One
of the biggest and constant worry for most of parents toady in India is the
academic performance of their children. Whenever they feel that their wards are
not performing in tune with the social standards or according to their
expectations, then they start feeling the stress which increases in leaps and
bounds, whenever there is a negative feedback and pressure to improve the performance
of their child from the school. But what all the parents tend to do in such situation,
is to cut down the time spent by the child in playing or entertainments, put
pressure on the child to spend more time on studies or send them to private tuition
centers which they hope are a solution. But these attempts only deteriorate the
performance of the students in most of the cases because they become stressed,
de-motivated and even develop an aversion towards studies and this further increases
the stress levels pushing them into a vicious cycle worsening the situation.
The
best approach for the parents to find a solution is to meet a professional psychologist
and first find out the cause. If your child is performing badly in academics according
to your perception they should be evaluated for the following difficulties in a
step by step manner preferably by a qualified clinical child psychologist using
appropriate standardized psychometric test
Ø Initially
the levels of attention concentration in the child should be checked
Ø If there
is deficiency then the child should be evaluated for any developmental disorders
such as ADHD (attention deficit hyper activity disorder) or autism spectrum
disorders
Ø Then
the IQ (intelligence quotient) of the child should be assessed. Poor performance
can happen both when the child’s IQ is less or significantly high. In Case of
less IQ the performance deteriorates due to lack of capacity and when the IQ is
significantly high they may find the
subjects very simple and feel bored or they may not be able to examination
patterns which requires remembering and reproducing what is already existing in
the text
Ø If
IQ is normal or above average evaluate the child for any problems or deficiency
in the working memory, short term memory and long term memory
Ø If
IQ is normal or above average then the child should be assessed for the existence
of learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia etc)
Ø If all
these factors are found to be normal then evaluate the child for any emotional
problems. These problems may be associated with either at school, home, and
even negative social/relationship experiences. These may include
·
Aversion towards studies due to excessive
pressure to perform
·
Criticisms at school or home which can break
the self confidence and the self esteem of the children and bring down the
motivation their motivation levels,
·
Negative experiences, which includes punitive
punishment or threat of punishments, the child being constantly insulted in
front of others or being branded as
idiot or incapable, bullying in the classroom,
·
stress
and pressure associated with high expectation from the parents or teachers,
·
fear
associated with examination or anxiety during examinations
·
Traumatic experiences such as physical or
sexual abuse,
·
Problems associated with the development of
intimate relationship (infatuations perceived as love) in pre-teens and adolescence,
Having
a systematic evaluation done and finding the true causes can only help in finding
the appropriate solutions. Just hovering
around the problem and trying to overload your wards without understanding the
real reason can only lead to destroying your child’s future. So whenever you feel
that your child is not performing to acceptable standards or if there is a
sudden deterioration in their performance better consult a clinical child
psychologist, have a systemic evaluation done and then start working towards solutions
with professional help
