Struggling learners: Who supports them?

Most of my teaching career has been spent working with children who did not ‘make the grade’ for one reason or another. Many of these were what I call ‘grey area’ students.

‘Grey area’ students who are those children who not doing too well in class but who do not seem to have a specific learning difficulty. They are the students that parents and teachers worry about because they are failing their grade but have no idea why they are failing or what they can do to help.

Classrooms are made up of children with all kinds of abilities. Teachers know which are the bright kids and which are the ones in need of extra support. Most teachers know how to get these children the extra help they need from the school system. Bright kids are sent on enrichment programs and children with obvious learning problems are referred for assessment, and then either placed in a special class or provided with extra support in the classroom. (Well, that is how it has worked in all the school systems I have worked with).

And this is as it should be.

But, what about the kids that are left, the ‘average’ kids who are doing reasonably well in class, who have their moments of glory when they are good at something, but who may also have their moments of struggle and despair when they are not reaching their learning potential. What about the kids who are struggling to learn but who do not qualify for extra help, who are trying to learn but have met a barrier that they cannot overcome on their own, and who do not get the support they need to get them over their learning hurdles?

I would like to say that teachers provide these kids with the support these students need to reach their learning potential and become the happy eager students they are capable of being. But, in my experience, this is not the case. Teachers want to help, they understand the need to provide help, but do not have the time, training or ability to provide these students with the support they need.

The best teachers can do is to put these students on the wait list for help from the learning assistance teacher. I know from first hand experience how long these lists can be. I was a learning assistance teacher for over ten years and it was a constant battle to provide service for all the children who needed extra support.

These students, the ones wanting and needing support in order to become the learners they are capable of becoming, are the ones I call ‘grey area’ students. They exist in a grey area, an area where they need help, but are not so in need of help that the system can provide the help they need. These students do not qualify for extra support from the system but neither do they get the help they need to overcome their learning hurdles.

There are a lot of them out there. Researchers suggest that up to 30% of all children have a learning problem at some time or other in their learning careers. These are the ‘grey area’ children. The ones the system struggles to support.

So who IS going to help them? Who is going to provide them with the support they need to succeed?