Possible Warning Signs of a Struggling Student

Is your child avoiding a specific subject matter during homework time, leaving it for the last minute, forgetting to do it, or forgetting to turn it in?

Watch your child when they do homework- what do you see?

It’s OK if… She stands rather than sits to do the work.

It’s not OK if… She stands to do the work and sharpens all 15 pencils, organizes and reorganizes the homework area, and then needs a snack before starting her homework.

It’s OK if… Your child takes a break after school to unwind before starting his homework.

It’s not OK if… He leaves his homework until half an hour before bedtime on a consistent basis and or “forgets” to do it.

It’s OK if… She forgets her homework at home every once in a while.

It’s not OK if… Homework is forgotten on a weekly basis or they did it, but can’t find it when it’s time to turn it in.

These may be signs that your child is having difficulty and is finding ways to avoid doing the work. It is important to identify the specific difficulty that the child is having, is it academic, social, emotional, organizational, or a combination of any of the above factors.

Ways to help your child:

• Have them show you their work – no matter how old they are.
• Have all supplies ready to go before homework starts.
• Provide time frames in which homework needs to be done.
• Don’t wait to talk to the teacher about your concerns.
• Create a system for remembering to do and bring back work.

If a child is struggling in school and a teacher says to give them extra time to practice in their toughest subject area, where can you find the extra time in a busy family schedule?

Finding the time to fit in extra help is a challenge itself. Where do we get that extra time or what do we give up in its place?

There is no one answer, no quick fix, or magic potions that will make the area of difficulty in school go away. Time and practice is what your child needs.

First, identify what type of help is needed. Does your child need extra reading practice? Tutoring? A different introduction to school material? Knowing this will guide you as you make the next set of decisions of what to do and when.

When balancing family life and schedules with the need of extra support consider the following:

• Work with your family’s schedule rather than against it
• Know when your child works best
• If possible have your child participate in the discussion about extra help

Having a mix of flexibility, determination, and resilience will go a long way.

Did you know that you and your child each have a specific style when it comes to learning new information? This is called your learning style. Your learning style has guided you in learning information from grade school to grad school. Learning style refers to the various ways you learn new information and figure things out. Typically there are 4 different learning styles:

• Auditory: learning best by hearing information.
• Visual: learning best by seeing the information via a picture or a story with images in your mind.
• Kinesthetic/Tactile: learning best through movement and touch. For example, using counters for math or gliding your finger under text while reading.
• Combined: using more than one learning style in combination to learn new information.

Knowing your own learning style and your child’s can go a long way in helping your child learn. Does your child:

• Listen to the information on the iPod?
• Draw a picture to solve the problem?
• Build the model first and then look at the instructions?
• Combine the above strategies for learning new information?

No one learning style is correct, but is your choice of how to learn best. Understanding your child’s learning style or styles helps you to know how to encourage him when learning something new.

Struggles with homework?

Think back to when your little one was learning to walk-there was a whole big process that took place: holding his head up, turning over, sitting up, crawling, cruising, standing for brief moments of time, balancing, and then after lots of practice- the first step! As he took the many steps that followed, knowledge of what to do and his confidence grew.

In education scaffolding is used to help learn large or new amounts of information. Scaffolding helps students build confidence while learning something, new just like baby steps. By breaking up learning into smaller chunks and then providing support confidence and knowledge combine to help the student reach the next step in the learning process.

At home, we can take it for granted that our children already know the information in their homework. When there is a struggle with homework parents can also use scaffolding to help them out:

• Break down the work into smaller chunks
• Ask your child to do each of the chunks separately
• Review and connect each of the chunks
• Go back to the original question and have them try it again

Share how you have used scaffolding to make home

The term struggling student seems to come up often in conversations in the teacher’s lounge, the guidance counselor’s office, and in conversations with parents. But what does it mean, how can one get help for their child, and what does this help look like?

A struggling child may have:

• Difficulties in reading skills (no matter how smart they are!)
• Trouble understanding concepts in math (no matter how smart they are!)
• Great difficulties with organizational skills (no matter how smart they are!)

Once the difficulty is identified, a plan of action needs to be created and implemented by both the school and family. It is important to check in with school on a consistent basis to see if the plan continues to be effective or if changes need to be made.

An effective plan of action:

• Takes into account the needs of the child and family
• Sets measurable goals
• Includes feedback and review