parents can help with their child's stress is to acknowledge it. Give the child opportunities to talk about his frustrations and fears so that he can express himself in words, instead of by lashing out physically at siblings or classmates. Children can be overly fearful if they sense their parents are hushing conversations about them when they're around.