Ways to encourage confidence when there are learning difficulties

[used2bthin]

My DD is four and a half and her speech and lang disorder has just begun to noticably affect her confidence. She has very low levels of s and l and is (to quote the stat assessment request form)"more than half her chronological age in three devlopmental areas.

Her understanding of language is severely affected it seems too but in other wyas she is very intelligent. She is happy and sociable but her behaviour is getting worse and with the fact that she is tall for her age it is getting to be hard work-running off if we are out, lying on the floor making odd noises that kind of thing-I can only think that she is noticing the difference between her and other children and she is pushing boundaries due to her developmental stage too.

So any ideas for helping her feel confident/ She is physically very able so we have started swim lessons and I give lots of praise for those achievements but she must be losing confidence esp as no one can understand her.

Hi used2thin - I'm not sure what to suggest seems like the swim lessons are a good idea. Maybe another sporty type of activity as she is physically very able. I have heard horse riding is good for confidence building but have not tried it with DD so not sure if it is true. I would love to take DD to horseriding lessons but whenever I ask her if she would like to ride on a horses back I always get a definate NO .

Meant less than half chronological age! I know a little girl who horse rides for similar reasons actually thats a good idea. Mind you I think my DD may refuse too she used to be fearless but is less so now and spent half her first swim session on the side. Hard to know if that was fear or lack of understanding she was laughing loudly and screeching at the other children who were doing as instructed!

I guess sometimes it may take a few times to get them used to new classes etc... I have never taken DD to anything structured since she was about 15 months as I don't think she would join in! but hopefully over time that will change.

Yes think you are right there. My DD has always been very sociable and easy going but I just want to keep it that way and also there is the seemingly impossible task of making sure she doesn't feel stupid when she is so at a disadvantage to others communication wise. She has also started making odd noises and stuff which makes her seem even more different.