School is supposed to be where children learn, thrive, and grow into their potential.
But for many kids with ADHD, intellectual disabilities, or other neurodevelopmental conditions, the classroom becomes a battleground — not because they can’t learn, but because the system wasn’t built for how they learn.
Let’s be clear: these kids don’t have a lack of intelligence, effort, or potential. What they lack is access to learning that works with their brain, not against it.
These Kids Aren’t Broken. The System Isn’t Either — It’s Just Not Built for Them.
We often say “the system is broken.” But in reality, the education system is working exactly as it was designed — to prioritise:
- Academic achievement over wellbeing
- Compliance over curiosity
- Funding, reputation, and results over equity and inclusion
Schools are not rewarded for helping struggling students. They’re rewarded for producing high scores, clean records, and “well-behaved” classrooms.This is not just an oversight. It’s systemic neglect with real consequences.
One of the Biggest Mistakes Schools Make?
They teach children that winning, being right, and getting it perfect is the goal of education.
By doing this, they send the message:
“If you fail, you are less.”
So when a child with learning difficulties struggles, they are:
- Marked as behind
- Left out of the praise
- Blamed for their challenges
- Labelled with “mental health issues” without deeper understanding
But here’s the truth: Failure is more important than winning. It’s where brain growth happens.
It’s how resilience is built.
It’s the foundation of learning.
And yet, children who fail to meet the system’s narrow definition of success are rarely given the chance to learn from their failure — because the system gives up on them too soon.
Where Schools Fall Short — And Where We Step In
Despite legal protections like the Disability Standards for Education (2005), schools often:
- Refuse to provide adequate adjustments
- Dismiss or delay support requests
- Misinterpret behaviour as defiance
- Punish neurological differences
- Prioritise test results over emotional safety
And worst of all?Children with differences are often left to absorb the blame for the system’s failure.
And Then Comes the Bullying
For children who learn or behave differently, school can be a place of:
- Peer bullying: teasing, exclusion, physical or verbal aggression
- Adult shame: public correction, frequent punishment, unfair comparisons
- Internalised pain: “I’m stupid,” “I’ll never be good enough,” “Something’s wrong with me.”
The repeated trauma of academic failure, social rejection, and low expectations rewires a child’s sense of self — and their brain (McLaughlin et al., 2014).That’s why Practice Makes Permanent exists — not just to help kids learn differently, but to help them reclaim their worth.
Our Response: Brain-Based Coaching That Builds the Whole Child
At Practice Makes Permanent, we don’t just offer tutoring.
We provide strategic, neuroscience-backed coaching that helps children develop:
- Cognitive skills through deliberate practice
- Resilience and mindset through cognitive reappraisal
Deliberate Practice: Brain Training, Not Just Studying
Deliberate practice helps children build core skills like:
- Working memory
- Emotional regulation
- Flexible thinking
- Impulse control
Using small, consistent, feedback-based practice, we help children strengthen the very functions school often punishes them for struggling with (Ericsson et al., 1993; Doidge, 2007).
Cognitive Reappraisal: Changing How They See Themselves
We teach children to reinterpret failure and rejection — not as signs of brokenness, but as normal, important parts of growth (Gross, 2015).
So:
- “I always get it wrong” becomes → “I haven’t mastered this yet.”
- “I can’t do it” becomes → “I’m still learning — and that’s okay.”
- “I hate school” becomes → “School doesn’t get me — but someone does.”
This work is powerful.
It’s what many schools neglect.
And it’s what we offer — because it can change a child’s life.
Because Every Child Deserves a Chance to Learn, Fail, Grow, and Be Believed In
At Practice Makes Permanent, we:
- Reframe failure as the beginning of learning
- Create safe spaces to grow without shame
- Support families tired of hearing “We don’t have funding”
- Help children find meaning, not just marks
- Work to undo the trauma of systems that punished difference instead of embracing it
The children who struggle the most are not the problem.
The problem is a system that refuses to adapt.
Let’s Talk
If you’re a parent, educator, therapist or carer and want to help a child learn, grow, and recover from school-related harm, visit:
Let’s help kids practice not just math or reading — but resilience, courage, and self-trust.
Because what we practice — we permanently become.
References
- Alloway, T. P., & Alloway, R. G. (2010). Working Memory: The Connected Intelligence. Psychology Press.
- Barkley, R. A. (2014). Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
- Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. Viking.
- Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406.
- Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26.
- McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., & Lambert, H. K. (2014). Childhood adversity and neural development: Deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early experience. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 578–591.
- Australian Government (2005). Disability Standards for Education 2005 under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.