Handling a Child Who Doesn’t Want To Study
Every child is unique, and therefore every child needs a different environment to reach his potential. Living in this ever-competitive world, it is not only tough but also challenging to lift the burden of studying hard. Even adults today face immense pressure in their day to day chores, whether it’s about office performance or keeping up with social media or even handling things at home smoothly.
Similarly, kids today are also surrounded by various stressful situations. There is constant pressure on them to perform better in every aspect. Be it academics or sports or even home tasks. Some children are blessed with great focus and hence grasp learning skills quickly. On the other hand, some kids find it extremely difficult to concentrate making them drift away from their studies. They find it hard to focus and hence don’t want to study. But the question arises of how to develop an interest in studies?
This blog covers specific steps and measures that can help you if you find yourself in such a position.
6 Tips for When a Child Doesn’t Want to Study
1. Acceptance Before Expectations:
Not all 5 fingers are the same, similarly, not all children are the same.
As parents and facts of good parenting, we have a lot of expectations and hopes from our children. We want them to be happy, healthy, and prosperous in every aspect of their life. But you need to ensure that your expectations don’t act as an unnecessary burden on your child. If they are not as expected in studies, accept them the way they are, and make yourself comfortable with it. This will motivate your child to work harder as they will enjoy learning without burden.
2. Identify Their Interests:
If I am interested in something, I will go that extra mile to learn/do it.
Education or the ideas of learning are different for every individual, but the environment of learning that we provide is relatively rigid. They go to school, study, follow a scheduled timetable, do specific assignments, learn certain topics, and get promoted based on their performance. But maybe, this is not the ideal way of learning for your child. If he finds doing chores boring and shows no interest in the topics taught in school, expand your approach by considering his topics of interest.
For instance, if your kid gets excited about planets or animals or nature, or if your child likes to listen to stories and respond well? Figure out their interests and take time out to pursue them. This will engage your child in learning more about such subjects, and he will end up attaining better focus.
3. Welcome Curiosity:
Curiosity and kids are like pizza and cheese. Inseparable!
They are always curious about everything that surrounds them. During their growing years, you will be answering all their whats, whys, and hows. Good parenting involves, harnessing their curiosity, motivating them, and channelising skills in the right direction.
Additionally, we recommend you provide them with the freedom to find answers on their own. Allow them to wonder about topics independently. Answer their question with a question itself. Answers gained through your facilitation will stay longer with them in memory.
4. Make Studying Enjoyable:
A task learnt with fun remains closer to us than something learnt from the textbook.
Kids follow things that seek their interest. Ask them to study with the help of diagrams or cartoon pictures. Recently, online learning and video learning have been proven to be more effective compared to classroom learning. Be creative in drawing their attention to studies. This will help them in enjoying the process rather than avoid it.
5. Learning Together:
Together we stand, divided we fall – holds true here.
Just like when a family eats together and celebrates together there is enjoyment and learning, similarly, make sure to learn together. Read exciting books to your children, watch documentaries on exciting subjects together, go to museums and the zoo. Show enthusiasm towards learning new things and exploring newer and enriching education tools.
6. Minimize distractions:
A 2 hours task took 4 hours for completion only because you were distracted.
Last but not the least, technology resides with us. Honestly, our phones or laptops are with us from the time we wake up till the time we hit the bed. We are surrounded by technology in a way that is not easy to give up. And since kids form habits quickly, they often get attracted to these gadgets. They like playing video games over the phone or TV consoles; they like watching movies and browsing the internet. We recommend you to keep a watch on their screen time. Make sure that your kid doesn’t spend much time on mobile phones. Minimize distractions to help them focus on their study. You can also read about some additional tips to improve your child’s concentration.
Summing Up:
If you as a parent take a step closer to making your child interested in studies by following the above-mentioned tips, your child will not only enjoy learning but will be a more polished person in the future.