3 Reasons children underachieve in school.

Is your child underachieving in school? Do you think your child can do better? Want to know what you can do about it?

In my experience many children are ‘underachievers’. These are the student you know are capable of getting better grades, finishing homework on time, doing well in exams, but somehow they never achieve what they are capable of achieving. It is frustrating and confusing to all who deal with them. Thank goodness we no longer believe in the ‘lazy child’ syndrome (you have stopped thinking that your child is lazy haven’t you?)

Here are three reasons children underachieve in school:

1. Children are not developmentally ready to handle the information the are given.

Children have a wonderful ability to take in only what they are ready to handle.
You must have heard the joke about a child asking his dad where the birds and bees came from and the embarrassed dad getting into the whole sex thing only for his child to say – Oh, I meant do they come from the woods or from the park? His son was not ready for the information his father was giving, he wanted a simpler more understandable answer to his question.

So it is in class. One class can contain students at many different levels. Teachers try to adapt their teaching to meet all the levels but this is hard to do. Some of the information that the teacher gives out may be pitched at a level that your child is not ready to receive. That does not mean that he or she is unable to learn the information, just that this is the wrong time to present it.

It is like learning to use new technology – I need to know the simple things before I am ready to learn complicated things. When technologists talk to me about things I am not ready to learn it goes way over my head. I am old enough to explain this to them and to get them (or try to get them) to tell me the simple stuff first. Children don’t have the experience to do that and as a result the become underachievers.

2. Children are being taught in a way that does not match how they learn

Every child has a unique learning style, a preferred way of learning. Teachers have their own teaching style which my or may not match your child’s learning style. Normally this is not a problem as most children can adapt to different teaching styles but it takes time and they need to understand how to adapt.

I work with many students who become underachievers when they move into Grade 4. These are children who are finding it difficult to adapt to the more verbal type of teaching that takes place after Grade 3. The same often happens when children enter high school. These children are capable of learning, but are unable to adapt to new teaching style, and as a result they become underachievers.

3. Children do not know HOW to learn.

Children need to learn how to learn. They need to develop a set of foundational learning skills that they can use to help them learn.

For instance, children need good verbal skills in order to understand what is being said to them or to put their ideas and thoughts into words for others to hear. They need good physical skills such as clear eyesight, adequate hearing, and ability to pay attention. Without these skills it is very difficult for them to see, hear or focus on what they have to learn. There are three sets of foundational learning skills children need to develop in order to become good learners.

Many children lack one or more of these basic skills, the foundations for learning. Or, in some children one or more of these foundational skills is weak or unused. Whatever the reason, until children develop these foundation skills they will always be underachievers. In most cases it is not that they cannot develop these skills, it is just that somehow they missed them and now they are suffering as a result.

So, if you are wondering why your child is underachieving, check out the reasons above. In the next blog posts I will be telling you what you can do about them.