As a parent, it’s natural that you want to help your child perform better in school.
But sometimes, many parents find that it’s not as easy as they think.
Despite the countless of additional help such as extra workbooks, expensive afterschool care programs and private home tuitions, somehow your child still struggles to turn those E’s and F’s into A’s and B’s.
But how is that possible?!
Help Your Child Perform Better In School Through Observation
You know your child is not incapable. You can see the potential in the things that they do. You’ve seen your child learn things so quickly and effortlessly. You’ve done all you can to make learning easier for them, doing things like paying for extra tuition classes just in case they miss out on crucial information in school. You’ve even gotten tips from the top students’ parents on successful study methods and replicated it.
So how can it be that studying is such a huge hurdle for your child to overcome? Are they not following the top students’ study methods closely enough? Why are they not as diligent and hardworking as that top student?
Perhaps the workbooks you’ve bought are too tough for your child. Perhaps the tutor you have hired is not as efficient as they say they are. Perhaps you child just isn’t interested at all to begin with.
There could be countless of different reasons as to why your child is not faring as well as expected. I mean you did try to follow the conventional parenting trends in helping your child study, and it didn’t benefit your child at all. What should you do now?
It is time to save yourself the huge fortune spent on expensive tuition classes and try the following steps to ensure that your child is getting the right help that he/she needs.
Learn the Way They Learn Best
You have replicated the methods top students use. You have followed the tips and tricks the parents of these students give. These methods are tried and tested, and they clearly work for the top students. Why do they not work for your child?
One of the biggest reason is because your child is not learning the way he/she learns best in the first place. The way the top student studies is not necessarily the way your child studies best.
There exist many different styles of learning, and different styles work better for different learners. One of the most basic way of identifying the type of learner your child is, is by determining if he/she learns best using Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic methods.
The first way to help your child perform better in school is by helping them to identify their best mode of learning.
Start observing what your child is naturally good in or drawn towards. Do they recognise faces and places easily? Do they often talk or read to themselves out loud or are usually talkative? Do they often have to do something with their hands while listening to their teachers talk? Adjusting the way they receive information according to their learning styles can help improve their focus tremendously.
Another way is to find out what are your child’s natural strengths and talents. Identifying their strengths and talents will help you create the best study methods that are suitable for your unique child. It will not only help you help your child study better, but it’ll also help you understand why and how your child is who they are as a person, as the reasons behind their actions and nonactions are being revealed to you.
Stop Comparing Your Child with Others
Why is my child not as diligent as the top student in class?
Why can’t my child be as focused as that student with straight A’s? Why does my child seem so disinterested despite having the same exact curricular as everyone else?
Stop.
Stop comparing your child with others.
Understand that different people have different abilities. Your child is uniquely him/herself. The chances of your child being wired the EXACT same way as someone else is one in 33 million. You cannot expect your child to easily behave exactly like the top student in class. Even if he/she does, there’s no guarantee that it will yield straight A’s by the end of the semester.
If you want to help your child perform better in school, comparing and judging him/her is probably the last thing that you should do.
Just like you can’t judge a fish by its abilities to climb a tree, you can’t expect your child to immediately be excellent at something just because his/her classmates are good at it.
Try to focus on what your child IS already good in. Give compliments where compliments are due. Don’t focus on only what they didn’t do well in, and totally neglect their strong points. Everyone has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. Seek out what you child is naturally good in and don’t forget to hone that.
Your Child Does Not Have the Right Motivation
As simple as that.
And we are not talking about a snack reward after finishing a homework.
We are talking about making plans and setting goals. Constantly encouraging them through the fears and self-doubt that may arise in them. Getting them to discover their passion and supporting them no matter what, despite the expected changes or detours along the way.
Help your child perform better in school by understanding what is it that actually motivates them.
When you know what your child’s strengths and talents are, you will naturally be able to find the right ways to motivate them. You will be able to excite them about the goals and ambitions they have.
Perhaps what they need could be something as simple as a study group with like-minded friends. Perhaps they can focus better when they study in the dead silence of the night. Perhaps they need to watch a motivational speaker talk before they can get started on their work.
Try out different techniques to see what works for your child. Ask your child what works for them.
Finding the right motivation may take some time, but once that’s sorted out, you can be sure that your child will be reaching for the stars on his/her own in no time.
It’s time to ditch the ‘one size fits all’ study methods that have been going around for centuries. Every child is different and every child learns in their own unique ways. Finding out what your child is naturally good in is the first step to helping them, and the first step to bringing out the best in them.
Only then can you help your child perform better in school the right way.
Over the course of helping schools and students find their strengths, we consistently find that children today are not given leeway into exploring what they are good at; but rather placed in a bubble of “what their parents want”.
Over time, there is no worse motivation than working on someone else’s dream.
If you want to help your child perform better in school, then exploring his/her natural strengths is a better approach than stuffing demands down their throats.
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Otherweise, you can always contact us for a free consultation to help your child or students perform better in school.
Aly is StrengthsAsia’s marketing and communications guru and lead editor. She's over the top inquisitive and everyone in the company knows her as “The Googler” as she practically googles everything. Honestly, we all worry for her… She is also the Principal Trainer for our one of a kind ice cream team building workshops in Asia.