Why Your Child May Be Failing at School

As a parent myself, I know it is always upsetting to discover that your child is having a hard time at school. I also know it is impossible to fix things through fights or punishing them. It is crucial to understand the reasons behind your kid’s poor performance.

Children struggling with learning may eventually lose interest in their studies. This cycle of failure and disappointment will harm the self-esteem of youngsters. Then lack of motivation leads to issues like dropping out of school, difficulty holding onto a job, lower wages, and problems with building credit at work. Don’t let problems at school get in the way of your kid’s lifelong success.

Struggling at school is not necessarily related to lack of intelligence or ADHD. At some point, all children may experience difficulties with learning. The common reasons for this are:

Poor time management skills

Try to observe your child’s activities throughout the day. How much time do they need to finish their homework? Can they plan the workflow? Do they spend hours procrastinating in front of the computer screen? No one is perfect, and more importantly, no one is born perfect. As a parent, it is your responsibility to teach your children to manage their time correctly. Ask your child to make a time-table with day-to-day responsibilities and time for leisure, and try to follow it together. Setting a time for homework and sticking to it will help you to establish healthier habits and save more time for family activities.

Avoidance

Some children start avoiding tasks if they don’t feel smart enough to complete them. Teens often give up too quickly or avoid learning new things because of the lack of self-confidence. Show your interest in their studies, but don’t be too pushy. Ask if they have problems with understanding tasks and offer your help.

Lack of Independence

Many kids rely too heavily on others and lack the independence necessary for academic achievements. Don’t be a helicopter parent. Give your children some room for coping with their problems. Instead of solving the task for your child try explaining to them how to do it correctly. Be supportive and always recognize their success. They will gain motivation to become independent and achieve good results by themselves.

Lack of Motivation

Not everyone can be an overachiever. Even intelligent children may be incredibly unmotivated to complete difficult tasks. If the work is too complicated, your child can start procrastinating. Don’t worry – there are lots of tools to try. There are great academic calendar apps that help with keeping track and make it easy to set reminders for rewards. Also getting essay help from EssayPro or a similar website can be a great way to assist your child in mastering new skills.

Fear of Failure

The fear of failure is an age-old reason for students to avoid hard tasks. It is always challenging to learn new skills if you lack confidence. It is essential to support your child as they develop new skills. Remember, over demanding parents are making things worse for their children. They need to learn failing is ok, as nobody is born knowing everything. They should learn from their mistakes and then move on to the next challenge.

Sense of Entitlement

I know with experience that my children developed a sense of entitlement and felt that the world owed them something. This meant that the required effort needed to achieve something was not put in. This is needed to be resolved and the root of the problem found out as soon as possible as they will go through life with the same mind-set.

No Perseverance

Children must learn that everything in life has to be obtained in the correct order and there are no shortcuts. If they go through life thinking that success is easily achieved with little work this will lead to no good. If they learn that with perseverance even the most difficult challenges can be overcome and with rewards.

Lack of Creative Thinking

I know this generation seems to be lacking the ability to think outside the box, and this is something that will be needed in school, work and life in general. Children should be challenged to think critically about things and analyze different situations. They have become dependent on technology and need to receive the right kind of challenges in school and outside to keep them thinking intuitively and creatively.

Too Many Distractions

In this modern age, I think it is even easier for a child to lose focus with distractions like mobile phones, computers, social media to name just a few. It is important to find a balance as they can become more addictive as school challenges start to add up. As a parent, you should try to spot these signs and guide them to meet the next challenges in academic life.

Get Started Now

If your child is struggling with school life you need to take action immediately.  Use the strategies I have listed in this article to address your child’s problems right away. The faster you can detect and deal with the problem the more successful your child will be.