Once a parent-teacher phone call has been completed, the time arrives for a parent to approach their child to discuss the reported concerns surrounding academic achievement. It is always a good idea for the parent to prepare their ideas and adjust their attitude before they approach their child. It is recommended that parents approach their child with an effort to learn as much about the problem as possible. The mission of parents should focus on fact finding and information gathering. Arguments and expression of disappointment need to be avoided especially if a parent wants to learn more about the nature of the performance difficulty in the classroom. Avoid asking “Why” questions. Those usually elicit the quick and reflexive shoulder shrugging response in most children. Instead, make an effort to re-structure and re-phrase questions so that they start with “What…” , “When…”, or “How…”. The goal of questions and discussions during this child-parent conversation is to learn more about what it is interfering with learning and performance in the classroom. Anger, disapproval, and judgmental statements by a parent will most likely terminate all additional conversation and fact finding.

This parent-child conversation will hopefully reveal some insight as to what is happening in the classroom for the child. There may be obvious problems that might be easily resolved by a simple change of circumstance (i.e. changing a student’s desk location, limiting your child’s proximity to certain classmates). Your conversation with your child may also reveal other areas of concern they are experiencing such as disorganization, poor planning, poor work effort, or a basic lack of good motivation. While none of these concerns are necessarily easy problems to resolve, they are more manageable than the disruption associated with ADHD or Learning Disabilities. This parent-child conversation will set the stage for some problem solving that might ultimately make a notable difference in the student’s performance in the classroom. Sometimes motivational encouragement can offer the needed support that a child desperately wants from a parent. This may also be a good time to encourage the child to be more assertive in the classroom whenever they need additional academic help from their teacher.

Unfortunately there are too many occasions when the child does not feel comfortable to discuss their under performance openly with parents at home. When a supportive style of inquiry is not successful, a parent(s) may want to consider a three way child-parent-teacher meeting at the school. Such meetings tend to reveal good information about the student’s behavior and effort in the classroom. Generally, teachers are quite adept at encouraging their students to share more openly in areas surrounding their work in the classroom. This would also be the time to address poor organization, work time inefficiency, poor motivation, excessive socializing or daydreaming, and any other interference observed in the classroom. This conversation with a student will reveal patterns and tendencies that are supporting or interfering with learning success in the classroom.

A positive behavior reinforcement system may be a logical intervention to discuss at this time. A classroom behavior system should be designed to target two behaviors that need improvement to increase the probability of academic success. Two suggested behaviors might be “on-task behavior” and “work completion behavior”. These should be monitored at multiple check points throughout the school day with a recommended frequency no less than once every thirty minutes. The teacher will monitor these two behaviors within the time periods and advise the student of his point earning success. Points can accumulate until the end of the day when the student will count up points with the teacher to arrive at a sum total. The point total will be assigned into one of three tiers reflecting Excellent Day (80% or above), Average Day (55% - 80%), and Poor Day (55% and below). A colored paper token can be awarded to the student daily. This token will signify a level or performance to the parents so that correspondent privileges can be awarded at home. Generally, I suggest that parents allow a child to retain all usual privileges and activities at home when an Average Day is earned. Excellent Day reinforcer items could be identified as additional play time outside, 25 minutes of game time with a parent, additional TV time in the evening, arranging transport of a special friend visitation for play time, outdoor play activity with a parent, special dessert after dinner, or an extended bed time for an additional 20 minutes. Poor Day performance may result in a loss of one of the child’s favorite privileges on that day.

Aside from these classroom and home interventions to encourage performance, there still may remains some concern about a student’s ability to sustain attention to task in the classroom. The child-parent-teacher conversation should include a discussion of the student’s ability to sustain attention to tasks. Difficulties with limited attention should be evident in all subjects and time periods throughout the day in order to support a consideration of ADHD. If selective inattention is observed in the classroom, it is more likely explained by alternate considerations including learning disabilities, poor motivation, etc. Unfortunately, this child-parent-teacher discussion may not necessarily reveal the primary interference to the student’s learning. However, the conversation at least will begin to identify different factors that seem to influence the student’s under performance in the classroom. Before pursuing a more formal evaluative intervention, it still may be reasonable to allow time for some of the suggested interventions to be attempted. My next chapter article will describe additional interventions and considerations that may be attempted in response to continued academic under performance in the classroom. It still may make sense to postpone formal evaluation of attention, learning, or emotion until pursuant classroom interventions have been attempted.

I am a child psychologist recently retired from the public school district. I continue to maintain a private practice devoted to the assessment of ADHD in children. I have recently developed a parent questionnaire that helps parents decide whether to pursue a formal ADHD evaluation for their child. This questionnaire can be viewed at http://www.youadditup.com