Steps To Take If Your Child Struggles At School

It can be incredibly upsetting to find your child is not doing as well as you’d hoped they would at school. But my first piece of advice to give to you is not to panic. Despite your hopes and dreams for your child, there is a number of different reasons why a child might struggle in education. It could be an underlying problem that you have not yet picked up on. Or, it might be something that can easily be fixed. Here are some of the things that you can do to help a child who is finding school difficult.

Take Them To An Optician

It’s quite possible that your child is struggling because they can not see the board or their textbooks properly. This could be because they need glasses. Young children will not be able to pinpoint the reason they can not complete their work. They won’t be able to tell you they can’t see the board. But if you take them to see an optician this issue will become apparent. Check out these signs http://www.allaboutvision.com for more information. However, it’s also possible that their difficulty is instead psychological.

Get Them Tested For Dyslexia

If your child is having issues in a specific class rather than a broader problem, this could point to the underlying condition of dyslexia. Not all children receive a diagnosis of this at an early age. Although, it should be picked up by school professionals, teachers often miss the signs. If you think this could be the cause, take your child to be tested for this condition. Once you know they are having this issue; there are ways to cope with it. Depending on the age of your child you may wish to switch them to a specialist school for this condition. You can find out more about this possibility on http://www.riversideschool.org/. Alternately, the school they are already attending might be able to offer them help and support to cope with the condition.

Signs Of Bullying

If it’s not an eye problem or a psychological condition, the next issue might be bullying. Bullying can be incredibly detrimental to a child's ability to learn. The problem is that bullying often goes undetected unless the child directly mentions it to a parent or someone else. Common signs of bullying could be a general dislike for school, bruises on the body or changes in mood. If your child has become more isolated, they could be suffering from some kind of emotional bullying.

Falling Behind

Of course, it’s entirely possible that the cause is nothing to do with any of these problems. It may simply be that your child finds the school form of learning difficult. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t all learn in the same way, and some children simply find it difficult to cope with typical forms of teaching. If that’s the case, you should encourage learning outside of school, perhaps with private tutoring. That way, you will be able to keep your child on track with the rest of the class. 

Disclosure:  This is a contributed post.