7 Signs Your Child is Falling Behind

How is your child progressing in school? Are they keeping up with their peers or falling behind? To avoid being the last person to know about whether your child is struggling or not here are some signs you may look out for:

1. Avoiding discussions about school

When your child stops telling you about how their day went or what did they learn at school, it can be a signal that something could be wrong. Another example is when asked about school, your child feels uncomfortable and may display it through fidgeting, running around or getting distracted by something to avoid a conversation.

2. Change in Attitude

Has your child been distant, agitated or perhaps shown a change in mood? Minor changes such as boredom, tiredness or misbehaving in school can all be signs that your child may be experiencing difficulties in school.

Boredom, tiredness or laziness can stem from the lack of understanding in class. To put it into perspective, if we were stuck watching a talk show that was entirely in a foreign language we had never heard before; we too would be bored stiff.

MISBEHAVING IN SCHOOL COULD BE A SIGN…

Misbehaving in school can be a telling sign that your child is struggling to understand and is unable to do the work assigned to them. They may be misbehaving to get attention from teachers and parents.

3. Difficulty in Sleeping and Eating

Worrying often results in problematic sleeping and eating patterns. Your child may face these problems if they know that they are not keeping up with their school work, especially older children and teens who are well aware of how important school is for their future

4. Spending excessive time on homework

Take note of the time spent by your child on homework. Are they having little to no time for extracurricular activities or play time? The time needed to complete assignments will vary according to different subjects and students’ abilities, as well as the amount of workload given by teachers. Therefore, it is important as parents to have a general idea of how much homework is given on a particular day. If you notice that your child’s time is being consumed by homework, check in on them to see whether they are facing any problems.

5. Loss of interest/ Lack of friends

This could be the sudden loss of interest to participate in activities they once enjoyed, big changes like this can also indicate that something is amiss at school. Furthermore, pay attention to who your child is hanging out with. Are they the lone wolf in the class, do they have a friend to talk to? Children being left out from a group of friends is a major sign that they lack self-confidence or are having trouble with school work.

REACH OUT TO THE TEACHERS AND CHECK..

6. Teacher expresses concerns

It can be easy to dismiss concerns brought up by teachers, especially if what the teacher is telling you is different from what you have always known your child to be. Keep in mind that your child’s teacher is someone who teaches a group of students using the same materials and can better gauge each students’ progress. So, pay attention to what your child’s teacher has to say and perhaps work out something together to help your child get back on track. After all, it is you who knows your child best and what can or cannot work for them.

7. Low grades despite studying

Although this might be the most obvious sign, parents typically view low grades as the lack of effort put into studying, or their child simply doesn’t know the importance of education in their lives yet but will get better with time. Undeniably, parents want to believe the best about their child but we shouldn’t be blinded by denial and that low grades are not a problem for your child. Low grades shouldn’t define a student instead it should be used as a tool to test the understanding of your child in a certain topic. Should your child be struggling, fret not, there are myriads of ways to help them achieve a better understanding.