Most parents who have recognised a strong academic future for their child are keen to ensure that potential continues to be fulfilled. If your child is confident, happy and apparently performing well at school, it can be difficult to judge whether everything is as good as it could be, or whether it’s time for extra help.
Many children struggle with ‘comprehension’ despite reading confidently. Celia from NumberWorks’nWords suggests that a likely reason is that comprehension texts are increasingly taken from classic fiction and the new GCSE syllabus expects children to understand Victorian texts easily. Many use figurative language, vocabulary and sayings that are no longer in use, whilst the life described is very different from now and modern children don’t necessarily relate to it.
They say “the early bird catches the worm” and you learn best by repetition, repetition and repetition. These are clichés we have all heard throughout our lives, but do we rely on them in the wrong ways? After all, as we pick things up in different ways, is it fair to drive ourselves, or our children, crazy trying to learn using a method that just doesn’t fit them?
When a child’s self-belief and confidence decline, progress at school can quickly enter a downward spiral. You may notice your child starts to talk negatively about their teacher or a particular subject. They may seem constantly confused about homework or become frustrated and angry when working on it. Sometimes a child will carefully hide the problem, to avoid upsetting the family, then one day it just becomes too much and you find them in floods of tears, refusing to go back to school.
As a parent, you want your child to do the best he or she can in life. Whether it’s about academic, sporting or cultural interests, it’s normal for parents to have aspirations for their children. But when does support become pressure? And how does pressure affect a child?
