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In this article I give valuable tips to help your child better organize and plan his homework, where less of an appeal has to be made to your child’s weaker working memory.
Executive functions play an important role in doing homework. They ensure that your child is able to keep an eye on and anticipate homework assignments and deadlines for projects. But many children with attention and concentration problems also often show problems in executive functions, such as a weaker working memory, difficulty with emotion control as well as difficulty suppressing impulses. An obstacle to organizing homework and free time. Don’t worry, read useful tips for a good homework routine in this article.
When your child has a learning or concentration problem, you recognize that you are often the one who decides what to do and when to do it. But you will also realize that your child also has to stand on his own two feet and your child must learn to maintain his own schedule and set his own priorities. After all, in high school he will have to know these skills anyway.
How do you make your child responsible for his own (school) planning? Read our tips.
Teach your child to get into the habit of using a diary. Preferably a diary with 1 page for 1 day. Take a fixed time in the morning where your child takes his agenda (for example during breakfast) to see how his time will be spent that day and what tasks he has to perform. Make sure that the diary also goes to school and that your child writes down all the homework, school research and projects in it.
As soon as your child comes home from school, you look at the updated agenda with him. Look at the homework assignments and tests that are planned together. Of course, you tend to tell your child what and when he has to do certain homework. My advice, don’t do it! Instead, ask your child questions to help him set priorities. So ask for example: “would you like to start with the difficult math sums first or is it now more convenient to start learning English words.”
Feel free to make a few helpful comments: “Last week you chose to learn the vocabulary first because you like it, and it’s easy for you. But I’ve noticed that you can concentrate better at the start, so maybe it’s better to focus on the difficult sums.”
There is no hard and fast rule for prioritizing. For some children, the best approach is to get the hard things out of the way first. For others, doing simple homework is a huge confidence booster that helps motivate them to take on the more difficult assignments.
Make sure your child understands the difference between urgent tasks (tasks that need to be done the next day, for example) and tasks that are important but not urgent. As a parent, you will steer a bit in this at first, but gradually leave control to your child.
Many children with learning and concentration problems (and weak executive functions) have difficulty predicting how long a homework assignment will take. For example, maybe your child might think that he only needs 10 minutes to look up the 10-word definitions and write a sentence with each of these words. But you as a parent know that it takes at least four times as long. Point out that it can take up to a minute to look up each word and up to three minutes to write each sentence. If he doubts you, measure the time together while your child works on the assignment.
Make it a habit with your child to also write down homework times in the agenda. Block an hour every day for homework. As your child gets more homework and especially in secondary school, you can block more time in the agenda per day. Teach your child to make it a habit to start homework after school (of course after a short break with drinks and snacks and possibly jumping on the trampoline or kicking a ball). Then your child will be ready well before dinner and your child can do an activity that he likes to do. This feels more like a reward than when homework is postponed until the evening.
Don’t just use the calendar for homework. Help your child to write down other activities (football training, music lessons, drawing lessons and so on). Teach your child to write down everything he hears in his diary. This means your child doesn’t have to worry about missed appointments or forgotten assignments.
Sometimes it is difficult as a parent to work with your child to master a good homework routine. Your child resists and continues to resist. Then it can be useful to have an outsider work with your child to guide your child in organizing and planning his school tasks. Think of a mentor or remedial teacher or homework tutor.
Plan enough breaks. Then let your child move for a while. Let your child run up and down the stairs, jump rope, jump on the trampoline. A little exercise increases attention. You could also use aids, such as a wobbly educational stool or a Senseez vibrating pillow.
[Read more tips to improve concentration here]
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