Best Study Skills and Plan for Your Child or Teen

Does Your Child/Teen Have Study Skills and a Plan?

I talk to many kids of all ages and realize they don’t have study skills or a plan, which is key to doing well with their academic subjects, and also helps reduce anxiety.

Many years ago I attended a study skills workshop with learning specialist, Terry Small, which I found fascinating and valuable.

My number one take-away was that old fashioned flashcards are still the most proven method for study skills. They truly help with absorbing all the facts that kids/teens are required to learn.

It seems as though there’s not as much focus on learning times tables nowadays, but it does reduce a lot of stress, and makes math easier if your child knows their times tables, starting in the elementary years. (I was an elementary school teacher before I became a counsellor, so I’m speaking from a teacher’s perspective too.)

AND flashcards are invaluable for helping high school and college/university students with their study skills.

Why Are Flashcards So Beneficial?

– Writing out the information is active (versus passive like reading notes) so this starts the learning process for the brain

– It is key to use questions to learn knowledge. For example, “What is the capital of Serbia?” Terry Small explained that a question to the brain is like turning the key in a car – the key gets the engine started, and asking the brain a question, wakes up the brain!

– Do you know what colour gets the brain’s attention the most? Did my question wake up your brain 🙂 ? The answer is red. Therefore, I recommend to my clients to write the answers to their questions, on the back of their flashcards, in red.

– I then recommend that once they’ve created all their flashcards, to go through them and sort them into three separate piles. 1) “I know this 100%” pile 2) “I kind of know it” pile 3) “I don’t know it yet” pile

– They then keep working at all their cards until they’ve got them all in the “I know this 100%” pile. Ideally, this happens a couple of days before the actual test!

– Gamifying studying (with the three piles of flashcards) makes it more of an enjoyable process.

– If your child is feeling bored or antsy as they do their cards, it helps to do them standing up and to drink lots of water (to hydrate their brain) as they study (these are two more tips from Terry Small).

– Quizlet is a website/app where one can create digital flashcards. For some students this works really well for them and they prefer the digital aspect. It’s not as active as handmade flashcards, but it’s much better than making no flashcards at all. Quizlet also allows you and your friends to work together to create the flashcards so this is a great option for high school and university/college students. Each person takes a chapter and creates the flashcards for that chapter and then they can combine them all.

– It’s important to start writing up the flashcards as soon as the information is being presented at school versus creating the flashcards the night before the test! Your child may say they have no homework but this could be the perfect time to start making their flashcards.

More Study Skills

**The Importance of Whiteboards…

I also recommend that whiteboards are a part of every child/teen study kit.

Many students have shared pictures of their whiteboards with me and I love all the ways I see them being used. Here are some ideas:

– Write motivational quotes on them

– Use green painter’s tape on them to create a grid for a calendar of the week or month and then they have a visual for when their assignments are due and tests are happening.

– Write themselves reminder notes of things they need to do

– Write their goals for themselves and keep track of their goals as they accomplish them – check them off on the whiteboard

– For Elementary students who have spelling tests or dictées, they often enjoy having you say their spelling words and they write them out on their whiteboard. (For younger kids, you can also give them a chance to be the teacher and you be the student who writes out the spelling words – with a few mistakes – that your “teacher” has to correct.)

Nowadays our kids’ attention span is getting shorter and shorter which is strongly connected to the addiction of digital devices. Short attention spans = less focus for studying…

I highly recommend attending UNPLUGGED with Brooke Shannon from the USA and founder of the “Wait ’til Eighth” movement. She, myself and a couple of other medical professionals will be speaking about all things to do with smart phones on Saturday, September 14th at the Kay Meek Theatre from 4:30-6:30pm. Tickets are only $5 and are available here. Please share the link with your friends, neighbours and family, as it takes a village to raise a child.

I hope this blog post encourages you to go out and buy a bunch of flashcards, a blue/black pen, a red pen and a whiteboard with dry-erase markers. Having a system for studying is essential for reducing overwhelm, anxiety and having more success in school.

All the best for a positive school start-up.

Remember to be the “Captain of the Ship” (Susan Stiffleman reference) cool, calm and collected but also giving direction. Show your kids you believe in them versus asking “Are you going to be okay?” or “Are you feeling worried?” as these types of questions plant seeds of doubt versus confidence. Also texting them while they’re at school to check-in on them is another way that parents inadvertently undermine their kid’s confidence. (Come to our talk on Sept. 14th to hear more about this.)

Warmly,