I’ve got tips for parents on how to help their kids relieve stress surrounding homework, especially teenagers. And there is good data to back up my suggestions.
First, encourage them to do one thing at a time, i.e. stop multitasking. Many teens do homework with several screens running simultaneously: a laptop to type their paper, a social network screen to keep up-to-date with what’s going on among their friends, a phone to receive texts and Instagram messages, a TV to watch Netflix, etc. This tech overload creates continuous distractions from their attention to homework.
Research has shown that when we switch off our primary task to attend to interruptions, it can take another 10 to 20 times the length of the interruption to refocus our full attention. And if other tasks get lumped into the break, recovery time is even longer. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that productivity dropped by as much as 40 percent when subjects tried to do two or more things at once. Jumping around among tasks exacts other costs, too—mistakes and burnout. Unnecessary interruptions plus the time it takes to get back to the task consume an average of 28 percent of the knowledge worker’s day, according to 2006 surveys done by Basex. This doesn’t bode well for accomplishing homework.
I encourage kids to do their homework on computers with no Internet access and to leave their cell phones out of sight. They could take breaks every hour to relax and catch up, if necessary. And this way, I bet they’d get more done, it would be of higher quality, and completed in less time.
That leads me to my next suggestion: help teens get adequate sleep. Using the above ideas should help them get schoolwork done earlier, which is a start. But lack of sleep has disturbing consequences, including a negative impact on attention, memory and school performance. It’s a vicious cycle of inadequate sleep causing poor attention and functioning, which causes homework to take longer, again delaying bedtime, etc.
Work with your teen to figure out a healthy evening routine that involves homework, screen time, relaxation, family time, and whatever wind-down techniques and time they need to doze off to ensure ample sleep. It may be a hard sell to convince them to give up some of their screen time, but you will be surprised to see that adolescents begin to enjoy a respite from their gadgets once they’ve experienced it.
Homework should be a child’s responsibility, not that of their parents. But kids may need some guidance to give them the tools to be more efficient and effective. Then Mom and Dad can slowly extricate themselves from the job of motivating and micromanaging the homework monster. And by the way, adults could benefit from the same prescription for more sleep and mindfulness, so why not learn these life skills together?
[Tim Jordan, M.D., is a Behavioral Pediatrician who specializes in counseling girls ages 6 through college. For more information, visit drtimjordan.com.]
