Learned Helplessness

By Lorna Irwin and Andrea Amestoy, Idaho H&V

As parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (d/hh), we have often heard professionals bemoaning “learned helplessness” in students, especially teens, who have just given up on academics and life in general. We wondered if there were any takeaways for early intervention. We found no research about learned helplessness in young children with hearing loss—all research there is focused on issues more central to deafness, such as language development. We did find research into learned helplessness associated with other disabilities and quite a bit about children in general. We put together a proposal for the 2020 EHDI Meeting titled SHIFT: Driving Families and Children from Learned Helpless to Self-Advocacy, Engagement and a Growth Mindset!  Andrea presented the poster and returned home from Kansas City before the stay-at-home orders for COVID-19 began. Below is a summary of what we learned, minus the scholarly citations.

Learned helplessness can begin when a person experiences repeated failure and becomes convinced that success isn’t possible. It is characterized by a tendency to give up in the face of failure, to attribute failure to personal shortcomings which cannot be changed, eventually leading to a negative self-concept and avoiding future failure by avoiding new challenges. The opposite response to challenging tasks is referred to as learned optimism or mastery orientation and includes persistence in the face of failure and a belief that abilities can be developed through effort. This outlook, like learned helplessness, is self-fulfilling and eventually leads to a positive self-concept and happily taking on new challenges.

While researching, we ran across some anecdotal indications that today’s teachers see children as less self-reliant than they used to be. We also found one article about surveys of college students noting that students are now more likely than students of past decades to attribute success or lack thereof to external factors or innate ability (things that can’t be changed) rather than the degree of effort put into mastering concepts or new skills.  Is learned helplessness becoming more prevalent in our society in general? If helplessness is learned, how can we avoid teaching it?  Is there a role for parents? 

When should we be concerned? 

A complicated relationship exists between personality, ability, self-concept and learned helplessness versus learned optimism. Indeed, these two patterns of response to challenges are not an either-or, but the two ends of a spectrum. Perhaps we should imagine the child as a bead on a wire between the two extremes, being pushed back and forth by life experiences and gradually sliding one direction or the other. Learned helplessness can be reversed, but it’s easier to get the bead sliding in the other direction, toward learned optimism and a growth mindset as early as possible.

Infancy is a crucial time when children bond with their caretakers and undergo rapid psychosocial development. Hearing parents of children who are d/hh are under unusual stress due to the discovery of the hearing difference and potential medical concerns. Not only are parents trying to wade through often contradictory information while deciding next steps, they may not be sure how to relate to their tiny person. Social and emotional support are critical. Deaf parents have intuitive ways of interacting with their infants, through touch and visual attention-focusing strategies. Early interventionists should be aware of this informal knowledge that is even beginning to make its way to hearing parents.

What are the characteristics?

“Nonpersisters” may show signs of learned helplessness as early as age 4-7, when measured by a child’s unwillingness to tackle a puzzle he previously failed to complete, and his helpless attitude toward a task. Other children, “persisters,” show a learned optimism type of response. Long-term studies (five years) find these behavior patterns to be moderately persistent and match teachers’ reports about classroom behavior. The takeaway? Attitudes toward challenge begin early, even before they become academic issues.

What can parents do to encourage persistence?  

When children are asked to role-play with dolls an adult response to a child failing a task, a clue arises. Nonpersisters share negative comments from the adult about the child, even imposing some kind of punishment. Persisters model adults who suggest strategies and praise the effort the child puts into the task. It’s not hard to deduce that the children are enacting their own experiences with adult feedback!

Not only is it important that we use supportive feedback language, which will be a problem if we haven’t established communication in some form, but a child needs to learn that he can succeed through his own efforts. Parents of deaf/hard of hearing children may regard their children as less capable, or perhaps it is just too much time and trouble to surmount the communication gap as well as constraints imposed by the tight schedules of hectic lifestyles.

Take it one step further–most toddlers want to help adults at adult tasks. To get a job done quickly and properly, it’s easier to decline “help” and send the toddler off to “play.”  Toddlers allowed to help, develop skills and feelings of self-empowerment and belonging by being a contributing member of the family. No tangible reward is necessary (and rewards can be counter-productive). A sincere “good job” and “thank you” work well. Eventually you will have a self-motivated and able helper. Wait until children are older, and gaining their cooperation will be more challenging. “Everything a parent does for a child, even if it is just to get things done in a hurry, is something the child doesn’t learn to do for himself.” (Pica 2019)

A hearing loss will pose challenges, both social and academic, during a child’s school years. The early years offer parents opportunities to show youngsters that persistence pays off, and hard work yields results, in ways that stay with them through thick and thin. Every skill that a child masters serves as an inoculation against learned helplessness.   Learned optimism also provides a firm foundation for the self-advocacy skills our children will need as they grow older.

To paraphrase Marc Marschark (Raising and Educating a Deaf Child, 2^nd edition, Chapter 8), motivation to achieve is a potent factor recognized by parents and teachers but not often investigated. Successful experiences build on each other, especially when success is recognized as self-produced.

Want to learn more? The first two resources are parent-friendly books both by authors who are Deaf; the last two articles are available online.   ~  

Even More: Preventing Learned Helplessness. By George Clark, M.Ed, CI, NAD IV and Laura Scheele, M.Ed

Editor’s note: Amestoy is with Idaho H&V, the Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and the Blind and Idaho Sound Beginnings, and the mother of Ryder and Kylie. Irwin also works with Idaho H&V and is the mother of Mavis.

H&V Communicator – Summer 2020