Follow up on the use of The Homework Trap

Last week, I reported an example of success using the Homework Trap model. I just received an update that the child continues to do well, and that the parent has now identified the types of difficulties the child was having.

In my model, I advocate for time bound assignments and for parents to transition from acting as enforcers and, instead, becoming observers. Once you cap the time and dispel the belief that all homework must get done, you can stop and step back, and figure out what is happening with your child. As an observer, you can obtain information and share it with the teacher, with the goal of ultimately helping your child. As an enforcer, you get caught in an ongoing and inevitable, unproductive battle.

_{For more information on Dr. Goldberg's model, read other postings on this blog, visit his website, The Homework Trap, or read his book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.} 

More on Summer Learning Loss

There is an interesting article in the Washington Post today about summer learning loss. I have been following the discussion, both here and on teacher blogs and have some concern that this notion will get misconstrued to mean more homework assignments for children during the summer.

Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework TrapWhat is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

On being specific

Today's video was inspired by an article sent to me by a follower of The Homework Trap. The article invited comments about how homework policy should be changed. It got me thinking about the importance of being specific when dealing with the school about what you want for your child. We're all emotional about our children and it is easy to fall into the trap of sharing our emotions without being clear about exactly what we want the school to do. I offer a simple model:

Time bound assignments
Penalty reductions
Parents with full authority over the home

You may have other ideas about what your child needs. Whatever it is, I think it is important to keep those proposals simple and clear.



Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
What is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

Homework and ADHD

Children with ADHD require greater reductions in homework than othe children require. And they need these reductions while having full access to the regular classroom. These reduction can be incorporated into a 504 plan. The following video explains why this is required. The concept is also included in my book, The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers.



Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
What is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans

Homework, anxiety, and school performance

I read an interesting blog post today on anxiety and school performance. The author claims that one in eight students suffers from anxiety, that anxiety affects working memory, and that this affects school performance. I believe the author is right and that her ideas coincide well with mine. 

In my work, I talk about under-the-radar learning disabilities and how they affect homework performance. In fact, many homework-trapped children, who appear defiant, are actually anxious. They manage their anxiety through avoidant and rebellious behaviors.

Among the scales on a standard IQ test, working memory (one of the two major under-the-radar learning disorders I refer to) is the one that is most directly affected by anxiety. If a child is anxious, the child cannot focus.  He appears to have ADD. He comes home from school clueless, where he is pressured to do things he cannot do, increasing his anxiety.

The major difference between the writer of this article and me is that this writer appears to focus on treating the anxiety whereas I consider it important to reduce the pressure.  If the child remains under unrelenting pressure, anxiety reduction techniques will not help. First and foremost, we need to know that the child can do what the child is asked to do, and we’ll never get the answer until we limit the time of the homework session and step back to observe what the child does.

Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the The Homework Trap website

Time to think about 504s

As summer draws to an end, it is time to think about what you want for your child next year. If you have had chronic homework problems, your child needs relief. Once there is homework relief, you can start observing rather than pressing your child, and consider what he needs in order to succeed. If he's already in middle school, you need for the school to have someone on their staff who can negotiate among the teachers so your child has priorities for using his limited homework time. I would back off from trying to micromanage the schools in deciding between good and bad homework in favor of giving them a fixed amount of time for homework to be done in your home, and leave it to them to decide among themselves what's the best way to use that limited time. Here's my recommendation for your 504 plan. I explain the psychological reasoning behind it, in detail, in my book:
1. Time bound homework. Require ten minutes per night per grade. Create homework sessions that start and stop with a clock.
2. Reduce penalties. Modify the penalties so that the child gets rewarded for the work he does and cannot fail because of homework that was not done.
3. In middle school, assign a study skills teacher. This teacher works with the student to develop study skills, provides extra time to complete assignments in school, works with the teachers at establishing priorities, and serves as the primary contact for the parents.
4. Recognize that the parent is the head of the home. Establish an understanding that in fine tuning their efforts to get the child on a positive track, teachers and parents will work together, but that for matters in the home, the parents are the ones who have the final say.
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