In my opinion, and I am only 17, television and computer games have to be cut down drastically and only used as a REWARD for getting things done like homework or other things that he needs to do. Get him into a pattern of brushing his teeth, taking his vitamin, and doing whatever homework he has right after school. Also, get him to learn more outside of school, only in my opinion a little bit, maybe like 20 minutes a day, maybe some new math, or little by little learn a new language. Also, get him to like to read a lot more if possible, in my opinion. I never liked to read and I suffered in speed reading and a little bit of comprehension.

What grade and age is he first off? And have you had him tested for ADD or ADHD? As an educator I am well aware that both ADD and ADHD are too quickly diagnosed and used as excuses; however, I have also witnessed first handedly dramatic changes in students who had difficulties concentrating, focusing, and completing assignemnts once they were diagnosed and treated.

Another possibility could be that your child is either finding it difficult to understand the material and therefore avoiding the work altogether or the child is finding the material too easy and is bored and unchallenged. In the case of the first scenario perhaps talking to the teacher or teachers about getting your child some extra one on one or small group help is possible. In the case of the second scenario asking his teachers to provide more challenging assignements ofr him including helping his peers with their work might be helpful.

Either way I feel it is important that you talk not only to your son but also his teachers, the school counselor, and even your pediatrician or family physician beacuse you do NOT want him to fall behind making his educational experience more difficult or unpleasant.

How old is he? if he’s young enough (11 or under pehaps) you can make studying fun. My little brother is not good at studying at all and he’s not all that great at school but this summer my mom made me keep giving he practice tests and it really helped improve his memory..also, a flash card game is really helpful at any age. im a junior and i always use flash cards to study..they pound the information into your head and its kind of like a little picture pops up! lol..well good luck. you can also try looking up “study tips” online.

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Do you remember the game memory? That game works well with vocabulary or math. Try a timed thing where you see how many math problems he can get done and if he beats his time he gets, say, a dollar or a treat. Works well on my brother. My spanish teacher still uses some techniques like that with us..Do diagrams and stuff on a chalkboard and have him fill in the blanks. There’s this fly swatter game that works for any subject too..have a couple of his friends come over and set up a wall with dates (history), words (english/vocab/spelling), answers (#’s as in Math), etc. You then have two people stand at the wall while you read off a question. The first student to slap the correct answer with his/her flyswatter wins the round and gets to continue to see if they can beat out all of their opponents. There are many other things to do too..Just E-mail me at [email protected] and i’m sure if you run out of thoughts i can give you some more…..good luck! P.S. these games will both make him quicker and wittier!!