How to Help Your Child Improve Their Grades: An Expert's Guide

As your child’s main teacher, you model what success looks like for your family. When your child is struggling with their grades, it can be difficult to form a solid action plan that you can stick to amidst the pressure of other demands like career, housework and juggling your calendars. However, the best way to understand how I can help my child with grades is to learn consistency. Our guide will allow parents to set up simple processes and check-in points that will be easy for both you and your child to follow.

Setting Up for Success

The best way to boost grades at home is to create the right environment for studying. A calm, quiet place that’s free from distractions is critical for getting the most from each study session with your child. Turn off the TV, silence the ringer on your phones, and let all the other members of the household know it’s time for quiet. Focusing on your child during this time and making homework a peaceful, pleasant time together will help break down the mental hurdle of studying. Modelling this good behaviour (which means putting away your phone, too!) will allow your child to learn good habits.

The second part of setting up the right environment for studying is to create a solid routine. When your child is young, you may have to work together on homework every night. In their teen years, they can probably tackle their homework alone most nights. But it’s important that you still check in with them, and keep them on track with their study schedule. Consistency is key to building good study habits, so be sure to set a realistic amount of time each week, and make adjustments if necessary.

Goal Setting and Motivation

Setting realistic goals for success is a great way to establish good communication with your child about their grades. While it’s not possible for every student to get straight-A’s, it is possible to improve and show consistent performance. Work together as a team to come up with some realistic benchmarks for success, and let your child know that you’re on their side. Reward good grades with activities they enjoy, and time spent together as a family. Rewards that relate to their interests can help both teens and younger children to focus on their goals.

Identifying and Addressing Learning Gaps

If your child seems to struggle more than average with their schoolwork, you may worry that they have a learning disability or other cognitive impairment. Before you seek medical or psychological help, start a fact-finding mission: Speak to your child’s teachers, and be sure to get multiple perspectives. This from-the-source information will be helpful as you navigate finding professional help for your child. You may also discover that what you consider outside of the norm is not a red flag for your child’s teachers. Remember that they are professionals with many years of experience with hundreds of children. Their valuable perspective will be helpful to you in understanding your child’s struggles.

If your child’s teachers do express concern with their learning or behaviour, there are many avenues you can explore for help. Their school may offer a variety of programs for diagnosis and support of special needs students, or they can direct you to public and government-funded programs for support. Screening for issues like ADHD, ASD and related disorders should happen as early as possible to ensure the best outcomes, but even a late diagnosis is better than ignoring the problem and allowing your child to struggle. If you have any doubts about your child’s ability to succeed in school, take the cautious approach and look for professional help and appropriate developmental screening tools.

OFFSET: Does your child have ADHD? You can find a tutor with training and experience in ADHD tutoring to help your child succeed. Read more on our blog: ADHD Tutoring: Focused Learning Solutions.

Fostering a Positive Learning Environment

The next step for parents wondering, “How can I help my child with grades?” is to ensure you’re offering encouragement and positive reinforcement. Long-term goals like improving grades can be difficult for young people to stick to. Decide how you will reward progress along the way based on your child’s personality and interests. Offer verbal encouragement, and be sure to link their behaviour to the outcomes. For example, saying “It made me feel proud when I saw you studying so hard for that test” is much better than a simple “good job”. 

Be a role model for good behaviours, including setting goals for yourself and accomplishing them. Take time to work on your personal goals and discuss them with your children. As your children age, it also becomes important to model independence in achieving goals. High school students should be able to judge when they can complete homework alone, and when to ask for your help. As a parent, you can set the guidelines for when homework should be completed, but you should set the expectation that they work alone and keep themselves on-task. This teaches self-reliance and focus. 

How Tutorlyft Can Help

One of the best ways to improve your child’s grades and their attitude towards school and learning is to find them an engaging tutor who can demonstrate the right attitude. TutorLyft offers personalised tutoring matches for different needs, and targeted support for subjects, different learning styles, and age levels. 

A great tutor, with your support in creating the right home environment for learning, will help your child feel that good grades are within their grasp. If you’d like to see your child soar academically, book a parent-tutor consultation with Tutorlyft to discuss your child's needs.