Times have changed and so have academic expectations. Students now have open doors and accessible pathways to project their competencies. Creativity is accepted, encouraged and also well acknowledged. Out of the box thinking is cherished. With this change in time, children need to build the ability to grab the opportunities to find an apposite success path.

Children are expected to excel in all spheres of life, why not! They need to not only put their time and effort in enhancing academic learning, but also exploring methods to do the very same thing efficiently, in order to save time for other tasks that are today quintessential to their development. Dramatics, sport, music, art, these are not only entertainment; they also help children de-stress and become physically and psychologically accomplished human beings. Managing time well for instance, is the basic pre requisite for anyone: be it a toddler who must have time to play, eat, sleep, television; a school going child who needs to do homework, eat, sleep and play or an adolescent who must take time out to be with friends and grow in social networks besides excelling in curricular and extra curricular tasks.

There’s no ‘right’ way to study. In fact if children study and gain knowledge in any which way it cannot be wrong. However appropriate techniques focused on deep learning not merely memorizing; will take children forward and make them retain information better. Appropriate note-making techniques like flow charts, mind maps, graphics organizers and matrices help retain information better. It is essential to make our children cook up a careful blend of their perceived dull and interesting subjects so they do not get bored and fed up in the middle of the study plan. If it’s difficult to get started, we motivate them to do something easy first and go forward step by step.

There are other problems in children, which can be confused with ADHD. If children cannot see or hear well, they seem to not pay attention in class. Sometimes kids are depressed or anxious or worried so they seem distracted. Lack of sleep, learning disabilities and behavior problems may be confused with ADHD. Some children primarily are inattentive; others are hyperactive while several may have a combination of types. Those with the inattentive type are less disruptive and are more likely to not be diagnosed with ADHD. They simply seem to be somewhat slow and backward in school and may be called slow learners too.

We believe that much can be done to improve and sharpen academic performance. Study skills, like most other acquired skills, can be learned, inculcated and put to practice. These skills are dynamic, ever changing and alter with the system and syllabus demands. They focus on the form, and not the content; hence can be put to practice for any subject, any class, any child. Once inculcated, these will benefit them in every walk of life.

Our six-course module on Scientific Study Methods uses time tested techniques to make studies simple, more interesting, understandable, retainable, easy, and reproducible. The course includes interactive group work sessions with parents and also provides take-home booklets and worksheets for the students to imbibe and internalize these techniques. This enables them to continually put into practice, the proficiencies that have been acquired by them throughout the different workshop sessions. Learning is a basic need. Empowering children the right learning skills is the best gift a parent could ever offer their child.