The last thing most parents of gifted children would think their kids will have problems with is homework. After all, gifted children are cognitively advanced and learn quickly.
Unfortunately, for some parents, visions of straight-A report cards are replaced by one or more (or even all) of the following problems.
- Child does homework but doesn’t turn it in
- Child procrastinates
- Child rushes and makes careless errors
- Child says they did it at school, but didn’t
The first step in solving these homework problems is to understand what causes them.
Reasons for Homework Problems
Learning Disability
Gifted children are not immune to learning disabilities and the effects of these challenges can be reflected in your child’s homework-related behaviors, including avoidance.
Gifted children with undiagnosed disabilities may be confused and even embarrassed by the problems they have understanding concepts or doing their homework.
Disorganization
Gifted children who are disorganized have a hard time doing homework because they have misplaced the assignment, forgot to bring the book or worksheet home or forgot the due date. Daily planners don’t always seem to help these children because they might lose, misplace, or forget to bring them.
Perfectionism
Children who are perfectionists are often reluctant to complete their homework because they don’t feel it is good enough. If it doesn’t meet their standards, which tend to be quite high, they can become frustrated. Over time, they may procrastinate in order to avoid that frustration.
Lack of Challenge
For any child, homework tasks should be optimally challenging. That means that they should not be too easy or too difficult. Tasks that are too difficult can lead to anxiety while tasks that are too easy can lead to boredom. In both cases, children find it difficult to concentrate on the task.
Homework Solutions
Gifted children with a learning disability may have problems with homework. Like all children with a learning disability, gifted children need to learn how to manage the disability and need specific learning strategies and classroom accommodations in order to work at their level of ability.
It’s also important to understand that problems with homework can have many causes; looking for a disability should not necessarily be the first thing considered.
Help Your Child Get Organized
Organizational strategies can help your gifted child make sure that homework is turned in. The best method may depend on your child’s age.
Consider creating a designated homework basket where your child will leave all school-related papers, notebooks, and books when they get home from school. When it’s time to do homework, they’ll pull what they need out of the basket. When they’re done, they put it back. In the morning, everything they need is in one place, ready to take to school.
What can you do to make sure the homework gets turned in? A plastic, expanding folder with separate compartments is a good way to help kids keep track of work that needs to be turned in.
These techniques can work for teens as well as young children, but teens might also find an electronic organizer useful.
Set a Homework Schedule
Gifted children will often rush through homework that is too easy for them. They are eager to get it done so that they can move on to more interesting and stimulating activities.
It is helpful to set a time every day to complete homework. This time must be used for study whether the child has homework or not. When children have homework, they know they must do it during this time.
Consistency will help your child learn that scheduling time for homework is important, and can reinforce necessary time management skills.
Talk to Their Teachers
If a child has had issues getting homework done and turned in for so long that it has become a habit, other strategies may be needed at school, whether the teachers provide more challenging work or not.
Communication with your child’s teacher is a key to success.
Excerpted from “Helping Gifted Children With Common Homework Problems” in VeryWellFamily. Read the full article online.
Source: VeryWellFamily | Helping Gifted Children With Common Homework Problems, https://www.verywellfamily.com/why-gifted-children-have-homework-problems-1449297 | Ⓒ 2022 Dotdash Media, Inc.
Do you need someone to talk to? To schedule an evaluation or to get advice about your child’s or teen’s challenges, call or email a CHC Care Coordinator at 650.688.3625 or careteam@stage.chconline.org CHC teletherapy services are available now.
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