Does your child have study partners? They really should!

Children are notorious procrastinators; they are easily distracted, bored and seldom keep focused on the task at hand. Parents often think that if their child works in a group, they are more prone to distraction. In contrast, it has been proven that if your child works with peers, they are actually more likely to concentrate on their work!

An ingenious study, published by Belgian Psychologist Dr Kobe Desender, showed that mental effort is contagious; if a peer is straining their synapses in concentration, their presence will automatically intensify the concentration of those around them. This impact was found to be consistent, regardless of whether the tasks at hand were easier/more difficult or similar/unrelated to each other.

With education and schooling being such an important yet competitive part of their lives, it is important your child is working hard and consistently. Children must focus to take in new information, as well as revise what they have learned in regular intervals. This act of information acquisition and regular retrieval is called spacing; and has been shown to boost test results by 10-30% in some studies. The act of learning and re-learning requires a huge amount of concentration for sustained periods.

Working with peers can enable your child to stay focused and motivated during these times. When children are under pressure, they find difficulty in keeping focus in particular. This can often be due to issues with low self-confidence or feelings of anxiety concerning upcoming exams or assessments. A bit of healthy competition with a friend of similar ability levels will help to remove negative feelings and help boost their self-esteem.

Many children continuously build good knowledge banks throughout each year, but at times their work-rate may falter, which can have serious knock-on effects if this happens during important periods such as examinations or performances. To get them to fully achieve their potential and peak at the right moments, it is highly recommended that they team up with a study buddy or two.

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Original content sourced from: 11 Plus London.