Repeat course, advantages and disadvantages

Depending on each student, repeating the course may be appropriate or be counterproductive. When making this decision it is important to analyze the personality of the child and the causes of the recommendation to repeat the course. Depending on the origin of the failures, the appropriate solutions in each case will be very different.

Deciding if a child should or should not repeat the course is difficult and is a decision loaded with emotions on both sides, so we must collect information from various points: the tutor and the school pedagogue, an independent specialized center in which it is done a detailed study, the personal opinion of the child and our own.

Things to do before repeating a course

1. To specify in what academic level the boy is. This is easily achieved by asking the school psycho-pedagogical cabinet to pass a level test to determine which one it is in. It will be a good index to assess if you can tackle the next level or it is advisable to consolidate it and repeat the course.

2. Go to a specialized center to measure your level of intelligence, if there are learning problems (dyslexia, dysphasia ...), their relationship and integration with the environment (if they have problems with their classmates or friends, for example), their feelings and opinions about their family (if they feel loved or rejected ...), etc. With this test you can decide if you need specialized help, if it is convenient to change your school or if you have to modify certain behaviors in the family.

3. Obtain through your teacher the evolution of the child in recent months. If we see that it has a positive progress, even if it does not succeed in September, maybe we should give it that boost and pass it on course. It may be starting to mature and if it repeats we could throw all the stimulus acquired by land by the effort of the previous course. But if we find that it has stagnated or even worse, it may be necessary to repeat the course.

4. Listen to the student's opinion about what has happened, see if he is aware of what it means to repeat, to see how he can affectively mark him so that his self-esteem does not subside, etc. Take the decision we make, it is important that the adolescent understands the situation he faces and the guidelines we will follow to overcome it successfully.

Advice for parents of children who are going to repeat the course

- You must be involved to the end in the final decision about whether you should repeat or not. You are the ones who know him best.
- Avoid taking this fact as a personal failure of yours. The important thing is the child, his integral formation as a person, with a vision of the future.
- Validate the decision of the tutor and the educating team. When they advise to repeat a course to parents, it is a decision based on the experience that the center has in these cases.
- Talk a lot with the repeating son or daughter. Put on the table the pros and cons of repeating the course but, above all, you must be clear that in the end it is an opportunity to redirect your studies.
- It is better to repeat the course at the beginning of ESO, than to wait at the end of the stage. Gaps in knowledge will be greater and more difficult to overcome.
- It is good to talk with other parents of repeating children, and with young people who repeated and channeled their studies. A vision of the future will make you not so much anguish and not be focused solely on the present moment.
- The month of the child's birth It is important when fitting with a lower level class. The students who meet at the end of the year will only be a few months apart with the new classmates, unlike the boys who were born at the beginning of the year who will be more aware of this age difference.

Phrases that will help your child if he must repeat the course

- Both the school and we are looking for where you will be best, more comfortable, so that your efforts see their fruit.
- That you do not care what your colleagues will say or think. Life is long to show what we are and how much we are worth as people, which is much more than an academic record.
- Use this fact as "an opportunity": to get better grades, to make new friends, to rectify possible errors, etc.
- We do not want you less because you repeat, the important thing is that you continue striving. The worst thing is to stop struggling in the face of difficulties, and this is one of them.
- Okay, you got bad grades and you repeat, but You have many other important qualities: You are cheerful, good friend, helpful, athletic, loving, etc.

How to help the child who repeats the course

1. Before punishing him or calling him lazy, Discard a low level of neurological maturation of brain functions such as: oculo-motor movements, displacement, handicraft or ventilatory function associated with language.
2. It is important to take care of the child's level of self-esteem, because the normal thing is that he lives the repetition as a personal failure and feels insecure. Talk to him a lot, without harassing him. You can always put small goals that encourage you to continue with your studies.
3. Keep in mind that temporarily you will find yourself out of place, because he will have to abandon his former colleagues and adapt to the new group. To help you, you can sign up for an extracurricular activity with the latter and invite them home during the weekend.
4. Eye to settle. You have to make him understand that repeating a course does not mean having a sabbatical year in which he will study the same material again, but that he must take advantage of that time to learn well what he did not understand before.
5. A positive approach and very motivating can stimulate you and that enter with greater security the first day of class.
6. Repeat is not the solution when it comes to a blubber of adolescence, or if you observe that the boy has a slower rhythm of maturation, without stagnation, with a slow but continuous progress.
7. Repeat should never be a punishment, but the option that you consider best to help your child overcome their academic difficulties.

If your child finally repeats the course, it will be very good to have a closer relationship with the center's educating team. Follow up all year round, either by phone, by mail or by staying with your tutor monthly. It is not enough to repeat, but you must jointly develop a strategy to make sense of the effort that is not promoted.

Marisol Nuevo Espín

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