Last week, in the middle of all that snow, I saw a student who was in eighth grade. His mom brought him even though they live an hour away.  She said that she did not want to miss the appointment because she and her husband have tried many different strategies and nothing has helped their son.  This boy is very talented with his hands and is mechanically gifted.  Academics, on the other hand, are his Achilles heel.

As I spoke with this young man, I saw a student who talked about the challenges of school, but what he was really saying was that he had no idea how to help himself succeed.  So, instead of working on all of the issues that were difficult, he opted to speed through work, make many errors or just not do the work at all.  I believe that he was not motivated to improve because he felt defeated.

We have seen many students who struggle in school, but this young man struck me because he would have a much easier time learning academics if he could do so under the hood of a car or riding a tractor on a farm.  Now, I know that there are many schools that do focus on a kinesthetic approach to learning, but that is not the norm.  So, how can we help?

What I plan to do is work with this student on how he can build models for himself in order to use his very strong kinesthetic modality to attempt less exciting academic material.  We will have to be very creative to engage this youngster, but if we can motivate, encourage and help this student, then we will be on the way to give him strategies that he can embrace and expand on his own.