Some practical suggestions for supporting learning at home
- Allow downtime after school before completing any homework. Many children/ young people need to decompress after being overloaded all day at school, especially after taking in lots of auditory information throughout the school day.
- Set a time each day to complete any homework with your child. Try to make this a time when they are not tired or distracted.
- Gain their visual and auditory attention before communicating.
- Start with shorter bursts of work and gradually increase the time on task.
- Give short and simple directions.
- Understand that your child may hear inconsistently depending on their level of tiredness. Try to be patient and don’t assume they are intentionally ignoring you.
- If a task is too difficult for them, simplify it if possible or move on to something easier.
- Encourage your child to use practical/ visual resources (where possible) to complete difficult tasks.
- Keep your expectations reasonable, for you and your child/ young person.
- Use a lot of positive reinforcement and praise, even for small efforts and achievements.
- Slow your rate of speech and pause between each sentence if they are struggling to understand you.
- Allow your child/ young person extra time to organise their thoughts and process information.
- If possible, create a quiet place for your child/ young person to complete any homework, away from doors, windows and noisy family members.
- Little and often, read aloud to your child and discuss what you have read. This is really helpful, even for older pupils, as it will support their processing, understanding and memory skills.
