Sue Blair joins us at the AusAPT National Conference in Melbourne in November 2019 from New Zealand to present on ‘Learning Challenges and Misinterpretations‘: “Everyone knows someone who has struggled through the education system. There are many reasons for this, but the patterns we can see through the application of Type are proven, consistent, thought-provoking and somewhat alarming! This session will outline the challenges and explore ways to navigate the issues to find diverse and effective solutions. “
Sue provides this introduction to ‘Learning Challenges and Misinterpretations‘ as background for her presentation in November.
Learning Challenges and Misinterpretations
I believe that most people who embark on the parenting journey do so with a ‘BLM’ mentality. Surely this child I will produce will at least, in some small way, ‘Be Like Me’. After all, how far from the tree can my little apples fall? A resemblance seems quite likely, even desirable if we are honest with ourselves. But no! Sometimes our children can be quite like Mum or quite like Dad; or then there’s the genetic throwback to a relative you hardly knew but has somehow turned up playing on the mat right in front of you. Yes, he’s yours! Congratulations you are the proud recipient of a developing human being who is nothing like you whatsoever!
In the work I have done over the past 18 years I have come across a wide range of parenting dilemmas many of which have their source in a complete lack of understanding about the child’s needs. In all too many cases there has been very little ‘wrong’ with the child but the parent has misunderstood and misinterpreted them from a young age. Of course, this then frequently extends to school expectations which create another whole drama all of its own.
Even when you have a child who is academically capable life is not always easy. When you have a child who is struggling with learning issues the task just gets harder and harder. So, at what point should we be asking ourselves what action we should take? In my experience the earlier the better.
As Type professionals we can really make a difference. It can feel daunting at times; after all, who can ever truly claim to have parenting as an expertise. To be truthful we are all just trying to do the best we can and usually with varying degrees of success and failure. But there are ways that we can set ourselves up to succeed and, also support others to do likewise. I would like to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and, where you see a need, gently try to help. A very astute philosopher once said, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”. Parents and educators are craving information on our topic, they just need someone to ‘appear’.
The journey I would like to take you on in the 90 minutes we have together at the AUSAPT conference is this. We all understand the usual wide-ranging patterns of diversity with our knowledge of Type. I would like you to experience the feeling a student has when they have some of the well-known learning difficulties. We will then look at a few case studies and explore in each case how it could have been possible to help this child to thrive. How can you make a connection, what are the teaching strategies, what are the possible misinterpretations and how Type can help or hinder a diagnosed learning difference?
I look forward to meeting you in Melbourne. I’m sure it will, as always, be an engaging and thought-provoking conference with much to think about and discuss.
Until then, keep well! I’ll see you there.
All the best
Sue