Fix That Feeds

A hypothesis that symptom relief is weakening or replacing the capacity that would actually remove the symptom.

Your son's math homework goes better when you sit beside him, and lately better has become you working most problems while he copies. Grades are fine. Then a test comes home at 54 percent, and you realize the fine grades were measuring your math, not his. Every helpful evening may have been feeding the struggle it relieved.

As a diagnostic, Fix That Feeds is a hypothesis, not a verdict: symptom relief is weakening or replacing the capacity that would actually remove the symptom. You use it by making it predict something. If this structure is running, then the more consistently you help, the worse he should perform when you are absent, with the gap widening over months. State the strongest rival too: maybe he has a genuine gap in fractions that no amount of independent struggle would fix. Then find the observation that separates them, such as two weeks where he attempts problems alone first while you only review afterward; the archetype predicts rough starts then real gains, the rival predicts he stays stuck without targeted teaching. What changes is that a guilty hunch becomes a testable claim. The trap to avoid: saying this resembles Fix That Feeds, therefore it is one, and yanking away support before the evidence is in.