Parents do everything they can to help their child succeed in school. But a task could well be useless, according to an American study. Less weight for the mental load?
Academic success is an essential point for all parents. Some people do everything possible to ensure their child gets the best grades at school. This involves good nutrition, good sleep, limiting screens so that he can concentrate in class, help with homework or even academic support after classes… But according to an American study published in 2022 in The Journal of Research in Childhood Education, parents who help their child with homework do not specifically contribute to their child’s getting better grades in school. Indeed, according to the researchers, there is “no significant link between parental help with homework and student success”.
Does this mean that you should not help your child at all to learn their lessons or do their homework? In France, specialists agree to say, conversely, that children helped by their parents at home succeed better than others. However, helping your child too much does not help them to be independent, so you have to find a happy medium. “It is true that the child must be given responsibility, he must learn to do his homework alone“, Claire Leconte, professor of educational psychology, explains to Ouest France. “Overly insistent parental help does not promote autonomy, which is the secret of academic success. The child associates homework with his father or mother, who forces him to do it, or even does it himself.” explains Stéphane Clerget, child psychiatrist.
It is precisely by being independent that the student will be able to understand what he is learning, and that he will integrate the information more quickly. There is therefore no point in overdoing it at the risk of doing the homework for him, especially as the child could get into this habit and risk not persevering and giving up at the slightest difficulty as he grows up.