It’s always interesting to me how words or terms come in and out of favor.
I see it all the time with kids on the vocabulary portion of the assessment. Ask any child what the word “seldom” means. I would venture to say 99% of the kids I see stare at me blankly when asked what that means. “Seldom” is very out of favor. So is the word “reluctant.”
Another word rarely used by parents is the word “stamina” when talking about their children.
Instead, parents reference “executive functioning,” while describing how their children don’t start or complete homework or other annoying tasks.
When pressed to explain what they mean they look at me a bit quizzically, like why am I asking that? (“Isn’t that your job to explain it to me” they must be thinking.)
Take a snippet of a conversation I had recently.
“I think my kid has some type of executive function deficit,” said Angela, the parent of a 10-year-old fifth grader.
“How do you mean,” I ask.
“I don’t know,” Angela went on. “The teacher said something about it, even though I wasn’t sure what it meant. She said he gives up quickly on tasks, which is something I see all the time. I think it’s because all he does is swipe for hours on his screens. It’s Tik Tok and YouTube all day and night.”
“So, you’re telling me he can’t tough it out when it’s not fun. He lacks stamina to get through it.”
“Yeah, that’s it. Why can’t people talk like that. I wish they’d stop using all of this jargon and terms we don’t know – it’s always ‘disorder this’ or ‘disability that.’ No stamina…that’s it. Is that a brain dysfunction? My dad used to say I lacked ‘grit.’ I think he was right. I had no grit. My kid doesn’t either.”
Takeaway Point
Maybe your child lacks stamina or grit. (Now, grit is a word I never hear used anymore.)
Perhaps it’s just that and not a brain disorder.
(More on stamina in later posts.)