Teaching your child study skills can reap real rewards as they pass through their educational journey, but how young is too young to start teaching your child how to master this vital skill?
Many parents worry that the modern strains of their child’s academic career are detracting from them having a happy childhood. With so much emphasis being placed on the pressures heaped upon children and the detrimental effect on their mental wellbeing, some are dubious about teaching their children study skills as they feel it’s a case of too much, too soon.
However, with the right introductions, study skills can actually help your child plan their studies and better manage their time before the inevitable exams appear on the horizon. This will help prepare them mentally for the additional responsibilities they’ll face as they get older and allow them to get better control of their responsibilities instead of them feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of exams and assessments.
Here’re some tips on gauging when the time is right to introduce study skills for your child.
Moving up
When your child reaches their final two years of primary school, you’ll know that assessments will be in the pipeline to assess them ready for their move to secondary education.
Introducing the concept of study skills now may make the whole process easier as your child will have the chance to get to grips with organising their own time and workload.
Independent skills
Many children at primary school have homework assigned to them by their teacher and are given a deadline that they’re expected to stick to, but they’ve had no experience in organising themselves or their time.
This is something that will be vitally important for the future, so if you think that your child is still being spoon-fed homework during the first term of their last year at primary school, now is the time to ask their teacher if they’ll be introducing organisational study skills anytime soon.
Even if they’ve already started to teach your child independent study skills, it’s well worth supporting this in any way you can. Buying colourful folders, stickers and sticky notes can help incentivise your child to organise their work, so just a few pounds spent on stationery is well worth the investment.
Read the signs
If study skills are being taught at school or at home and you begin to notice that your child is withdrawn, averse to discussing them or just doesn’t seem to be engaging with their new-found skills, then it might be that they’re not feeling confident in their abilities.
A little support and gentle reassurance are what’s needed here, so talk to them about their concerns and see how you can address them.