Academic Success Tips

Some key values to help you best support your child include:

Focus on the process, not the product.

• • Very young children are naturally driven to learn and explore. Focusing more attention on the process that brought them to whatever grade they received will help students to recognize the aspects of learning they can control. This is essentially the idea behind having a growth vs. fixed mindset.

  • Some questions that can help facilitate these conversations are: What did you do to get this grade? Which study techniques worked for you and which ones did not? What are you going to do differently next time? How are you going to use this experience to be better next time?

Encourage kids to self-advocate.

• • Starting as early as kindergarten, children need to be encouraged to speak up, tell adults what they need, and stand up to people who are not treating them the way they want to be treated. Self-advocacy is a key part of building a child’s sense of self- efficacy, or the understanding that they have the power to control and change their behavior, motivation and environment.

  • When your children come to you to complain about how another child or a teacher treated them, ask what they said or did (or what they plan to say or do) to make sure they are heard and understood. Simply asking this question can help children reframe the situation and consider what they can do to effect change themselves.

  • Coach your children through talking with teachers about problems and talk through the approaches they can take. You can write scripts or role play if a child is anxious about the discussion. This can actually be a fun way to dispel anxiety and play-act the conversation until your child is comfortable.

Help them find a balance.

• • Kids are more likely to stick with a plan they created themselves. When helping your student to create effective and good routines, you need some level of buy-in from them. Buy-in happens most often when kids have a hand in creating strategies, and sometimes it’s more important to be functional and efficient than to be right.

  • Encourage good study habits. It is not always possible to have a distraction free environment, however helping your student to find the best study space for them can improve their ability to focus. Some students may want to finish their homework so they can play, whereas others may need to release energy before they can focus. Collaborating with them to determine what works best will help with their success.

Maintain a healthy sleep schedule.

• • School-age children need 9 to 11 hours of sleep every night in order to be physically and mentally healthy. Sleep is a key component to building healthy memory pathways within the brain.

  • Brain power is built through challenge and so-called “desirable difficulties,” learning tasks that lie just a bit beyond our ability level or comfort zone. Ultimately, things that challenge us help us to grow.

Keep the line of communication between school and home open.

• • Family involvement and positive home-school communication have been associated with improved grades, positive behavior and attitudes about learning, increased participation and increased attendance.

(https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/help-your-child-succeed-at-school)