SHE RECEIVES BAD GRADES
When a child arrives home with poor school grades, parents tend to get very upset and what they usually do is punish him or her severely, which not only does NOT fix the problem, but in fact aggravates it.
Facing any domestic event, such as leaks, devices that do not work, etc., the attitude of adults tends to be much more rational; they would usually look for the causes of the problem and based on that investigation, they would fix it.
CAUSES OF POOR STUDENT PERFORMANCE
When faced with something as sensitive and transcendent as the problems their children have, I would like to invite parents to assume the same rational attitude that they usually have, for example, towards a damaged device.
To that end, we will mention the factors that may affect the one that concerns us now, poor student performance. These factors can occur alone or combined and are, basically, the following:
- Biological factors, such as visual or hearing impairment, sleep deprivation, nutrition difficulties; in short, everything that is not well decreases the capacity of the child.
- Emotional factors, such as the loss of a family member, separation from parents or any other event that may negatively influence the child’s mood,
- Intellectual factors refer to deficiencies that may hinder the understanding of academic issues, and
- Behavioral factors, or lack of organization and habits necessary to study and do homework.
HOW TO ADDRESS POOR STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Facing this problem, biological and intellectual difficulties must be ruled out, with the help of experts. Additionally, what happens at home and at school must be observed to determine if the child is exposed to conditions that are detrimental to his mood and behavior.
Once these problems have been ruled out, or even if they are present, it is essential to promote the development of good study habits. To do this there are some general principles that must be followed. These are:
- Agree rules, such as the time to do homework, for example after the child has taken off the school uniform and had a snack, in addition to providing conditions such as an appropriate place to work and store the child’s school utensils,
- Specify the prize the child will receive immediately after having done his or her homework, which may be watching television or playing.
- This prize can be accompanied by more subtle ones, such as reviewing homework, correcting the child kindly, praising his or her achievements, hugging, kissing the child, or smiling at him or her.
- If the child is very reluctant to do homework, the mother or father may have to accompany him or her while doing homework at first, but the parent’s presence must gradually fade, stepping away for a few minutes at a time, and that can be extended little by little, so that the child gradually becomes used to doing his tasks alone.
- Promising a large reward at the end of the year will be of no use, unless it is done using the token economy, which consists of earning points for certain behaviors, which can then be exchanged for a desired object.
In this case, you have to strictly follow certain rules, such as specifying how and when each chip or point can be earned, how the record of points earned will be kept, the number of points required to obtain the prize or reward, and the moment when the points or tokens can be exchanged for the reward (Ulrich, Stachnik, Mabry, 1977).
More details about this topic can be found in my book: WHAT DO I DO NOW? NO ONE TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A MOM!, especially in the topics: What should I do if my child gets bad grades in school? , Developing habits through immediate reinforcement and Developing habits through the token economy.
You can also consult in this same blog : To reinforce children, Developing good habits and Small happy faces and the child’s habits, as well as by visiting Facebook Urquia Larralde (psykia), Twitter psykia20 and Instagram psykia20
I appreciate any observations, questions, suggestions or criticisms you want to make through psykia20@gmail.com. You will be welcome and I will gladly reply to your comments.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE:
Ulrich, Stachnik, Mabry (1977): Control of Human Behavior, Trillas, Mexico.
