Every Child Learns at Their Own Pace: A Teacher’s Advice for Parents

This article is adapted from an audio episode by Dr. Nancy Barker, Ed.D., a teacher for 49 years.

What Dr. Nancy shares

Hello, friends. I'm Dr. Nancy Barker. I've been a teacher for 49 years.

I started in 1977. That's a long time. Long enough to see chalkboards turn into whiteboards. And whiteboards turn into screens.

And now, here we are. Talking about artificial intelligence. I know. That word can feel big.

Maybe a little scary. So let's sit down together. Pour a cup of coffee, or tea. And let's talk about it like friends at the kitchen table.

Today I want to share one simple idea. Every child deserves to be met where they are. That's it. That's the whole show, really.

But let me tell you why it matters so much to me. A couple of years ago, my first grandson was born. And then he started to talk. Oh, you remember that time, don't you?

The first "mama." The first "ball." The day a word comes out a little crooked, and it's the most beautiful thing you ever heard. Listening to him brought it all back.

All my years in the classroom. All the children I taught. And I thought: I'm not done yet. That's how Read Like Rocky began.

Now, you've heard me say Rocky. Let me introduce him. Rocky is my dog. He's a lab retriever mix.

A real duck dog. He loves the beach. And he loves ducks. Oh, how he loves ducks.

Every time we go, he sees them. His ears go up. And off he runs. Splashing, barking, full speed.

And does he ever catch one? Never. Not once. But here's the thing.

He never gives up, either. He comes back wet and happy, and the next day he tries again. I think about that a lot. Because that's what learning looks like.

Trying. Missing. Trying again. And loving it anyway.

I want every child to feel the way Rocky feels on that beach. For much of my career, I worked with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Later I became a school leader, and I mentored teachers. And if those years taught me one thing, it's this.

No two children learn the same way. Not one pair. Not ever. Let me tell you about a little boy.

I'll call him Sam. He isn't one child. He's a mix of many children I taught over the years. Sam was in second grade.

Bright eyes. Loved trucks. And every day, during reading, he'd slide down in his chair a little lower. The class was reading the same book, at the same speed.

Sam was still working on sounds the other children had already learned. So every page felt like a wall. One day I sat down next to him with a stack of cards. Just the sounds he needed.

Short words. A truck on every card. We went slow. His pace, not the class's pace.

And about ten minutes in, he read a whole sentence. By himself. He looked up at me like he'd just won the World Series. He sat up straight in that chair.

He didn't slide down again. Nothing about Sam changed that day. What changed was the lesson. It finally fit him.

That's what good teachers have always done. We watch. We listen. We adjust.

The trouble is, one teacher has a whole room. Twenty-five children. Thirty. Sometimes more.

And there's only one of her. Here's how I explain it. Adaptive learning means the lesson changes to fit the child. Not the other way around.

If a child already knows a sound, they don't have to sit through it again and again. They move ahead. If a child is stuck, the lesson slows down. It tries another way.

It gives a little more practice. It's what a patient tutor does, sitting right beside one child. For most of history, only some families could afford that. A private tutor.

A special program. Extra help after school. Now, with new tools, including AI, I believe more children can get some of that one-on-one feeling. Let me be honest with you.

AI is a tool. It's not a teacher. And it's certainly not a grandma. A tool can notice that a child keeps missing the same word.

It can offer another practice. It can keep track of what a child has learned. But a tool doesn't hug. It doesn't see the tears in a little face.

It doesn't know that your daughter didn't sleep well last night. You do. So in my view, the best kind of adaptive learning keeps a loving adult right in the middle. The parent.

The grandparent. The teacher. The technology helps. The people lead.

Now here's the part I feel strongly about. Every child should have access to this kind of learning. Every single one. Not just the children in the big school with the big budget.

Not just the families who can pay for tutoring. The child in the small town. The child whose parents work two jobs. The child who learns differently.

The child who hears differently, like so many of my students did. In my opinion, a child's chance to learn to read shouldn't depend on their zip code. I've spent 49 years believing every child can learn. I still believe it.

I just think now we have more ways to help. So what can you do this week? Here are three small things. One.

Watch and listen. Notice what your child already knows. Celebrate it. Out loud.

Two. Go at their pace. If something is hard, slow down. If it's easy, move on.

Their pace is the right pace. Three. Keep the lap. Whatever apps or tools you use, keep reading together.

Ten minutes on the couch matters. And remember Rocky. Trying, missing and trying again isn't failing. It's learning.

If you ever have questions about your child's speech, hearing or development, please talk with your pediatrician or a licensed specialist. They're the right people for that. Thank you for spending this time with me. Next time, we'll talk about what AI can do for our kids, and what it can't.

Until then, be patient with your little ones. And with yourself. I'm Dr. Nancy Barker.

Take care, friends. Thanks for listening to Every Child, Their Own Pace, from Read Like Rocky. Curious where your child is in their reading journey? Take the free reading assessment at readlikerocky.com.

The views in this episode are Dr. Nancy Barker's personal opinions and experience. This podcast is not medical, speech-therapy or professional advice. — Free reading assessment (show notes link): https://readlikerocky.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=every-child-their-own-pace&utm_content=ep01

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