Why is my child not achieving well in school?
My child says, "But I knew how to do it in school!"
but cannot complete his homework.
I find that some children have difficulty recalling the steps for certain academic tasks (borrowing and regrouping in math is a big one). Children frequently tell me that "I knew how to do it in school" but couldn't do it at home. This problem many times occurs because the student does not organize the steps in his/her mind so that he could recall them. The child can do it at school with teacher cues and examples (possibly on the blackboard, etc) but cannot recall the steps when those cues are not provided.
She could spell all the words on the way to school but failed the test!
I also freqeuntly hear that a child knew how to spell all the words for the end-of-the-week spelling test but failed the test in school. Why? Sometimes this occurs when the student is asked to spell the work orally at home but is given a written test in school. Although it is a lot of work, make up written mock tests. That is, give your practice test in the same manner as the real one.
My child is having trouble learning to read.
Some first- and second-grade children may experience difficulties in reading, such as sounding out words, recognizing sight words, or with reading comprehension. It is important to identify these problems early rather than waiting for the child to "mature further." By about age 9, the window of opportunity for certain types of reading remediation closes due to normal developmental brain growth. In these cases, other interventions should be identified.
The symptoms of some psychological disorders can hi-jack anyone's achievement. Symptoms of depression or anxiety also include poor concentration, distraction, and low motivation. All of these affect achievement. Symptoms of ADHD also affect learning. There may be problems sustaining focus, multi-tasking, organizing visual material, organizing oral stimuili, and many other components. Figuring out how your child organizes and processes information is like learning to speak his/her language.
