Over thirty years of research shows that parents' involvement in their
children's learning impacts their academic achievement. You can support your child's academic achievement by engaging in home- and school-based activities!
Replace person-oriented praise ("You are really good at math!") with process-oriented praise ("I noticed you've been using different strategies to show your thinking!)
Make efforts to communicate specific and attainable expectations to your child (Say, "It sounds like this project offers you different ways to represent what you know in creative ways" instead of "I know you're going to make the most creative poster ever!")
Use open-ended questions in place of "yes" or "no" questions (Try replacing "Did you have fun?" with "What did you like best?")
Use songs, nursery rhymes, and written and spoken stories to improve your child's foundational literacy skills
Explicitly discuss text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections to encourage reading for meaning
Building a supportive and nurturing environment at home allows children to develop resilience and cope with moments of self-doubt or setbacks
Attend parent-teacher interviews to promote collaborative goal setting, learn about your child's process, and reinforce developing skill areas at home
About the author:
Harkiran Thandi (pronouns: she/her/hers)
Harkiran holds a Masters of Education in School and Applied Child Psychology from the University of Calgary. She has extensive experience providing therapeutic intervention to children and adolescents of diverse abilities in school, community, and home environments as a behaviour interventionist, applied behavioural analysis support worker, and program manager.
To learn more about Harkiran's experience click the following link: https://www.beaconpsychology.ca/harkiran-thandi
