Blog: School Struggles, Learning Disabilities & Other Kid Stuff

Following up on the notion that the child should be doing his or her homework in a more public area of the house, rather than the child’s bedroom, let's discuss the tone of the homework activity.

As a child approaches upper elementary school, middle school and even into high school, it may seem counter to common wisdom that the parent should be engaged with the child's homework endeavors. Certainly, the notion that the child should be able to her work on her own is a valued goal.

For many children, though, doing homework entirely on their own is beyond their ability. To complete homework successfully, the required skills of initiating, planning or following-through may not be well developed.  In fact, for about 40% of the population, these skills are very weak.

Stage I of reading development (Google, Jeanne Chall) typically corresponds to the end of kindergarten through the end of first grade. This is the first major “learning to read” stage.  Your child usually starts Stage I when they can do the following:

Fifth grader, Matthew, is making his family crazy. The nightly ritual of "What do you have for homework?" "Did you hand in your work?" "When are you going to get started on your homework," is taking its toll on the family. Matthew's mother is particularly frazzled. With Matthew being the oldest of three children, he is putting tremendous strain on her.

Not only does Matthew have a problem handing in his home work, and writing down his assignments, once Matthew gets started, it takes him incredibly long to finish.