The unmotivated child
Motivation is the drive that makes a person do what they have to do or not do in order to achieve a set of goals or motives.
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To be motivated is so important that this drive is considered the most important single factor for success in life.
Self-motivation has to do with the internally generated drive that moves us to take action and move forward to achieve personal goals.
Motivation makes it easy for one to take responsibility for their self-development.
In adults, job satisfaction is also derived when one is self-motivated.
Children need to develop their own inner drive to complete assignments, go to school, study hard, and overcome barriers and challenges that they may face.
When children feel motivated, their well-being is enhanced and this translates into improved academic outcomes.
Such children are persistent and enhance their cognitive processing skills as a result.
A motivated child is committed, creative and innovative.
He/she sees the value of what he/she is being taught and works hard to fulfil set goals or to meet the expectations of parents.
The unmotivated child is often described as a lazy child.
He/she would rather play than do homework and rarely sticks to something until its successful completion.
An unmotivated child prefers activities that do not require much effort and seems not to care about what they are learning in school.
He/she has a poor sense of initiative and will do work half-heartedly.
This lack of motivation may be due to poor self-esteem, discouragement or demoralisation.
Because we all have innate interests, a child who is unmotivated in the classroom is likely to be passionate in another area outside the classroom.
Strategies
One of the strategies to deal with demotivating behaviour in the classroom is to identify a child’s interest, encourage it and link the interest with the area where motivation needs to be whipped up.
In recent times, many parents have complained about the lack of enthusiasm for studying among children.
This is because of the many distractions surrounding us.
Most children will rather be scrolling through phones, watching TV, going out to places and spending time on entertainment rather than studying.
While technology has made studying and acquiring knowledge easier, more engaging and more exciting, parents and teachers have to do everything within their means to also tackle the potential harm it poses to both the physical and mental well-being of our children.
While the motivation talk seems an easy way to deal with a lack of motivation, there could also be underlying issues, such as learned helplessness, which must be addressed.
Children who experience too much failure can begin to perceive and accept themselves as failures.
A lack of confidence in their ability to do better makes them resign.
We must listen carefully to the kind of things they say about themselves and encourage and support them with positive words.
Share your own failures with them to help them understand that failure is not fatal.
Classroom structure and the kind of relationship students have with their teachers are all important factors worth investigating.
When students do not perceive the classroom climate as supportive, they struggle to develop their interest in studying.
Other students may suffer from physical, mental or other personal problems that affect motivation.
Reward systems that encourage some competition at home and even in schools should be encouraged.
Most schools do not have Speech and Prize-giving ceremonies nowadays because of the cost and inconvenience.
By investing, not only in beauty pageants but in such school events, corporate entities will be contributing to developing human resources, which can inure to their own benefit one day.
The writer is a Child Development Expert/ Fellow at Zero-to-three Academy, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]
