Motivating children to complete assignments is a challenge many families face. Child and adolescent psychologist Dr. Michelle McDonald provide six strategies parents can implement to ease this interaction:
Set realistic expectations.
Expectations around assignments and homework should be carefully assessed. Three considerations can help
parents ensure they are asking students to achieve attainable demands:
- Consider the length of time the child is expected to sit and maintain attention, the amount of time dedicated to each subject, and the time it should take a child to complete an assignment. As a general rule, multiply a child’s age by two to five times to generate an appropriate range for expected attention span. Once attention span is calculated, make sure your child is being asked to sustain attention to task for an appropriate amount of time, change subjects within that range and end the activity when the child has reached their limit, regardless of completion.
- Consider the content. An appropriate homework assignment should fall within the child’s ability to complete the work independently. This can help keep interest, motivation, and confidence intact.
- Consider the individual child’s academic interest. Asking a child who is insecure about their math ability to persevere independently through challenging problems can result in frustration and resistance to complete work.
Collaborate with your child’s teacher to set realistic expectations for your unique child.
Establish a reward system.
Across the lifespan, humans must find ways to cope with non-preferred tasks. While rewards may not fall in line with your parenting values, certain types of rewards can teach self-management skills children will use into higher education and/or adulthood. Before considering this strategy, make sure to collaborate with the child to determine what they find motivating.
- Time based rewards: Rewards can be based around time completed, i.e., “work on math homework for fifteen minutes, then we’ll take a break”. *This is best for children with low attention spans yet strong academic skills.
- Productivity based rewards: Rewards can be based around amount of work completed, i.e., “finish your history essay, then we’ll take a break”.
- Effort rewards: Rewards can be based on pre-determined assessments of effort, i.e., “for every five problems tried independently, we’ll take a break”. Rewards might also be interspersed between subjects if a child responds better to this type of reinforcement.
Remember that rewards can vary in their format and must be tailored to the individual. Some children respond to verbal praise “great thinking!”, some to time rewards “I see your working hard, take a five-minute break!”, some to tangible rewards “here’s a Hershey’s Kiss!”, and others to bigger ticket items “for every 30 minutes of work you earn 15 minutes on your device”. For older children, big ticket rewards can be offered immediately following a completed task or “banked” to use later, especially if they struggle to transition to
and from electronics. Movement breaks are also a valuable tool and keep kids having fun between work sessions.
*For each of the above strategies, children can first be rewarded for short intervals of time and the time required for a reward can be slowly increased.
“Chunking” assignments and projects.
Many children find large tasks or assignments overwhelming and respond better when assignments are broken into steps. Breaking large assignments into “chunks” allows children to feel success and accomplishment for finishing smaller pieces at a time.
Chunking time. Many children and adults alike struggle with undefined periods of time. Consider the following options to increase engagement and motivation:
- A set frame of time. Choose a determined period of time to work. For example, one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. During this time subjects can be spread across incremented time segments, or one subject can be the main focus. Remember to cater expectations; children don’t necessarily have to take a task to completion within the given time period they just have to show active engagement.
- Flexible time frames. Define the periods of time that schoolwork will occur. For example; let children know that they have four assignments to do today and they can complete them at a time of their choosing. After breakfast, children choose to complete their Reading, after lunch they focus on Math and in the afternoon the family works on Spanish.
This strategy can be paired with the reward system described above if desired, but that isn’t necessary. If families choose to do so, offering younger children rewards for completing smaller chunks may help keep motivation strong, while older children may respond better to choosing a reward that can be offered for increments of time spent working on parts of an assignment.
Allow the student to have responsibility for their own work.
Children may demonstrate greater cooperation when they are given some control over demands placed upon them. This can be done in a few ways and adjusted according to the age of the child:
- Putting children in control of when they work and what subjects they want to complete during that time can be helpful.
- Alternating “high” and “low” activities: Allow children to decide which activities they want to do first, then alternate between those they are excited about/find easy/want to do and those they find more tedious (non-preferred).
- Allow for natural consequences. Some families find success removing themselves from managing the child’s work production, instead allowing them to be responsible for the natural academic/teacher-designed rewards and consequences of completing their work. *This assumes the child has the skill required to complete the work or has an IEP allowing for adjusted content/work accommodations.
Take turns with a partner or family member.
Remember that you are not in this alone! Using creative outlets can help lessen the load on both parent and child. Consider engaging a cousin for virtual reading time, elicit the help of grandparents to conduct a science experiment via Zoom; ask an aunt or uncle to spend 15 minutes talking through a history assignment via Facetime. These strategies can help reinvigorate both parent and child and increase motivation for a given task.
Parents hold different expectations for, and emotional attachments to, their children’s academic success. The most important thing to remember is that the relationship between parent and child comes first. When all the strategies, tools and interventions fail, disengage from the power struggle. Fall back on the rule that your relationship with your child is the priority. You can always try again tomorrow.