How to Help Your Child Develop Study Skills

Improving academically, becoming confident in your ability to learn, and mastering assessments and exams takes more than just dedicating time to study. Without the right tools and techniques, children can become frustrated with what seems like lots of time studying but no improvement to their understanding or their school results.

The proper study skills can not only ensure that your child sticks to their studying schedule but also feels pride in their ability to improve their results and get more enjoyment out of school. 

Here are some of our top tips for helping your children develop study skills that will benefit them now, for the rest of their schooling, and even beyond.

What Are Study Skills?

Study skills are less about what your child is studying and more about how they go about it. Getting children to take study seriously and convince them to sit down to do their homework each week can be difficult. Often this is because they are finding it boring or difficult, and is a sign their study skills aren’t effective enough to ensure they’re getting the most out of the time and effort they’re putting in.

Study skills can be the most mental and physical skills and habits that you can build with your children to help them find study easier, more enjoyable and more effective. Building these skills early (from primary school) will set kids up with a foundation that will benefit them for the entire time they’re studying. However, study skills can be built and improved on at any age!

5 Ways To Help Your Kids Build Study Skills

1. Organisation

This is a vital skill for not only study but many other aspects of life! Keeping a calendar or planner that helps organise commitments and ensuring a clear and clean study space might not seem like a study skill, but it goes a long way to ensure they stay on track and are able to do what they need to do when they need to do it. 

2. Time Management

Ensure they set a schedule for their study during the week (or, if they’re a bit younger, you can help them do this). Decide on a time of day that works best for them to study, ensure they fit their study time amongst other commitments and that there’s equal time spent across all their subjects or work. 

3. Concentration

Once they’ve dedicated a block of time to study, you need to make sure they are giving their full attention to it. Remove distractions like phones, disconnect internet access (if they don’t need it for study) and make sure there aren’t any distractions in their workspace. For older children or those who struggle to concentrate for longer periods, you could try techniques like the Pomodoro method, which encourages 20-minute concentration blocks with short breaks in between.

4. Understanding

It’s important that kids understand why study is so important and what they’re going to get out of it. This gives them purpose and makes study feel less like a pointless, boring activity. Talking about what parts of school they enjoy more and what they want to achieve is a great motivator. Set a goal and ensure that you review their work and progress to show them how they’re improving over time. 

5. Enjoyment

At the end of the day, study will always be easier if it feels less like a chore. Whether you get involved in your child’s study and do some parts together, swap online learning for interactive activities, or offer a reward for study milestones or results, shifting the way they think about study can help them get more out of it.

Getting Professional Support

Every child learns and studies differently, and helping your child develop the skills they need to study effectively is not always easy. In fact, study and homework are one of the leading causes of household arguments!

Getting some professional support can help ease the burden on parents and make studying easier and more enjoyable for children. It does this by personalising studying and learning techniques for every child and every goal. Whether you just want to help your child improve their everyday performance or have a specific goal (like gaining a scholarship, achieving a high ATAR or IB score, or maybe acceptance into advanced classes), tutoring can help build the specific study skills required to succeed.