Grades are a clear sign that a child is struggling in school. Nevertheless, there are several warning signs that you should look out for in your son or daughter so that you can help prevent those bad grades on the next report card. Academic struggle is often born from some type of psychological struggle. Here are some psychological red flags that you should look for to determine if your son or daughter is struggling in school.

Struggling to Sleep or Eat

Changes in your child’s sleeping and/or eating patterns can be an indication of anxiety or depression due to poor academic performance. The solution isn’t to purchase sleeping pills or take your child to an eating disorder specialist. Instead, you can:

• Talk openly to your child without being judgmental
• Visit the school and talk to your child’s teachers
• Review your child’s notebooks to track progress

Negative Behavior Shift

A child who was normally calm but who is now aggressive and angry (or vice versa) may be struggling in school. Several reasons can be provided for sudden behavior shifts, but it’s a good idea to determine whether struggling in school is the main culprit. Speak with the school’s guidance counsellor to get a better idea of when the behavior shift began and how it has impacted your child’s grades. You may even need to schedule a few sessions for your child to see the guidance counsellor.

Taking Longer than Normal to Complete Homework

It’s good to have a homework schedule for your child. Although the difficulty level of homework will increase as your child advances in grade levels, a child who is consistently going beyond the homework schedule time may be struggling. Observe as your child completes homework and answer these questions:

1. Does your child seem frustrated?
2. Is your child doodling or doing something else to detract from doing the homework?
3. Are more than 60% of the answers incorrect when you look over the homework? Granted, you may not be able to answer this question if it’s a subject area that’s unfamiliar to you.

Persistent Family Issues

Issues at home negatively impact your child. As the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) states, “The impact of everyday conflict between parents on their children’s behaviour and mental health is driven by how the children understand the problems in the relationship as well as the nature of the conflict itself.” Some children may become anti-social, others may become depressed, while many others may experience other psychological issues.

Persistent family issues place undue stress on a child. Researchers have found that there is a statistically significant link between stress levels and motivation. Without motivation, the chances of your child succeeding in school are slim. Your child will need a counselor if your family is experiencing conflict. Speak with the school’s guidance counselor or arrange for sessions with an external counsellor if that’s preferred.

No Longer Talks About School

Most children bemoan being forced to go to school but they still enjoy socialising and have a favorite class or two where they learn something. If your child has stopped talking about school altogether, that’s a warning sign that something may be wrong. Your child may be falling behind in class and, therefore, genuinely not have the slightest clue about what’s going on in school. Schedule meetings as quickly as you can with your child’s teachers to determine if your observations are correct.

Final Words

Bad grades are the final warning sign that your child is struggling in school. You want to catch the problems early enough so that you can address them before the mid-term and end-of-term exam periods. Look out for behavior changes, sleep or eating disorders, time for homework completion, the impact of family issues and an overall disinterest about anything related to school. Collaborate with teachers and the school’s guidance counselor (or a preferred external counselor) to help your child perform at his or her best.

Therefore, it’s unfair to question whether online learning is better than classroom learning. Instead, it’s more prudent to assess the pros and cons of both alternatives so that students can choose the option that works best for them.

The Pros and Cons of Online Learning

 The Pros and Cons of Classroom Learning

Which Learning Option is Right for Your Child?

The learning option you choose for your child depends on several factors. One of the most important factors to consider is whether you homeschool your child or add online learning to compliment your child’s classroom learning experience. Some other factors to consider include:

• A student who learns differently
• The level of self-motivation and discipline that your son or daughter possesses
• The time you can dedicate to your child’s learning
• Your son or daughter’s social skills

Final Words

Classroom learning has its place despite the increasing popularity of online learning. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. You may be considering full-time online learning for your son or daughter. However, this life-altering decision should only be made after fully assessing their needs and determining if the tradeoff is worthwhile.

This scene depicts what often happens to students suffering from exam anxiety (also called test anxiety.) It’s something they seemingly can’t control and can ultimately lead to poor grades. Your son or daughter isn’t alone. Studies show that “test anxiety can affect anywhere between 10 to 40 percent of all students.”

Exam anxiety is a psychological problem. Therefore, the burden ultimately rests on the student to overcome the mental barriers that lead to exam anxiety. Your role as a parent is to create the right environment and offer the right support to help your son or daughter overcome test anxiety. Here are four tips that will help you achieve this goal.

Bolster Confidence to Combat Exam Anxiety

A student with test anxiety often feels incapable of excelling in one or more subjects. This mindset can affect how the student studies. In other words, a student with test anxiety may believe the studying technique used was highly effective when that isn’t necessarily the case.

As a parent, you can bolster your son or daughter’s confidence by helping them create a more effective study strategy that includes a practice test under timed conditions. Studying well and practicing timed tests can help reduce test anxiety.

Tackle Exam Anxiety During the Exam By Having a Strategy

How a student approaches an exam can increase the likelihood of test anxiety. Your son or daughter should enter the exam with a strategy. However, a strategy can’t be created unless they know the structure of the exam and the objectives covered in the course.

For instance, a student equipped with knowledge about the exam’s structure and course objectives knows how to tackle questions related to the topics he or she is most comfortable with. Less time would be spent on these questions so that the student has enough time to complete the more difficult questions. There are several test-taking strategies. Help your son or daughter find a strategy that works best.

Use Relaxation Techniques to Reduce Exam Anxiety

An increased heart rate and shortness of breath are two symptoms of exam anxiety. Relaxation techniques can help prevent a panic attack. Some possible strategies include:

• Taking long, deep breaths for two to five minutes
• Imagine a calming, happy place for a few minutes
• Chew gum as a distraction
• Use positive self-talk

Enquire About Special Accommodations for a Student With Severe Exam Anxiety

A psychiatrist or psychologist may have diagnosed your son or daughter with severe exam anxiety. If you provide proof of this diagnosis prior to the exam period, the school or external examiners may make special accommodations during the exam. For instance, your son or daughter may be placed in a private room and be allowed to pace for a minute or two when he or she becomes anxious.

Final Words

Test anxiety is difficult for students to overcome without the right support. Your son or daughter’s exam anxiety may warrant the intervention of a psychiatrist or psychologist. If this is necessary, give a copy of the evaluation to the school and apply for special exam accommodations for your child. Otherwise, help them find the right strategies to deal with exam anxiety both before and during the exam.

Develops Language and Reasoning

Research conducted by Gavin Bidelman and Claude Alain revealed that “Musicianship in early life is associated with pervasive changes in brain function and enhanced speech-language skills.” These enhanced speech-language skills can be equated to increasing reading time.

Music, therefore, can assist with developing speech and language in children who do not like to read. In fact, the hands-on nature of music education appeals to tactile learners and increases the chances of them doing well academically.

Improves Memory

Memorization forms an important part of learning. Dr. William R. Klemm claims that “Music training imposes a high working-memory load [which] can expand your working memory capacity and reduce the impairing effects on memory of working memory overload.”

Working memory is essentially our short-term memory. Both short-term and long-term memory are important for good academic performance. Lumen Learning points out that the goal when learning new concepts is to get them into short-term memory and then move them into long-term memory.  Music will help boost your child’s short-term memory so that more concepts can be transferred to his or her long-term memory.

Offers Stress Relief

Shannon Jewell’s research shows the link between music and stress relief.  This research revealed that “Listening to relaxing music might help improve the stress response and health.”  It was discovered that listening to classical music helped alpha-amylase levels quickly return to normal. Alpha-amylase is an enzyme found in saliva; excess amounts of this enzyme is produced during times of stress.

Therefore, encouraging your child to play and listen to calming music can help reduce his or her stress levels. Reduced stress leads to improved focus. Your child may be able to better retain the information he or she studies.

Improves Creativity

Music is a form of expressive art. Listen to the work of popular composers such as Beethoven and you will hear a myriad of emotions being conveyed in one song. There is something about finding a way to put notes together to create a perfect harmony.

A study was conducted to find a link between creativity and music.  The researchers found that creativity was higher for the people who listened to classical music than it was or those who worked in silence. 

Helps Children with Special Needs

Music education has also been found to help students with special needs. It helps these children improve their communication, motor and social skills. A special needs child can find a haven in music.

Putting it All Together

Music education can have a lasting impact on your child’s cognitive development. A few of these benefits include improved language and reasoning, improved memory, stress relief, greater creativity, and creating a safe environment for special needs children.

Here are five of the best memorization strategies for exam success:

Focus on Understanding the Concepts

Your child is more likely to remember if time is taken to understand the concept. Many topics are interrelated. There are topics that would not make sense unless the link is made to a previously learned concept or a topic taught in another subject.  Finding this link makes it easier for your child to understand the new concept.

It also helps to relate the concepts being taught to real world problems. It is easier to do this in subjects such as social studies but harder to do it in subjects such as mathematics.  Nevertheless, trying to find the real world link can help make concepts more meaningful.

Study Before Going to Sleep

Your brain processes and stores information better while you sleep. Encourage your child to plan study sessions for an hour or two before going to bed. Try this for a few days and ask your child if this helps with memorization.

On the other hand, lack of sleep can affect memory and performance. Your child’s study time should be structured in such a way that he or she goes to bed early enough. The National Sleep Foundation states that “Teens need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night to function best.”

Do Self-Tests

Practice makes perfect. Your child should become familiar with exam type questions and practice answering them under exam conditions. The internet is a powerful resource for finding these types of questions. Your child can also use the questions given in class to create a mock test.

Use Repetition to Cement Concepts

Repetition is often touted as the best way to form good habits. The same is true for memorizing concepts because repetition helps strengthen recall. Repetition is further strengthened when deliberate attempts are made to recall the information from memory.

Retrieval creates learning.

Teach the Concepts to Others

Teaching a concept to someone else demonstrates content mastery. Encourage your child to explain what he or she has studied to you after each study session. Do not allow him or her to stop unless you have completely understood and until he or she demonstrates complete confidence.

Putting it All Together

Memorization becomes difficult if it is viewed as ‘swatting’ information. Instead, it should be viewed from the perspective of facilitating long-term learning. Achieving long-term learning through memorization means focusing on understanding the concepts, studying before going to bed, doing self-tests, using repetition and teaching the concepts to others.

Before writing an essay, it is important for your child to outline the main points that will be developed. A mind-map can help him or her through this process. A mind map it is like a recipe. If you do not use a recipe for baking then ingredients can be missed and the final product can be a disaster. The same thing goes for essay writing.

How to Create a Well-Developed Mind Map

A mind-map is a visual representation of thoughts and ideas. An example is shown below.

Image Source: Mind/Maps Unleashed

This is an exaggerated form of a mind map, but it illustrates 3 crucial elements of an effective mind map.

1. The Topic: The topic forms the center of the mind map. Think of it like a tree. The topic would be the roots and the branches would be the main points. The topic should be enclosed in a circle or box and should be in the center of the page.
2. Key point: Lines should be drawn from the center circle or box. A keyword that represents the point your child wants to develop should be written on the line. For a five paragraph essay, there should be 3 branches; one to represent each point for the body paragraphs.
3. Subpoints: Each main branch should have sub-branches. These sub-branches are where your child will write the ideas that come to mind when he or she considers each key point.

Spending the first five minutes of an exam developing a mind map makes essay writing a lot easier by ensuring it is more organized and no important points are missed.

The Components of a Strong 5 Paragraph Essay

A strong 5 paragraph essay has the following parts:

1. Introduction
2. Main Point 1
3. Main Point 2
4. Main Point 3
5. Conclusion

The Introduction

This is where the stage is set for the rest of the essay. It should grab the reader’s attention and briefly explain the points that will be developed in the body of the essay.

The Body

The body of the essay is where you develop each of the main points. These main points form the branches of the mind map.  It is at this point that your child would refer to the mind map and organize the thoughts for each main idea.  Each main point should have its own paragraph.

Each paragraph should have:

1. A topic sentence that describes the main point.
2. Examples that support the topic sentence and help develop the argument.
3. A concluding sentence that summarizes the main idea of the paragraph

The Conclusion

The conclusion brings all the points in the essay together. It summarizes the main ideas and can include personal recommendations for addressing the topic based on the ideas developed. No new thoughts should be included in the conclusion.

Putting It All Together

Essay writing does not need to be difficult. A mind map can help your child visualize the content for the essay and how it should be organized. This will allow the essay to be structured into five paragraphs that effectively explain the points your son or daughter wants to highlight.

Hire a Tutor for the Summer Holidays

One of the best ways to prepare your child for the upcoming academic year is to hire a summer tutor. Summer is the longest holiday. Being disengaged from school for so long may result in your child forgetting what was taught in the previous academic year.

A summer tutor can provide your child with the necessary one-on-one support to get ahead by previewing next year’s curriculum. This will help your child master difficult concepts and gain academic confidence.  This is especially beneficial for high school students who require a high mark in math, physics, chemistry or biology for university entrance. For younger students the summer is an excellent time to strengthen fundamental skills; such as writing, reading comprehension strategies or math.

Have an Open Conversation

Life can sometimes be hectic and stressful.  Finding time to communicate with your son or daughter can go a long way.  Before the school year starts allow them an opportunity to openly express how he or she feels about the new school year.

Some questions that you can ask to facilitate this conversation include:

1. Are you happy about the new school year?
2. What are you most excited about for this school year?
3. Which subject did you have the most challenges with last year? How do you feel about that subject for this academic year?
4. Do you have any fears about the new academic year?
5. What are your academic goals this school year?  Encourage your son or daughter to be as specific as possible.

Additionally, create a plan to support your child in overcoming these fears for the new academic year.

Engage in Co-Curricular Activities that Showcases Strengths

School is not only about academic success. Your child should be well-rounded and extra-curricular activities can make this happen. Sometimes, these activities can be a distraction but moments like these force you and your child to think creatively about striking the right balance between academics and co-curricular activities.

At the end of the day, tertiary institutions and potential employers look beyond grades on a transcript or resume. They want to know how developed your child is in other areas of life. Engaging in at least one co-curricular activity makes this possible and can help boost your child’s confidence.

Reading Develops the Occipital Lobe

People who begin reading at an early age have a highly developed occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the brain. A person with a highly developed occipital lobe:

• Processes visual information more effectively
• Has enhanced imagination and creativity skills
• Has strong writing and reading comprehension skills

Reading Improves Emotional Intelligence

Human interaction is inevitable anywhere we go. Therefore, it is important to have emotional intelligence to create the best interpersonal interactions. Reading, according to Open Culture, creates a refined theory of mind.

The theory of mind refers to how we explain and predict each other’s actions. Improving this brain function increases empathy by enabling us to view multiple perspectives. This will help your child network and build positive relationships as he or she grows.

Reading Improves Vocabulary

Essay writing has gradually become a critical feature of your child’s academic life. Your child will soon be leaving high school and may enter a college or university. The ability to write well-developed and verbose essays will set your child apart from his or her peers.

Reading helps children build their vocabulary. A study conducted by Ludo Verhoeven, Jan van Leeuwe and Anne Vermeer revealed that there is a direct relationship between a child’s advanced vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Reading Improves Memory

Reading is a highly involved mental process. Remembering the story line and following its progression adds to the reading experience. The more your child reads, the more he or she will rely on memory.

One study revealed that “People who participated in mentally challenging activities [such as reading]…had a slower rate of decline in memory compared to those who did not engage in such activities.” Therefore, it is safe to assume that if your child actively reads at least one book per week, his or her memory will vastly improve over time.

Reading Reduces Stress

Grades 11 and 12 are two of the most stressful high school years. Your son or daughter is under a lot of pressure to perform well so that more options are available for future success. The University of Minnesota believes that reading reduces stress. They provide some useful tips to ensure that the books chosen truly add to stress relief:

• The book should be in a genre your child enjoys. Forcing a child to read classical literature when he or she is interested in fantasy fiction will only lead to stress.
• The book does not need to be a bestseller.
• Ask your child to evaluate how he or she feels after reading a few chapters of a book. If there is still a great feeling of stress, that book may not be the right choice.
• Take a stress assessment to determine the real underlying cause of the stress and deal with it.

Putting It All Together

Reading can improve your child’s performance because it:

• Develops the occipital lobe
• Improves emotional intelligence
• Improves vocabulary
• Improves memory
• Reduces stress

Let a tutor from Tutors on Call help your child develop positive reading habits. You will see an improvement in your child’s academic performance for the new academic year.

Here are some great things that a summer tutor from Tutors on Call can help your child achieve. These benefits are particularly important for students in grades 10 to 12. They are at a critical point in their academic careers and need as much guidance as possible to excel.

Summer Preview Programs for Math and Science Courses

For many students, the most difficult subjects in grade school are grade 11 and 12 math, physics and chemistry. In particular, grade 11 math is challenging for a lot of students as there seems to be a large gap between grade 10 and grade 11 math.  Similarly, students tend to really struggle during the transition from grade 10 science to more specialized science courses in grade 11. Specifically, grade 11 physics and chemistry are very difficult for many students.

What has proven to be a very successful strategy is to preview some of the most important topics of a particularly difficult subject during the summer before taking the course in September.  For example, if the student is going into grade 11 in September then it is strongly recommended that they preview grade 11 math and either physics or chemistry during the summer. The result is that the student will enter the course confident, have some understanding of more difficult concepts and would be able to achieve a significantly higher mark in the course.

Most of our students who take a summer program with use a workbook that is linked with the curriculum and are assigned weekly homework and practice tests. This is recommended for best results but it is optional. Summer, however, is a busy time.  It is, therefore, possible to have a condensed preview program for one month or less. For best results, however, it is suggested that lessons would be throughout the summer to give the student more time to absorb the material.

Summer Essay Writing Programs

Learning to write an excellent essay is one of the most important skills that a student can have during their academic career. Unfortunately, most students are not taught ‘the formula’ to achieve the marks required for university entrance.  Essay writing is introduced in grade 6 and it is a skill that is used in all humanity subjects from grade 6 to 12 and in college or university.  Even if your child plans on going into math or sciences during their post secondary education they will still need to take English courses at university.  Unfortunately, about 50% of students do not pass first year English due to poor essay writing skills.

During the summer a tutor can work with your son or daughter to teach them strategies to write an excellent essay. Like cooking, there is a ‘recipe’ that needs to be followed.  Essay writing goes beyond grammar, vocabulary and punctuation. Learning to express one’s ideas, writing a strong thesis statement, using transitions, having sentence variety and having a thought-provoking conclusion are some areas that helps transition an essay from a C to an A.

Learn Strategies for Academic Excellence

A possible reason for a child struggling academically is not understanding the best studying and writing techniques. Our tutors can help your child learn essay writing strategies, reading comprehension techniques, study strategies and build a stronger foundation in math.

Learning test taking strategies is also important. Your child is transitioning into a major test taking year. Final exams are beckoning. We will help your child learn test taking strategies that can relieve test anxiety and help him or her excel.

Retain Past Content for a Smooth Transition

Have you ever heard of the summer slide? Summer slide is the learning loss that occurs during the summer. Megan Kuhfield cites a study from NWEA revealing that

“Summer learning loss was observed in math and reading across third to eighth grade with students losing a greater proportion of their school year gains each year as they grow older- anywhere from 20 to 50 percent.”

Summer tutoring is, therefore, important for helping your child to avoid the summer slide. At Tutors on Call our summer tutors can reinforce math, reading and writing concepts over the summer months to help them build their foundation in these core areas.

Putting It All Together

It is fair to think that your child deserves to use the summer for relaxation after a grueling year. However, you want to be proactive rather than reactive to ensure that your child is ready for the next academic year.  The tutors at Tutors on Call can make this happen.

K-E-E-P can be a solution to your child’s predicament. Our patient and dedicated tutors effectively use this strategy with our students and achieve amazing results in English, physics, chemistry, biology and math.

K: Keep Calm

It is easy for your child to become anxious about a test when overthinking occurs. Your child may wonder if achieving that 90% goal or even passing the test is possible. Too often students cram before a test which can create a lot of anxiety. Ensuring that your son or daughter spreads their study time over several days, takes breaks, gets exercise and has a good sleep prior to the exam can go a long way to reducing anxiety. Furthermore, having a tutor throughout the course to ensure a strong understanding of the material will help your child not feel overwhelmed. Also, many of our students at Tutors on Call have extra lessons prior to the exam. Confidence is key! Having a tutor will relieve anxiety and boost your son or daughter’s confidence so they can perform well on the exam.

E: Evaluate Progress

Several assessments are given prior to a final exam. Encourage your child to look carefully at the assessments, note the teacher’s feedback and find the answers for the questions answered incorrectly. The aim should always be for your child to master the content, not cram for the exam. Learning from mistakes and learning how to answer questions correctly helps this.

Goal setting is also an important aspect of this step. Goals should, however, be related to tracking improvement. For instance, instead of your child saying, “I want to achieve 90% on my next test” he or she should say, “I want to see a 20% improvement in my grade on the next test.” This may mean scoring 70% if the child scored 50% on the last test. That is far from 90% but it shows improvement. Viewing a goal this way can build more enthusiasm towards developing positive study habits.

E: Engage with the Material

Learning is not static. Sure, there are some concepts that may seem unrelated to real life situations but there is always something dynamic about the learning process. It is helpful to find activities and projects that bring the concepts to life. Additionally, it’s even more helpful if these activities include problem solving since having this skill can help students navigate almost any question.

P: Practice

Practice is essential for your son or daughter’s success on exams. Studying for a math, physics, chemistry or biology exam is often tricky. Just completing the homework is not enough. Nowadays, teachers often provide their students with an online resource where the student can access extra worksheets, practice tests and notes. It is extremely important that these resources are utilized.

Students often do not do well on a math or science test because they run out of time, do not know how to check over their work for careless errors or they have not had enough practice with a variety of questions. Knowing how to complete an equation is not enough. It is important that they are able to complete an equation efficiently and correctly. Their exam is timed so completing timed practice tests are an essential part of preparing for the exam.

KEEP: Holding on To Success

Exam preparation can be intimidating. The KEEP strategy can help your child gradually overcome test anxiety and better prepare for exams. Final exams are almost here! Hire one of our experienced tutors who will effectively use the KEEP strategy to help your child achieve success.