Correcting

Undesired

Behavior

with positive results
 

Parents have reason to be concerned about the school success of their children. Recent studies have shown that two out of every five children graduating from high school are functionally illiterate, meaning they don't have the skills needed to apply for, or successfully perform a job in the open market that requires reading, writing, and computational skills.

Children, as children, rarely appreciate the value of a good education; they rarely see the relationship between getting homework done, going to class, and having a good attitude about school with success and happiness as adults. For children, the moment is the matter of greatest importance; not being able to comfortably feed and clothe a family 10 or 15 or 20 years down the road.

While there is much that could be done to increase the effectiveness of schools, this material focuses on the role of parents and home in the education of their children. What this research has taught us is not at all difficult to understand. Putting these findings to work, however, demands a high level of rigor, management, consistency, and endurance on the part of parents. But it is well worth it considering the consequences to children of their succeeding or failing in school.

Here are six things parents can do to enhance their children's success in school:

1. Talking with children, and the proper use of language. If you want to enhance the probability of your children succeeding in school and society, you should spend a lot of time talking intelligently to them, preferably in English.

2. Encouragement to learn. In a word, enrich your children's environment and let the environment encourage them to learn.

3. Reading daily to and with children. It has been proved beyond any doubt that only 15 to 20 minutes a day spent reading to children will have a remarkably profound and positive effect on how well children succeed in school.

4. Sharing of parental aspirations for their children. Children need to know that their parents expect them to succeed. These expectations don't have to be started in long, pompous, eloquent dissertations about why you expect them to succeed at school. Rather, declare your aspirations in language that encourages the child. For example, "I want you to do well in school because I want you to be happy now and someday have the things you want and need to be happy."

5. Providing direct help with studies. In most homes parents can help their children achieve mastery with the basic tools of learning, particularly math facts related to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing; help children appropriately practice their spelling words; help them learn their lists of basic sight vocabulary words; help them interpret current events; and so on. Studies have shown that if parents will spend as little as 30 minutes a day with a child in drill and practice exercises alone, academic achievement increases dramatically and significantly.

6. Organizing time and space for study and homework. It is a rare student who is sufficiently self-motivated to go directly home from school to a predetermined place in the house and complete his/her homework. Getting homework done is almost always a function of direct and consistent parental influence and supervision. Here is a strategy I have found to be very effective.

A task area
It is useful to designate the homework area as a "task area."

A homework schedule
This is a schedule, outlined on paper, which specifies the time of each day during which homework is to be done.

Timer
This can be a kitchen time or clock on the wall that keeps track of the amount of time the child spends on task.

Outline/checklist of homework studies
Before the child begins the homework, he/she share with the parent what it is that must be done.

Sign-off sheet
This is a sheet on which both the child and the parent sign-off that the work has been completed and completed to standard.

Consequences
If the child completes the work and meets all of the expectation, he/she will have earned valuable privileges. If the child has not met expectations then he/she has deprived himself/herself of these privileges.

Product References

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The Power of Positive Parenting (book); pp 307-330