How to Help Your Child with Homework

How to Help Your Child with Homework

Common Homework Problem Profiles

Common Homework Problem Profiles

Getting Started with Homework

Getting Started with Homework

Homework and the Disorganized Student

Homework and the Disorganized Student

The Student that Rushes through Homework

The Student that Rushes through Homework

The Student that Avoids Homework

The Student that Avoids Homework

The Student that Procrastinates Homework

The Student that Procrastinates Homework

The Student that Always Fidgets During Homework

The Student that Always Fidgets During Homework

The Student that is Emotional During Homework

The Student that is Emotional During Homework

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When to Get Outside Help with Homework

How to Help Your Child with Homework

How to Help Your Child with Homework

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Effortless Set Up for School Success

School Organization in 3 Simple Steps

School Organization in 3 Simple Steps

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Managing Perfectionism In Children

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The Keys to Remembering What You Read

Motivate Your Student With Praise

Motivate Your Student With Praise

The Academic Benefits of Family Meals

The Academic Benefits of Family Meals

Learning Styles

Learning Styles

Boost Your Child’s Study Skills IQ

Boost Your Child’s Study Skills IQ

Put An End To Procrastination

Put An End To Procrastination

Stress Free Homework Habits

Stress Free Homework Habits

Tips For Helping Reluctant Readers

Tips For Helping Reluctant Readers

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Managing Parent Homework Help

Need To Know ACT & SAT Information

Need To Know ACT & SAT Information

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Monitoring Homework As A Working Parent

Understanding Math Anxiety In Students

Understanding Math Anxiety In Students

Tricks To Reduce Rushing Through Homework

Tricks To Reduce Rushing Through Homework

Avoid Calculator Dependency In Students

Avoid Calculator Dependency In Students

How To Encourage Boys To Enjoy Reading

How To Encourage Boys To Enjoy Reading

 Reduce Homework Stress By Focusing

Reduce Homework Stress By Focusing

Reduce Stress to Increase School Performance

Reduce Stress to Increase School Performance

 Reduce Homework Stress By Focusing

Reduce Homework Stress By Focusing

Reduce Stress to Increase School Performance

Reduce Stress to Increase School Performance

How To Encourage Boys To Enjoy Reading

How To Encourage Boys To Enjoy Reading

Avoid Calculator Dependency In Students

Avoid Calculator Dependency In Students

Managing Food Allergies In School

Managing Food Allergies In School

Emotional Wellness For Food Allergic Kids

Emotional Wellness For Food Allergic Kids

Emotional Support For Food Allergic Kids

Emotional Support For Food Allergic Kids

Dating With Food Allergies

Dating With Food Allergies

Managing Food Allergies While Traveling

Managing Food Allergies While Traveling

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Stress Free Homework Habits

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The Keys to Remembering What You Read

Tips For Helping Reluctant Readers

Tips For Helping Reluctant Readers

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Ann Dolin

Educational Connections

www.ectutoring.com  

703-934-8282

Ann Dolin, M.Ed. is the President and Director of Educational Connections.  She holds a B.A. in Child Psychology/Elementary Education and a Master's degree in Special Education, with a concentration in Learning Disabilities, from Boston College.

After leaving FCPS in 1998, Ann founded Educational Connections, Inc. as its only employee with the goal of providing individualized one-to-one instruction based on each student's learning style.  Today, her company employs over 100 tutors, serves the entire metropolitan D.C. area, and has worked with over 2,000 students.

Ann is a recognized expert in education and learning disability issues.  She has provided testimony in trials related to education and learning disabilities.  She is a member of WISER (Washington Independent Services for Educational Resources) and is the coordinator of CHADD of Northern Virginia (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder).  She is also a member of the Education Industry Association, Council for Learning Disabilities, and a board member for the International Dyslexia Association.  She travels throughout the D.C. Metro area presenting at parent and teacher groups on a variety of educational topics. 

The Student that Avoids Homework

Education Expert Ann Dolin discusses the student that avoids homework.

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Ann Dolin: Hi! I am Ann Dolin. Today we are talking about how to make homework a little easier for you child. Let's discuss the avoider.

The avoider is a child who is not interested in homework at all and will go to great lengths to tell his parents that he has no homework or did it in class. He is different from the Procrastinator in that he not only will he not get started but he won't do it at all. The avoider may avoid for many different reasons.

The avoider often feels totally overwhelmed by his assignments and it's much easier for him not to do anything at all than to get started. The avoider also maybe dismissing homework because of an underlying learning disability or attentional issue or even depression. So before you insist that your child be on a regimented schedule, talk to him, talk to the teachers and try to get to the bottom of why he maybe avoiding homework at all costs.

The parent of an avoider needs to be even more involved in homework than the parents of other types of students with difficulties. Because the avoider will often be untruthful about assignments that he or she has, the parent needs to work with him and keep in contact with the teachers to know what's going on. Many schools these days have online homework assignments listed on their websites, so that you can encourage your child to go on and check to see what he or she has on a daily basis.

Setting up a flowchart is imperative. As I mentioned often avoiders are totally overwhelmed and they don't even know where to start or when to begin. So setting up a schedule after school and working with them to fill-in what their extracurricular activities are on that particular day, coloring them in red and then allowing them to see what time slots they actually have to complete homework will help them get started and budget their time.

I have often found that when parents are directly involved in their child's education and have a good communication system setup with teachers, that kids are more responsive. Many teachers are receptive to e-mail and even having a buddy list for you child in each class is helpful as well. That means that have your child designate 2-3 kids in each class that are fairly responsible, keep their names and phone numbers on your family bulletin board. So that if there is a doubt about what an assignment is, your child can call that other student and find out exactly what's going on. The key here with the avoider is not to take on responsibility yourself, but to lay the foundation so that your child has the resources to find out what the assignments are, if they haven't been written down, but ultimately, it's his job to get started and do them. However, he is just going to require a little bit more oversight from you to get the job done.

The homework contract is a great idea for an avoider. A homework contract is an agreement between you and your child that directly states what he or she has to do to earn privileges. The great thing about it is that the parent must buy into it too and most often kids are willing to get their work done, if they have the benefit or a privilege afterward, which maybe going online to Facebook or whatever it maybe that interests them, watching TV, going out with their friends, use of the family car. But for most kids, they want to know what's in it for them and the contract clearly spells out what they get in return.

So hopefully those are some good tips for helping your child to stop avoiding homework. Next, we are going to discuss the Procrastinator and how to get him started, get going and get the homework done.

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