Parents across the UK are reporting that their children are struggling to be engaged with the work that their school is setting them whilst in this schools shutdown period. The video below with John Hicks will un-pick why and what we, as parents, can do to help re-ignite engagement.

How to re-ignite engagement?

In my work as a parenting coach, a therapeutic counsellor and a supporter of some 1500 parents on my Parenting Dyslexia Group on Facebook, I am starting to gain a sense of how the current period of schools shutdown is affecting children, dyslexic or not.

Whilst for some the prospect of an extended holiday from school may indeed be welcome, that feeling perhaps wains when the usual structure and focus is removed over time.

I believe that we will see our children replace that feeling of overwhelm that comes with ‘keeping up’ at school with assessments or keeping up with with one’s peer group with a feeling of overwhelm associated with the imposed change and isolation. The ‘summer holiday’ isn’t a summer holiday if you are not allowed out to see friends or do fun activities or go away on a holiday somewhere. Children are going to feel bored and frustrated and more crucially will need assurance as to what is going on and whether there is any light at the end of the tunnel.

For parents, we now have to facilitate the education of our kids on top of the imposed changes that we are looking to adjust too. We may be facing financial challenges and we may be feeling frustrated at the experience of working from home especially when our kids need us to motivate and entertain them. We will be experiencing feelings and we will behave in ways that we may regret such as snapping at the kids, feeling un-engaged with the kids activities etc.

All of this will affect a child’s ability to engage with their educational development.

This is why I recorded the video below to just talk through what may be happening and to give some suggestions as to what we as parents can do to make the most of a really difficult experience and re-ignite some kind of engagement with studying.

Did you find this video useful?

If so please comment below and let me know what over challenges you are facing at this time and I will record more videos aimed at helping you as you support your child.