Question:

Every night I struggle with my 9-year-old son to get him to do his homework. He cries and resists doing the assignments. We spend over 2 hours doing homework that his teacher says should take about 30 minutes. I know that he comes home exhausted and I feel terrible forcing him to do the work. Can you give me some tips on how I can help my son?

Answer:

For decades, the effectiveness of homework has been the subject of debate. Some people think it develops discipline in children. Others think it negatively affects the mental health of students.

If your child attends a school that follows a homework model, it doesn’t matter what you think about the topic, he is bound by it.

But… you are not option-less.

Your first option is to talk to your son’s teacher.

She may not have any or much information about dyslexia. So, your first task will be to educate her about it.

Explain that your daughter’s challenges are not only about reading, writing, and spelling. Dyslexic children also have trouble with organization, focus, and short-term memory.

If your daughter was recently identified with dyslexia, ask for a suspension of homework, while a program is put in place to help her in her areas of difficulty.

If that doesn’t work, ask the teacher to assign homework on your daughter’s level. Then have her agree to send you the homework and have you choose when and how much to have her complete on a daily basis.

If that suggestion is rejected, take the matter up with the principal.

It is crucial that you are a strong advocate for your daughter.

When you must have her so homework, there are some things you can do to make homework time less stressful for both of you.

Here Are 5 Tips:

1. Establish a routine that includes brief and frequent breaks.
   • Include age-appropriate activities during the breaks.
   • Take those breaks in a different space from the study location.
2. Be supportive and encouraging.
   • Praise your child’s efforts on an ongoing basis.
   • Establish a system that the teacher uses to get the homework assignments to you, e.g., via email or the school’s website.
3. Check the work at the end to make sure it is complete.
   • Look into text-to-speech software and teach your child to use it.
4. Put in place organization strategies and systems.
   • Things like color-coding subjects, planners to record homework, due dates, and revision times, etc.
   • Create visual reminders and post them in prominent places.
5. Encourage you son to come up with coping strategies.
   • Discuss the way he learns best.
   • Suggest things like mind maps, graphic organizers, recorders, etc.

Without any strategies in place, homework is upsetting and frustrating for children with dyslexia and their parents.

In all this, it is most important to ensure that you give priority to the remediation of your son’s areas of weakness and see to it that he gets adequate time to complete his assignments and tests at school.