Have you come across any student who is labeled as 'lazy'?
Do you know any child who is intelligent with lot of aptitudes but not performing nicely and feel like he needs a push?
Well that student is an underachiever!!!
They often receive stereotyped comments such as 'not working to full potential', 'lazy'.
Few people work with full capacity, but some children with considerable academic ability fail at subjects, in which they should succeed.
Underachievers are children who perform below their potential at their academics. Gown has stated children who perform below 20% at academics compared to their IQ test results are diagnosed as underachievers. In broader classification, there are two categories of underachievers:
1. Situational Underachievers
Moody guys and gals who some time tell 'nya nya nya na na for studies!!!'.
These students perform better when they are in good moods. More likely their poor performance in school is due to emotional crises that suddenly erupts: a break up of relation, family problem, personality clash with a teacher.
2. Chronic underachiever
These children are aggressive. They refuse to develop their talent. They can become, withdrawn.
Mandel and Marcus identified six types of underachievers. They are:
1. Coasters- Those who are ultimate procrastinators, easy going and unmotivated. They always tell 'hey, tomorrow is the best day for studies'. But tomorrow is always tomorrow. Tomorrow is perpetual. Every day they hold the book they tell 'today is a holiday or today it's too late'. This lack of studies makes him or her a student with underachievement.
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2. Anxious underachievers- want to be better but are too tensed to achieve the goal. Their expectation is too high. Because of this they get too much tensed and they get nervous before the exam. This is the reason for their lower performance in school.
3. Identity searchers- wrapped up in finding who they
are and get distracted from school work. This might be due to too much exposure towards philosophy and spirituality. They are more fascinated towards soul, god, self, the reason for their existence. This makes him or her a student with underachievement.
4. Wheeler- dealers-impulsive and manipulative, need instant gratification and don't value school work. This leads to lower performance in school.
5. Sad under achievers-lack energy for school work because of depression and low self esteem.
6. Defiant underachievers- underachieve as an act of rebellion. 'Hey,you force me to study right? oh! you think you are a big guy? O.k let me see who is strong?' is the thinking pattern of such students.
Signs and symptoms
1. Impulsive, poor personal judgment and adjustment abilities.
2. Have poor test results at school and no hobbies at home.
3. Have low self image, distrust, indifference and lack of concern.
4. Feel helpless and don't take responsibility of their
5. Feel rejected by family and resist attempt by teachers and family to help them.
6. Choose friends with similar attitude may be less mature than peers and don't show leadership qualities.
7. Have little motivation with poor study habits, may refuse to do home work or leave much work incomplete.
8. Either cannot plan for future or set goals to their full potential.
Identifying underachiever and core causes
1. Physical causes
Any problems in vision, hearing can be one of the major hurdles for the child which is making the child slow in learning. It may cause the child lose interest in studies. Even epilepsy and other nervous defects can cause slow learning.
2. Delayed mile stone of brain development
In the case of mentally retarded child the learning is slow. Because the child has low IQ.
3. Specific delays of academic skills
Any learning disorders, may be can listen, learn, tell answer but cannot write. Eventough the child is intelligent there may be some difficulty in learning a specific subject. May be the child has less focus and child is more focused in a specific subject.
4. Inattentive, over reactive, impulsive child
Attention deficit Hyper reactivity disorder, restlessness may be the reasons. Child will be unable to sit and study. Child all the time wants to be active. He/ She will be unable to check the speed of mind. So they are unable to put subjects in their mind.
5. Emotional and conduct disorders
A. School Phobia- child is afraid of school may be because of too much attachments with parents or grandparents. In school the child may not have anyone to duplicate the attention, love and sense of belonging showered by family members.
If not there should be too much aggressive teacher in the school looking at whom the student remembers some devil in the fairy tale. There might be a fatso who is bullying on him.
B. Anxiety, Depression- If a child is sensitive he/she will be unable to bear too much pressure. So if they have any over dominating or over criticizing family member or friend. They might develop neurosis.
C. Defiant disorder
Do you force child to spend less time on toilet commode? Think again toilet training makes children defiant. They never listen to any one. Even though they realize benefit in parents or teachers advice, they simply don't follow the advice because that was told by parents and teachers.
Strategies to help underachievers
1. Special guidance
Give guidance but let the child make decision and you don't force decision. For example what kind of dress he should wear or how he should use his pocket money or what kind of friends he should have so and so forth.
The trick here is making the child feel he/she is doing it by themselves and they are enjoying doing that. They are not puppets in hands of anyone. They are masters of their life. Their wishes are coming true. Teachers and parents are just like angels.
2. Assignments and teaching methods
Should be adjusted to the individual interests and abilities of the student. If a child is interested in arts class may be he/she can be taken to drawing or crafts class. If they like a particular game. Letting them play is one of the best ideas. Psychologists warn parents of underachievers not to take off child's favorite toy!
3. Individual training programs
The training should be tailor made for each student. It does not mean that the training should be one to one. It only means that the training should meet individual needs of the child. It requires the plan which describes the skill deficit, strengths and areas to be worked on.
4. Sessions to set up goals
It often helps to set achievable goals. The goals can be put in a priority order. But flexibility of goal must be ensured. Teachers and parents should not monitor them regularly. If regularly monitored they might feel they are irresponsible.
5. Tutoring by senior citizens
They tell 'if age could do and youth can think the world will be a better place'. The children don't know where
6. Grouping
Having a group of underachievers of all age group is really a good idea. These children can tell their juniors what are the loses they had experienced. Younger children will realize the problems they might face if they don't perform nicely. As elder children have come through that path they can understand their juniors more easily and guide them.
Children don't turn achievers over night. They should be ensured with a curriculum with study skills as follows:
1. Preparatory study skills
Skills like time management, self management, etc. These skills help children to effectively face the exam. As underachievers don't know how to manage time and manage various resources they have. They should be taught all these things.
2. Acquisition study skills
These are the skills which help children gather information. These include reading and writing skills. Reading skills include mnemonics, peg system, visualization, etc. Writing skills include mind maps, note taking, etc.
3. Expression study skills
These skills help children get good scores in tests and exams. This include oral and written expressions like essay writing, summarizing, brainstorming.
Underachievers need help not labels. If you label any child as 'lazy or poor performer'. Please think again. They might need help not label.
