Homework Hassles
Is your child struggling?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, your child may be in need of extra help.
Act Now!
Many kids end up struggling for years before getting help. This only puts them further behind their peers. It can also permanently ingrain bad habits. Even worse, it can lead to an increasing sense of inferiority and failure. If your child is struggling, the time to help is NOW. Fixing small problems early on can help you avoid big problems later.
Struggling to complete assignments
If your child is struggling to complete reading and writing assignments (in class or at home), make sure your child has the knowledge he or she needs to complete the necessary work. Can your child read adequately enough to complete the assignment? Is your child able to write whatever he or she wants to without stress and tears? Usually homework trauma can be traced back to a weakness in one of these areas. If your child can read and write well, but is still having trouble, request a conference with your child's teacher to see if she or he has any ideas about how to make completing the assignments easier.
Struggling to read and/or write
If your child is struggling with learning to read and/or write, it's important to figure out why as soon as possible. A lot of kids struggle because they don't have the tools they need to read and write unfamiliar words. This leaves them either shrugging their shoulders when asked to read and write words, or blindly guessing their way through passages. Many of these kids were "taught to read" by sight. They were asked to memorize lists of sight words before ever really understanding how letters and sounds work together to make words. As a result, many learned to simply see words as shapes and patterns rather than as a sum of all of its parts. This is why they often call out the wrong words when reading passages, and why their spelling is often abysmal. They are trying to do everything from memory because they simply don't have the tools they need to do otherwise.
To see if your child has the tools he or she needs to read and write, you'll need to check your child's knowledge of several things.
If your child has the tools he or she needs to read and write words but still can't seem to do so as well as his or her peers, you need to look into other possibilities.
*Has your child had enough practice reading and writing?
*Could your child be suffering from attention disorders?
*Could your child have an undiagnosed hearing or vision problem? (Even kids with 20/20 vision can have other underlying vision issues
that can severely hamper his or her efforts to learn to read and write.)
*Could your child be suffering from a food allergy that affects his or her ability to concentrate on and/or process information?
*Could your child be suffering from emotional issues that makes it hard for him or her to concentrate?
*Could your child have a learning disability?
- Does your child become frustrated and upset while trying to complete homework assignments?
- Do "simple" after school assignments end up taking your child hours to complete?
- Does your child resist reading and/or writing activities?
- Does your child complain or whine about going to school?
- Does your child seem to know how to read but often calls out incorrect words?
- Does your child have horrible spelling?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, your child may be in need of extra help.
Act Now!
Many kids end up struggling for years before getting help. This only puts them further behind their peers. It can also permanently ingrain bad habits. Even worse, it can lead to an increasing sense of inferiority and failure. If your child is struggling, the time to help is NOW. Fixing small problems early on can help you avoid big problems later.
Struggling to complete assignments
If your child is struggling to complete reading and writing assignments (in class or at home), make sure your child has the knowledge he or she needs to complete the necessary work. Can your child read adequately enough to complete the assignment? Is your child able to write whatever he or she wants to without stress and tears? Usually homework trauma can be traced back to a weakness in one of these areas. If your child can read and write well, but is still having trouble, request a conference with your child's teacher to see if she or he has any ideas about how to make completing the assignments easier.
Struggling to read and/or write
If your child is struggling with learning to read and/or write, it's important to figure out why as soon as possible. A lot of kids struggle because they don't have the tools they need to read and write unfamiliar words. This leaves them either shrugging their shoulders when asked to read and write words, or blindly guessing their way through passages. Many of these kids were "taught to read" by sight. They were asked to memorize lists of sight words before ever really understanding how letters and sounds work together to make words. As a result, many learned to simply see words as shapes and patterns rather than as a sum of all of its parts. This is why they often call out the wrong words when reading passages, and why their spelling is often abysmal. They are trying to do everything from memory because they simply don't have the tools they need to do otherwise.
To see if your child has the tools he or she needs to read and write, you'll need to check your child's knowledge of several things.
- Find out if your child knows all of the letters and sounds of the alphabet. (Your child should be able to name the letter and sound immediately upon seeing each letter.)
- See if your child understands how to look at simple words and sound them out. (Your child should immediately begin sounding out unfamiliar words. See if he or she can read simple cvc words such as wet, dim, and rub.)
- See if your child can write simple words (such as hat, rip, and mob) that you call out.
- If your child can read and write simple words, see if your child is familiar with some of the most common "tricks" (letters that work together to make a new sound, such as er, or, ou, oo, th, sh, ch, ow, gh, etc). To do this, see if your child can read and write words containing them. Some good example words to have your child read and/or write are: sister, porch, mouth, hook, better, order, sharp, and tight. For more advanced readers, you will need to ask much more difficult words such as: disorder, drenched, florist, crouching, argue, bundle, and eagerly.)
- Finally, see if your child is familiar with the oddball words that don't follow any set tricks or patterns (words such as though, would, could, eight, one, two, etc).
If your child has the tools he or she needs to read and write words but still can't seem to do so as well as his or her peers, you need to look into other possibilities.
*Has your child had enough practice reading and writing?
*Could your child be suffering from attention disorders?
*Could your child have an undiagnosed hearing or vision problem? (Even kids with 20/20 vision can have other underlying vision issues
that can severely hamper his or her efforts to learn to read and write.)
*Could your child be suffering from a food allergy that affects his or her ability to concentrate on and/or process information?
*Could your child be suffering from emotional issues that makes it hard for him or her to concentrate?
*Could your child have a learning disability?