3 Critical Steps to Make Your Child a Better Student

I have worked with children for over 35 years. One of the continuing problems that is frequently seen a child or young adult who is having difficulty in schools. There are two variants of this issue. The first is a child who is in kinder, first or second grade. The second is a young adult who is in the critical years of seventh through ninth grade.

In each of these scenarios, the child or young adult has been good at home but is having issues at school. Frequently, the real cause is that the child either can’t do the work or feels they can’t do it. Now, I know that parental conflicts, accidents, emotional disorders and a whole trash yard of other problems can make these problems come forth. But, frequently, once the trash is cleaned up, the child continues to struggle.

There are also several issues (aside from parental problems, etc) that can make the problem more intense. One is that the child is very sensitive and is a dominant person (oppositional). The second is that the school teacher (s) is too critical and use direct power to control the class (I told you to sit down. Didn’t you understand me?), and has very low positive support for the class. Finally the last issue is the willingness of the parents to assist the student. Willing parents can almost overcome any limitation of the teacher but the parents need to want to work.

The improvement of your child’s performance in school can be activated by:

1 – Tutoring the child

Tutorial interventions can take a “poor student” to an average one. Tutoring can also take an average student to a superior student. Look for the AVID program and use the student tutors from this program to help your child. This is a cheap and effective intervention

2 – Daily report cards

I know teachers have various daily report cards. However, if the child doesn’t change once the teacher’s system has been used, the problem is that the process surrounding the card is not well thought out. I have implemented report card systems and have seen changes in pre-schoolers to high schoolers. If you are interested, email me (dwatson425@yahoo.com) and I will send you a copy.

3 – Get your child ahead academically

At every longer school break, have you child catch up and get ahead of the class academically. This strategy turned a first grader, who had been recommended to held back, into a superior second grade student doing above average school work. It also turned a college student, who couldn’t pass math, into an A student.

With these three strategies, you can turn around almost every student.