OPINION — When a child struggles in school, some of the first advice they, and usually their parents, may hear is to study harder, pay closer attention or spend more time on homework. For many students, those strategies help. For others, the problem has nothing to do with the effort being made.
A student can spend hours studying for a test only to struggle when it is time to take it. Another may understand a lesson but have difficulty completing an assignment. A child who excels in one subject may consistently fall behind in another. Behavioral concerns may emerge at school even though parents see a very different child at home.
In these cases, telling a young person to simply “try harder” or “pay more attention” misses the larger question: Why are they struggling?
