How to deal with your child’s failing grades in preparation for the summer vacation.

Strategies to support your child by helping him or her study better and perform better in school.

The arrival of summer vacation is often a very satisfying event for children and teens who are looking ahead to several weeks of lots of free time and even the chance to see friends in town.

At the same time, however, it presents an opportunity for those who are less well behaved in their studies to "get their act together" and stop loathing everything to do with exams, homework and textbooks. Both are perfectly compatible.

Therefore, in this article we will see different tips and strategies to, as parents, deal with our children's failures, to face the suspensos of our children facing the summer vacations and the preparation of the new course..

What to do during the summer vacations when my child is failing subjects?

Each case is unique, obviously, but there are several techniques and strategies that usually help to promote, from home, the forms of upbringing that will help our children to stop failing subjects and even motivate them to study. Here you will find several of them.

1. Take an interest in how they feel about their studies.

The first thing to do is not to tell them off right off the bat, but to try to find out the main causes of those bad grades. And for this you have to maintain a climate of trust, not of opposition or conflict.. Ask him/her about his/her way of experiencing studies in general or those subjects that resist him/her in general, what he/she does not like about them, etc.

Also, this way it will be easier for you to find out if there are other problems as or even more serious than the bad grades that are interfering with his school performance. For example, it is very common for victims of bullying to perform worse in school because of the anxiety and fear they feel about something as basic as being in class paying attention to the teacher (as this makes them vulnerable).

2. Come to an agreement

It is important to have a conversation in which you see that bad grades are not just a number, but reflect the existence of a problem that can and must be overcome. To do this, you may you may need to help him let go of certain dysfunctional beliefs, such as "a lot of other kids get good grades.such as "lots of other kids get bad grades and therefore it's normal" or "not being a good student has no real-life consequences".

It is necessary to explain to them the importance of doing well in their studies beyond the exams, and the benefits that this has in the long term, but above all in the short term, in what they will notice immediately: to stop feeling bad when studying, to notice the admiration of others and to be someone to whom they ask for advice, etc.

The goal is to be able to reach an agreement on what their school performance should be for the next trimester. These goals should be somewhat ambitious, but also realisticso that he doesn't stay in his comfort zone and yet doesn't see it as impossible and end up getting frustrated quickly and throwing in the towel before making significant progress.

3. Teach them study techniques that make it easier for them.

If you teach him the basics of the most effective study techniques, it will be easier for him to stop dreading those sessions when he has to do his homework or "dig his heels in," because he will get better results for the same amount of time or even less. In fact, these techniques can be so useful that in many cases they turn the act of studying into not just a fun activity, but a stimulating and motivating challenge, a source of satisfaction and good self-esteem when you see rapid progress.

In this sense, one technique that has proven to be very effective is spaced repetition.. It consists of replacing long study sessions with much shorter ones that repeat the subject matter to be studied (or the type of exercises to be performed) as a reminder. The first appearances of these "repetitions" occur with a relatively high frequency, for example, two or three days after having studied it for the first or second time, and as the days go by, these repeated appearances become more and more spaced out.

For example, if one day it is time to study a certain section of the History book, the student will have to review that part of the syllabus again (and/or test himself with questions that could appear on the exam) on the third day, then on the seventh day, then allowing another seven days to pass, and so on. These moments of review or evocation of previously studied material should be combined with other minutes dedicated to studying a new part of the syllabus. In this way, the student creates connections between what he has already memorized and what he is learning for the first time, thus consolidating the knowledge in his memory.

A study session following this technique may very well include 10 minutes of review or testing, and another 10 minutes of study of new material.. Although this involves studying almost every day, these sessions are so short and have such an ability to "hook" through the testing moments that many young people who used to hate studying become fans of it.

4. Respect their free time

No matter how bad their grades are, it is very important that children and teenagers have free time to socialize, play, etc. Punishing them with long periods without any fun activities is usually counterproductive, and not only fuels conflict at home, but will also contribute to them associating school in general with a source of harsh punishments, thus undermining any chance of getting them really involved in their studies.

As we have seen, spaced repetition allows young people to have a lot of free time, and as these study sessions are short, they do not prevent them from going out with friends for get-togethers and other key moments: it is only necessary to "move" the time to review and practice with the syllabus in the timetable.

In addition, it is possible to combine the sessions in this way, it is possible to combine study sessions with leisure time, so that the latter can be used as a "reward" for having done well. for having done well. At the end of the day, as the ideal is to study very frequently and not punctually but for many hours in a row, it is easier for them to feel like not breaking with that dynamic of studying a little bit almost every day, and the fact of keeping that "streak" makes them feel that they have earned those hours of fun, enjoying them more and not suffering stress or anxiety due to procrastination.

Do you want to have psychological assistance and support in the upbringing of your child?

If you are interested in professional counseling to help your child in his or her studies, or you are directly interested in psychotherapy services for children and adolescents, please contact me.

As a psychologist with more than 20 years of professional experience, in my office you can find both individualized psychotherapy and family therapy and support for parents with difficulties in the work of raising and educating the little ones of the house. You can come to my office located in Seville or ask me for online sessions by video call.