Parenting for School Success
Create a Home Environment That Encourages Learning
By establishing three simple practices, parents can improve their children's academic success, and decrease the likelihood their children will engage in risky behaviors.
A variety of studies from sources such as the US Department of Education, the PTA and the Harvard Family Research Project emphasize the importance of the home environment for school success. These studies suggest a variety of things parents can do to support their children's learning, such as establishing clear and reasonable expectations; establishing daily routines for homework, recreation, and bedtime; encouraging regular school attendance; and communicating regularly with the child's school, among others. However, in study after study, three practices appear again and again:
- Reading Aloud
- Eating meals together
- Limiting TV and other screen usage
Reading Aloud
In 1985 The US Department of Education's Commission on Reading surveyed 10,000 research findings and issued a report called Becoming a Nation of Readers which stated, "the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success is reading aloud to children." The National Center for Family Literacy cites several benefits of reading aloud to children:
- Enhanced self-esteem
- Well-developed vocabulary
- Increased world knowledge
- Better memory
- Better language skills
- Greater imagination and creativity.
Many doctors believe that children cannot be completely healthy if they are not read to by a caring adult, so in May of 2007, the American Medical Association passed a resolution urging all doctors to inform parents of the benefits of reading aloud to their children.
Eat Together
Family dinners are becoming as rare as floppy disks, but research from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University states that children who regularly eat meals with their families are more likely to read well, get good grades, and are far less likely to use drugs, alcohol or tobacco. Family dinners do not have to be time consuming or elaborate. As little as thirty minutes a day with the family gathered around a simple meal--and the television turned off--makes a huge difference. The critical element is daily, face-to-face communications where family members share an enjoyable time together. This should not be a time for parental preaching or discussing controversial subjects, but rather a time for sharing family stories, future plans, jokes, views on world and local events, and the details of each other's day.
Use TV Wisely
A 2004 University of Washington study titled Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children found that early exposure to television is associated with subsequent attention deficits. This study, along with several others has prompted The American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend absolutely no screen time of any kind, including educational videos, for children from birth to two years of age, and no more than two hours a day of screen use for children over age two. (The average American child spends almost 5 hours a day in front of screens.)
Gloria DeGaetano, founder of the Parent Coaching Institute and author of Parenting Well in a Media Age, cites studies showing that elementary age children who spend four or more hours a day in front of screens often exhibit the following behaviors:
- Expend less effort on schoolwork
- Have poorer reading skills
- Have difficulty focusing their attention
- Experience social problems
- Engage in fewer hobbies and activities than their peers
DeGaetano states that having a television on, even in the background, interferes with the retention of information during homework time.
The authors of the Northwest Regional Laboratory's booklet, Relationships for Student Success, state that parental involvement is more crucial to student success than family income, racial or ethnic background or the educational level of the parents. Reading aloud, limiting screen time, and eating together are activities that can benefit every child, and that nearly any family can easily implement.
Sources for this article:
Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading. by: Center for the Study of Readers, 1985
CASA report, The Importance of Family Dinners IV, sponsored by The Safeway Foundation, http://www.casacolumbia.org. http://www.casacolumbia.org/supportcasa/item.asp?cID=12&PID=161
National Center for Family Literacy, http://www.famlit.org/site/c.gtJWJdMQIsE/b.1204561/k.BD7C/Home.htm
University of Washington Study, Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children, by Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH; Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD; David L. DiGiuseppe, MS; and Carolyn A. McCarty, PhD. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/tvapril.pdf
Parenting Well in a Media Age, Keeping Our Kids Human, by Gloria DeGaetano, Personhood Press, 2004.
