Signs That Your Child Needs Homework Help

Homework is an important part of school, helping reinforce concepts taught in the classroom and providing students the opportunity to practice and apply new knowledge independently. When academic problems arise, however, homework difficulty is one of the early signs. Huntington Learning Center suggests that parents offering homework help with math (or writing homework help) watch for signs that their children are struggling. Certain issues are more obvious red flags than others, but it’s good to be watchful so that you can get help for your child when they need it. Here are signs that a child needs homework help:

• Homework takes an overly long amount of time. If your child takes a long time to do even the simplest of homework, there could be several culprits—like procrastination due to poor planning or difficulty focusing for more than a few minutes at a time. However, lengthy homework sessions are especially concerning if your child’s efforts don’t yield results in the form of acceptable grades. Your child might not be keeping up in class with what is being taught. That makes it difficult to successfully practice what they’ve learned at home. 
• Homework time goes quickly, and the quality is poor. Flying through homework quickly could be a sign of a skill deficit or could be that your child isn’t giving the work their full attention or care. Review homework with your child and pay attention to whether your child skipped sections or partially completed answers to the questions. If homework is marked incorrect there could be more going on than just a few sloppy mistakes. Following up on your child’s homework assignments after they have been graded can help to shed light on the underlying issue.  
• They don’t have any sort of homework routine. If your child’s approach to doing homework or studying for quizzes or tests seems haphazard and last minute, don’t brush it off as immaturity or typical. Good homework and study habits don’t come naturally to many students, but those who claim they don’t need them will eventually run into trouble. As school becomes more difficult and time-consuming, a lack of homework routine will result in missed deadlines and low grades. 
• Homework is a sore subject. Some children complain about homework being too hard, but others are vague in expressing their frustrations. Watch for changes in your child’s attitude about school and homework. If homework time is often accompanied by mood swings, outbursts, or self-deprecating comments (e.g., “I’m just too stupid to get this right!”) there’s more going on behind the scenes. 
• They’re full of excuses. If your child is a chronic procrastinator, there’s a reason behind it. Often, students who put off their work until the last minute avoid it because they know it will be difficult, if not impossible, for them to complete it on their own. Another classic claim of the struggling student is that they weren’t assigned homework. Blowing off homework (and hiding it) is a warning sign that should not be ignored. 

Of course, one of the most obvious signs that a child is having trouble with homework is low grades. Bad grades happen to all students from time to time, but if you notice a steady decline over the course of these past couple of months (or that decline started during the last school year), something is wrong. Huntington cautions parents not to wait too long to get their child the help they need. Grades that worsen quickly could indicate that a child is missing essential building-block skills from a prior school year. The child doesn’t have the knowledge they need to keep up in the classroom, and sometimes their frustration or poor classroom behavior distracts from this.

If your child is having a tough time this year doing homework independently or the process is proving so frustrating that your child often avoids it altogether, it’s time to get them the homework help they need. Academic issues do not go away on their own, and the longer you ignore them, the bigger they can grow.  

If you are concerned about your child and have noticed a few of these signs, call Huntington. We can pinpoint exactly what is going on with your child. Once we identify the areas where your child is missing skills, we create a customized tutoring program to close those gaps and rebuild your child’s confidence. Get your child help with math homework, writing homework or any other subject’s homework! Call us today at 1-800 CAN LEARN to discover how Huntington helps children of all ages improve their grades and become happier, more successful students.