Tips To Help Your Child Do Better in School

Tips To Help Your Child Do Better in School


Talking about school and exam, some children will do well
and they learn quickly. Some don't do so well. They have
trouble paying attention. Their grades are poor. Yet they
may be as smart-or smarter-than their successful
classmates.

Why the difference in performance?

The difference in performance may not be a question of
I.Q. but of behavior and attitude. Research has shown
that these qualities affect children's performance in school.

Successful students behave in certain ways. They have
the "right" attitude. They're motivated, they pay attention,
they're relaxed and they ignore distractions that might
interfere with learning. And, when they need help with
schoolwork, they know how to get it.

None of those things are inborn, but they can be learned.
And as parents, we can help our children learn them.

There are four steps that children can take to become
better students. There steps are for children of all grades.
They may sound simple, but they can make a world of
difference to your children.

You can teach your children strategies for the four steps:

- Paying attention in class
- Keeping interested in schoolwork
- Learning and remembering
- Studying

Paying Attention in Class

Children can learn to pay attention during lesson. Never
threaten or order them to "pay attention" in school
because it won't work!

Here are some simple techniques.

Using self-talk and positive images. Children can use
words or phrases to help control attention.

For example, they can tell themselves to keep their eyes
on the white board while the teacher is writing on it to
explain a problem. You can help them practice positive
self-talk at home in various situations: when playing a
game, doing their home work or working at their hobby.

Help them stop negative self-talk and to be positive
about themselves. One good affirmation statement is "I
can do it." Parents can help children to learn to see
themselves doing well in school and in their everyday life.
For example, we tell her to picture herself answering
questions correctly in class and feeling good about
knowing the answers. And whenever she has a show-
and-tell or piano performance, my wife and I will always
tell her to picture herself doing well on stage and tell to
feel good about herself.

Asking questions. This helps children focus their
attention while studying. When reading a science chapter on
plants, students might ask themselves "What are the
various category of plants?" "What are the various ways
that plants can reproduce themselves?"

You can suggest general questions to a child, such as:
"What is this paragraph about? Who did what and why? Is
the main point true or false?" Asking questions can grab
wandering attention.

Setting specific study goals. Your children can set goals
that will help improve attention. Ask them to study a
lesson until they can tell you the main point of the
paragraph, solve a specific math problem, or know specific
names, dates, and places mentioned in the text. Discuss
each goal with your child.

Keeping Interested

Learning is a joint effort. Everyone must help if students
are to learn. Teachers are responsible for teaching and
parents for parenting, however students must realize that
no one else can do their learning for them.

Children must believe that the hours they spend studying
and the effort they put into it make the difference
between success and failure. Some youngsters believe
other things control their success or failure - e.g. teachers,
basic intelligence, or luck. They ignore their own
responsibility.

You can help your children accept the fact that their efforts
do make a difference. The next time they bring home test
results, written comments, or report cards, discuss the
reasons why they did well or poorly. Help them relate their
efforts to the result.

Do reward a child for improvement. Your praise is music to
your child's ears. You might consider treats or trips or
privileges for special achievements. Do stress the benefits
of doing well in school. Some benefits are immediate, such
as having more free time, and some are long-term, such
as getting a scholarship or an interesting job.

Remembering Key Facts and Information

A child's success in school is determined not just by
intelligence but by the strategies he or she uses to master
many facts and concepts.

Understanding a subject doesn't just happen. It takes
work. It requires taking an interest in the subject, and
relating new information to familiar information.

Besides teaching the strategies for paying attention, you
can help you child use various strategies to remember and
recalling the information. You can decide how best to
adapt a particular strategy.

Here are the strategies:

Building bridges. It helps children to build a bridge
between the new and the old - between new information
and things they already know. They should look for
similarities between the new and the familiar. For
example, a child studying a geography chapter on a
particular country could relate the lifestyle of its population
to what he learnt from his recent education field trip,
about the physical environment of that country.

Making inferences. Encourage your children to try to
draw conclusions from the material they are studying. When
they are reading about an invention- e.g. the airplane,
they could consider what people would do without the
airplane.

Categorizing information. Many school activities involve
learning and remembering large amounts of information.
Sometimes there are long lists of names and dates. When
there are many items of information to learn, students
should group them in categories. Students in beginning
music classes don't try to remember the names and
characteristics of every musical instrument, but group
them: percussion, woodwinds, strings, and brass. Your
children should try this technique in subjects ranging from
geography to English to math.

Finding the key ideas. As students listen or read, they
must frequently ask themselves, "What's the point being
made here?" By constantly looking for the key idea, they
concentrate on learning the important material. This also
helps to keep them actively engaged in studying.

Studying

Your children need a place to study. Whether you live in a
one-bedroom apartment or a house, you can set aside a
study area. It can be a desk in a bedroom or kitchen table.
But it must be fairly quiet with good lighting.

Children also need a time for studying. Help your children
create schedules and time table. If they set aside time for
chores, work, fun, and study, they can make better use of
their time. These schedules should be flexible enough to
allow trade-offs whenever necessary.

Previewing material. Encourage children to begin an
assignment by previewing the material-for example, by
reading the introduction to a chapter, the headings, and
summary. This is like looking at a road map. Here they
create a mental "map" of what is ahead. They complete
the map's details when they read the chapter.

Reading and thinking. When reading the chapter, they
should try to fit details into their mental "map." This is the
time to use the attention-grabbing strategies - self-talk,
positive images, and questions. It helps if they pause
before each new section to test their own understanding.
Using the strategies for learning and remembering, they
can ask: "What conclusions can I draw from this? How
should I categorize the information? Do I see analogies?
What are the main ideas?"

Making notes. Children can't remember everything they
read. It will help them, though, to take notes of the main
points. These notes serve as a summary of the most
important points. The act of taking them and reviewing
them will help the student to categorize the material,
understand, and remember it. And the notes will help in
preparing for tests.

Self-Testing. Children should test themselves to see what
they know and don't know. They can then apply their
study time more efficiently to the sections on which they
are weakest. You can help by making up test questions,
for example, "What are the chief food products of the
country being studied? Why? Do we use these in our
home?"

Preparing for Tests and Exams. Encourage your children
to prepare for tests and exams by spacing studying over
days or weeks. They should make sure they understand
the material and relate it to what they already know. They
should review it more than once. "Cramming" the night
before is not a good idea, and it is important to get a good
night's sleep.


by Alvin Poh