Thirteen behaviours you want your children to avoid    078

Low school achievement is associated with a range of behaviours.  So, parents, watch your children and do not assume that what is happening is normal. These negative behaviours over time can produce school results which can be shocking and seemingly inexplicable.

1) The child is very distracted. When working he or she looks about constantly, sometimes every 30 seconds or so, and cannot settle to work. The eyes are always on the move. Leaving the table and going to the toilet are also common. So much working time is just wasted.

2) Work cannot be sustained. Usually after five minutes, or less, the child announces, “I’m finished” or “I’m done.” The really sad thing is that sometimes the child believes this. And by the time a parent walks over to check, the child has run away, after pausing briefly to open the fridge door. All work is viewed as an interruption.

3) Tasks set for homework are not understood. The child complains that the teacher never explained it, or that the child doesn’t know, or is ‘confused’. Blaming others for everything is normal.

4) Due dates on homework and projects are meaningless. The child only lives for today. Homework information is usually incomplete or lost anyway, and the work is always due ‘tomorrow’. School information is hidden from parents.

5 )Very little reading is done. The child almost never goes to the school library to borrow books or resources. When reading is done it is almost always confined to only one or two genres.

6) Almost anything educational disappears once in the possession of the child. Pens, pencils or highlighters vanish by the dozen. There is little personal organisation. Packing the school bag is often a source of contention between the child and parents.

7) Not unsurprisingly the child lives in a mess. The bedroom is a rubbish tip and it is left like that, day after day. Everything is on top of everything. Dirty clothes are just dropped, and never into the dirty clothes basket.

8) Performance levels are explained in terms of ‘smartness’.  High achieving children are viewed as ‘super smart’. The child views him or herself as ‘dumb’ or as a victim. This means that extra support is always expected and if it doesn’t eventuate then the child believes this has caused the low achievement.

9) The child seems to have no accurate perception of his or her performance level. Generally the belief is that a higher level is being achieved than what is really the case. Low school marks are assumed to be the result of teachers marking ‘hard’. Career expectations can sometimes be wildly inappropriate as child has little realistic information about either the world or him or herself.

10) Sibling relationships are extra argumentative. The child is selfish and rarely thinks of others. Even taking a plate from the dining table to the kitchen is too large a task. The child may simply stop half way and dump the plate on any horizontal surface, for example.

11) When a list of school tasks are to be done, a set of maths questions in the textbook for example, the child just gives up as soon as any difficulty is experienced.  The child does not write an answer unless he or she knows it is right. Effort is usually only at about the one quarter level, if that.

12) Sleep lacks quality. There seems to be no regular bedtime and the child awakes tired and is not ready for a day at school. Perhaps there has been talking to siblings or time spent on digital devices. Poor nutrition makes everything worse.

13) Low achieving children choose friends who are similar to themselves. Often these can even be the very worst children in the school. Strangely, parents sometimes admonish their children to be like so-and-so but never get involved with their children’s actual friends.

So then think on all these things. In terms of physical health parents take their children to the doctor just as soon as one serious symptom appears.  So it should be also with negative educational behaviour—you just don’t want to see it.  Watch carefully and take action as soon as even one of these low achievement characteristics appears, immediately! If the situation cannot be resolved then seek help.  The school counsellor can assist with behaviour modification schedules etc. Don’t wait for behaviour to worsen.  If you do then the future disappointing outcomes will be much harder to cope with than the worry you may be feeling now.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services