A new book published by Seabiscuit Press argues that many parents misinterpret their children's academic struggles as motivation problems when the root cause may lie in underdeveloped cognitive skills. Your Child Learns Differently, Now What? The Truth for Parents, written by Roger Stark and Betsy Hill, offers a framework for parents to understand how their children process information and provides guidance on supporting learning differences.
The book addresses a common scenario: a capable child stares at a homework page, avoids assignments, forgets instructions, or gives up before trying. Stark and Hill suggest that what often looks like laziness, carelessness, or lack of effort may actually stem from the way a child's brain processes information. They emphasize that cognitive skills—including attention, memory, processing speed, executive function, visual processing, and auditory processing—enable individuals to take in, organize, store, retrieve, and apply information. When these skills are unevenly developed, a student may appear distracted, resistant, disorganized, or unwilling, even when the child is bright and wants to succeed.
For many families, this distinction can change the conversation. A child who spends two hours on homework may not need another lecture about effort. A student who forgets multi-step directions may not be ignoring adults. A child who avoids reading may not be trying to escape responsibility. The book asks parents to consider whether the child has the learning foundation needed to complete the task successfully.
Your Child Learns Differently, Now What? introduces a five-step framework designed to help parents move from worry and repeated reminders toward a clearer understanding of learning strengths, weak areas, confidence, and the kind of support that can help a child make real progress. Rather than offering another collection of parenting strategies for managing schoolwork, the book asks a different question: How can parents help their child become a more capable learner?
Stark and Hill argue that the goal is not simply to help children complete today's assignments, but to help them build the underlying cognitive capacity that makes tomorrow's learning easier. The book also speaks to parents who may have received a diagnosis or school label but still feel unsure about what to do next. A label may help explain certain challenges or open the door to services, but it does not always show how an individual child learns best. The authors encourage parents to look beyond broad categories and focus on the child's specific learning strengths and weaknesses.
Roger Stark is the CEO of BrainWare Learning Company, and Betsy Hill is the company's President and COO. Together, they bring experience in cognitive training, neuroscience-informed education, and parent advocacy to a topic that affects many families navigating school frustration and learning differences.
Your Child Learns Differently, Now What? The Truth for Parents is positioned as a practical and hopeful guide for parents who want to stop mistaking learning difficulty for motivation failure. Its message is clear: when parents understand how learning happens, they are better prepared to help children build confidence, capability, and a stronger path forward.
