As parents, there are several ways to help your child increase his
ability to study and understand academic material. However, unlike teaching
specific study techniques, increasing a child’s awareness of what it takes to
be successful involves developing her ability to "think about
thinking" (metacognition), while understanding that learning occurs both
in and out of school and across the lifespan. Here are some steps to help
children monitor their learning experience:
Develop the Value of Learning
• Help your child understand that the purpose of learning and studying
is not only to please parents and teachers, earn a good grade, or fulfill
requirements, but that learning is something that they will have to do
throughout their lives, for school, work, and when exploring personal
interests. Learning is not just for school!
Goal Setting and Study Planning
• A key aspect of self-regulation is helping children to learn how to
set goals independently. Help your child to set goals related to what they have
to study. For younger children, it may be necessary to provide more assistance
in this process. However, it is important to let them provide extensive input.
Goal setting can involve many things, but may include completing a series of
math practice questions each day to prepare for a quiz or studying five
vocabulary words per night for a test at the end of the week.
• Goal setting should involve breaking down what is required into
manageable steps for completion. It should also involve deciding on specific
techniques or strategies that will help them to master the material, including
things such as finding a quiet place to work, memorizing materials, and
connecting information to previous knowledge, among others. Children should ask
themselves “what do I have to do, and what will help me do it?” By learning to
set specific goals, such as practicing spelling words daily, children develop
the ability to understand what it will take to achieve their goal, and are then
able to plan accordingly.
• Help children to understand the importance of planning. Related to
goal setting, developing a plan of attack to achieve their goals is necessary,
and will help children set reasonable goals within a specific time frame.
Examples of planning include arranging a study schedule or completing parts of
a large project for an hour every other day. At this point, children should ask
themselves “what is my goal (what do I want to do) and by when?” Planning can
be both long term and short term, but ideally, should be done by the child,
thereby building independent planning skills; the point of your efforts is to
help your child set goals and plan on his own!
Apply Specific Strategies and Methods and Monitor their Usefulness
• Teach children to use specific study methods depending on the project
at hand. If a child needs to read a great deal of material, a common sense way
to increase focus would be to help find a quiet place for reading. If a child
needs help with spelling words, you may be able to work with her in a drill and
practice format, or, she may prefer to write spelling words repeatedly for
mastery. You can help your child understand what learning strategies work best
for studying different types of materials.
• Help your child to understand which study techniques or strategies
works best for him, and why. For example, encourage your child to compare
whether or not studying with you or alone is most helpful. Does your daughter
or son remember more after studying in the hectic family room, or quietly in
their bed room? Is it helpful to associate new vocabulary words with those
learned previously, or strictly memorize word definitions? Instilling in your
child the importance of self-monitoring whether or not certain study techniques
increase success, or decrease success, is an important component of
self-regulating the learning process. By identifying what works best for them,
children are able to abandon unsuccessful approaches and reformulate their
study efforts to increase success.
Increase Awareness of What Helps, What Doesn’t, and Why
• Encourage your child to compare his progress when using different
study strategies, and to his achievement before and after developing a study
plan. Exploring progress and achievement will help your child understand what
has helped them the most, and perhaps, what has helped the least. It is helpful
to encourage your child to compare their academic performance to earlier
efforts to help re-formulate study approaches. Experiencing successes, while
understanding what needs to be done to increase success after a setback, will
help motivate your child to continue her hard work.
• Help your child to understand that errors or improper strategy
selection-things that they can improve on- are the cause of a poor performance,
not their ability to understand a subject or achieve academic success. Children
who understand that they can do it if they take the right steps are far more
successful than children who believe that failure stems from lack of overall
ability.
Parental Support and Home Environment
Educational research consistently demonstrates that parental interest,
involvement, and participation in their child’s education, at home and at
school, are the number one predictors of academic success. Providing a home
environment that fosters study and encourages achievement increases the
likelihood that your child will be successful in school. In order to help your
child maximize study time, providing adequate support at home, including a
positive attitude, educational materials, and organizational support, will
ensure that your child is adequately prepared to begin work.
Attitude is Everything
• Perhaps one of the greatest contributions a parent can make to their
child’s study efforts is to maintain a positive attitude toward school and
study. Although friends are undoubtedly a strong influence in your son or
daughter’s lives, children most often model their behavior and thoughts after
their parents'. Keep a positive attitude toward study and learning regardless
of how challenging a study task may appear, and your child will as well.
• Help your child to believe that he or she can succeed academically.
Expecting success lead to greater motivation, and increased motivation leads to
greater study success.
• Set high (but reasonable) expectations for your child. Increased
expectations are related to increased goal setting and increased academic
success. Oftentimes, if you expect little you will get little in return.
• Let your child know that studying and homework are priorities. Do not
create an environment where study is considered a punishment, or promote
situations where being able to skip study time is considered a reward.
• Establish meaningful, consistent, and fair consequences if study is
not completed.
• Reward or praise your child for sticking to their study plan. Make
sure they know that their successes please you, but that their attempts and
hard work please you just as much.
Study Tools
Like any job, being a student involves a great deal of work and
requires many tools. Parents who are aware of the types of tools and support
necessary for study are able to ensure that their child is prepared before they
begin to study. To prepare your child for study, you can:
• Help your child to discover what type of study environment works best
for them. While some students study best in an environment that is quiet
without distractions, others may be more successful if there is a moderate
amount of noise, or if family is around. It may be beneficial to help your
child determine what works best for them by comparing their productivity in
different environments with different degrees of background activity.
• Designate a specific area for study in the appropriate environment in
which your son or daughter likes to do work. This work place does not
necessarily have to consist of an entire room, like a bedroom, but may include
an area within a room, such as at the kitchen table. Sometimes children are
able to study well with their parents or siblings around, while other times
they work best alone. If your children share a bedroom, it may be best to
separate them during study time if they seem to work better independently.
However, it is important to let your child decide what works best for them
after evaluating their academic progress. Not all children work their best in a
quiet room without distractions.
• Provide appropriate supplies, including lighting, paper,
highlighters, notebooks, rulers, and index cards, for study.
• Provide reference materials, including dictionaries, thesauruses, and
encyclopedias, when possible. Teach your son or daughter how to access these
materials online if there is a computer in the home. If possible, help your
child to get to the library when needed.
• If there is a computer in the home, ensure that your child has
appropriate access to it for study purposes. Let your child know that their
school related computer needs take priority over casual internet surfing by
other family members. If you have more than one child who needs to use the
computer, prioritize according to study needs and due dates. Designing a
computer usage schedule may be helpful in families with more than one student.
• When using the computer for study purposes, ensure that your child is
doing their work as opposed to checking email or instant messaging friends.
Organization
Get organized! Lack of organization is a key characteristic of students
with academic difficulties. Help your child learn to:
• Designate different folders for different subjects or tasks. When
study materials are used from different folders, encourage your child to put
materials back where they belong. When take home assignments are completed,
make sure they are in the book bag and ready to go back to school.
• Keep notebooks clear of unwanted pages, and keep book bag clear of
junk or unused materials.
• Provide your child with a study agenda or notebook in which she can
write all homework or study tasks; teach him to fill it in appropriately when
at school. (Oftentimes schools provide them for students, and help them to fill
them out in class as a group).
• Teach your child to prioritize study tasks in order of importance or
by due date to avoid "forgotten" quizzes and tests, or tests that are
far in the future. Use the study agenda to help in this process.
• Help your child to learn how to bring appropriate materials home for
study according to quiz and test dates. Doing so may help your child to avoid
the "all or nothing" approach to brining text books and notebooks
home.
• If your son or daughter forgets to bring study materials home, make
it a point to retrieve them from school immediately if at all possible. If not,
use an alternate study task in its place. Taking an active and firm approach to
study will help them understand that forgetting materials, accidentally or
purposefully, will not get them out of study obligations.
• If your child appears to avoid certain study tasks, take time to
explore the reason why. Is it because the work is difficult? Do they not
understand a topic? Don't like the subject? Haven't been successful so far?
Understanding why students avoid study of certain or all subjects may help you
come up with a new study plan that takes their needs into account. Exploring
study difficulties will also help you to work directly with teachers, school
psychologists, or school counselors to develop interventions at home and at
school if difficulties continue.
Time Management
• Help your child use time wisely and efficiently:
• Help your son or daughter to learn to identify when they need to
study. Use of the study agenda may be helpful in this process to determine how
far in advance study should begin. It is also important to help your child
understand that study is not only necessary for tests and quizzes, but is
needed when they do not understand topics covered in class.
• Get into the routine of things! Working with your child, help him or
her develop a routine study schedule. Be sure to consider other commitments,
such as sports and appointments, when planning study. Using a study organizer
or schedule with days of the week and time intervals will help to plan study
after school and on weekends.
• Depending on the complexity of each study task, help your child to
estimate how much time studying will take. Plan study accordingly.
• Plan to study challenging or complex topics when they feel most awake
and prepared. Break long study tasks into smaller components.
• Encourage your child to study in short intervals with frequent, short
breaks. Taking such an approach will avoid fatigue and increase retention of
study material.
• Be cautious that activities started during study breaks do not make
it difficult to continue with priority number one: study. Play and social activities
are important parts of the day, but should not be mixed with study if your
child has a difficult time getting back to work. Brief breaks are important,
but avoid encouraging activities that may be difficult to discontinue once
started.
• Encourage your child to reflect on their study experiences. What has
worked so far? Have they had enough time to study? What might work better next
time? Reflecting on successes and weaknesses will help them to plan better in
the future.
Getting Extra Help
Good students learn to realize when they understand material, and when
they don’t. It is important that your child:
• Learn to determine whether he understands the material he is
learning.
• Learn to identify what parts she understands, and what parts she doesn't
understand.
• Learn to ask for additional help or clarification at school when he
does not understand material completely.
As parents, it is important to provide appropriate support for your
child while she is studying. It is also important to be accessible in the event
that he needs assistance or clarification. When your child is studying:
• Do make yourself available in the event she needs your guidance.
• Don’t do his work for him. It is important that you provide support,
but not answers, so he becomes an independent learner.
Examples of ways to provide positive support during study include:
• Helping your child to clarify directions or concepts.
• Helping your child to review by asking questions or quizzing if it is
helpful to her.
• Helping your child learn how to find answers…not finding the answers
for them.
• Helping them to brainstorm suggestions regarding the best ways to
study certain topics.
Source: teachersandfamilies.com
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