All parents want to give their child the best chance of success. However, sometimes there can be barriers to learning. These can include large classroom sizes, which prevent one to one attention. It could be motivational challenges and even specific learning difficulties that can cause obstacles to your child fulfilling their potential.
We’ve put together a brief ‘go-to guide’ of what to look out for and how you can put in support that may be needed.
Identify problems
You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what it is! As always, make sure you are in really good and consistent communication with your child about their needs. How are they finding school or college? What do they struggle with? If they are having struggles, try to have further intentional conversations to get to the bottom of this. For example, are there problems with relationships at school, motivation, or could there be undiagnosed additional learning needs that are causing schoolwork to be particularly difficult for them?
There are people you can talk to about any concerns you have. The first point of contact should always be the school – ask to speak with relevant teacher and the SENCO department if you suspect additional leaning needs need to be diagnosed or addressed. The SENCO department has specially trained staff who can help you to identify if your child has additional needs and are the first point of contact for that support process to begin.
Solution-focused approach
If your child is struggling at school or not achieving what they feel they are able to, you can start to map out a support system for them. This can be wide-ranging in nature but can include the following –
- Regular conversations with teachers in subjects in which they are struggling. Ask what solutions or extra support would be helpful for you to put in place at home for them.
- Private tuition. Private tuition can be really helpful if you child feels they have gaps, can’t keep up don’t understand something or have specific learning difficulties that are affecting their school performance. It is a time and space where your child can work through things at their own pace and – importantly – in their own preferred learning style.
- Holistic thinking. Your child may be lacking motivation for any number of reasons so check in with them – how is their mental heath? How is their diet, screen time and sleep patterns? Practical changes can have big impacts on overall well-being and achievements.
- Building up confidence is key to achieving success. Private tuition can help with this as, by enabling child to excel in a subject that they find difficult, the sense of achievement can often overspill into their general approach to academia and life in general. Other ways to boost their confidence is to make sure you’re positively reinforcing and encouraging them to build up a good self-image and self worth.
Summary
You and your child will naturally want them to achieve success. There are practical things you can do to help them to fulfill their potential and people along the way to help you!