Children fall behind in school for many different reasons, some of which are easy to identify. The upheaval of moving home or switching to a new school, bereavement, health issues, or even vision problems can all have an understandable impact on a child’s academic performance.
But sometimes the reasons are not so clear. Children can fall behind when they seem “fine” on the surface, when they behave well in class, or when nothing has changed at home. They can also perform well in elementary school, only for their grades to drop when they transition to middle school. A child who’s falling behind in school can also react to that situation in different ways — from becoming anxious about their grades, to withdrawing from school and family life, to having an emotional “overreaction” to small changes in their routine.
It’s a complex situation to unpack. And when you don’t understand why a child has started to fall behind their peers academically or socially, it can take longer to put the right support strategies in place.
This post looks at:
- Some of the reasons why children typically fall behind in school, including academic and social situations that they may not be equipped to navigate
- Strategies to help children keep up in school and learn the skills they need to thrive
- The approach we take at Fusion Academy, a private middle and high school offering a personalized, SEL-focused education
The one-to-one learning methodology at Fusion Academy helps children who have fallen behind in school close gaps in their learning and recover both their grades and their passion for learning. Fusion Academy has over 80 middle and high school locations across the country, and Fusion Global Academy for remote learning. Find out more here.
Why Children Typically Fall Behind in School
While every situation is unique, school struggles can often be explained by the reasons we’ll explore here. Once you identify what’s going on beneath the surface — or what combination of problems is in play — you’ll be in a stronger position to help your child get back on track.
They Struggle to Utilize Executive Functioning Skills
Executive function is the set of skills children use to manage their schoolwork, emotions, and behavior in school. We sometimes describe executive function as the brain’s air traffic control system. Think of skills like:
- Organizing, prioritizing, and beginning new tasks
- Focusing, sustaining, and shifting their attention
- Utilizing working memory to recall information
- Managing frustration, monitoring their emotions, and self-regulating
Importantly, no one is born with these skills. They develop over time, and they have to be modeled and practiced. The problem is, traditional schools typically don’t have the time or resources to teach executive function skills. Although they come more naturally to some children than others, those who take longer to master the skills can become frustrated and may see their grades slip.
We notice a lot of children start to fall behind because of their executive function skills when they transition from one school to another.
For example, elementary schools have a clear routine, and teachers spend a lot of time reminding students what’s coming up next, what equipment they’ll need, and so on. Most of that scaffolding is taken away when a child moves to middle school, where teachers expect students to work more independently and take responsibility for organization. When this change in expectations sparks issues in one area (for example, when a child has a hard time transitioning from one classroom to another and struggles with task initiation), it can compound issues in others (for example, managing feelings of stress).
Strategies to Strengthen Executive Function Skills
To support a child as they develop their executive function skills, start by reframing the issue. If a child struggles with executive function, your job is not to motivate them to work harder; it’s to put effort into developing the skills. Pediatrician Dr. Damon Korb puts it like this: “Like any muscle, the executive functions grow and can be built over time … Every child wants to be successful. Those that aren’t just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.”
To practice executive function skills at home, try:
- Creating optimal conditions for learning new skills. Children, particularly if they’re feeling overwhelmed in school, need time to recalibrate before they can apply executive function skills again. This decompression time isn’t typically possible during classes, so they may need time for it after school. Give space for them to recharge before asking them to focus on organization or homework — whether that’s with time alone in their room, time outside or with friends, or by engaging their large muscle groups in sport or exercise before you encourage them to sit down and study.
- Teaching specific strategies and tools. Some families have success with visual checklists to help kids organize their school supplies for the next day. Other children find homework planners helpful as long as someone sits down and shows them how to use these strategies effectively.
- Practicing naming and talking about emotions as well as organizational strategies. When you model how to speak about and regulate emotions — and give a child time and freedom to express their own feelings — you help them strengthen the skills they need to succeed throughout the school day. Home should be a safe space to do this. As Dr. Korb states, “You have to give your kids the opportunity to struggle and fail when they’re home around you. That’s when you want them to fail.”
Find out more about executive function and how to build the skills in the Fusion Academy Learning Differently Podcast.
They Have a Learning Difference
Learning differences can also be the root cause of a child falling behind in school, particularly if that learning difference is diagnosed late. For example, at Fusion, we often meet with families who have seen their children struggle in school because they have:
- Dyslexia, which affects language processing and makes it difficult to decode words, spell, or read fluently. Similarly, dyscalculia affects a student’s ability to understand numerical information, and dysgraphia affects writing.
- According to the International Dyslexia Association, as many as 15–20% of the population have some of the symptoms of dyslexia.
- See our post on the best schools for students with dyslexia.
- ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder), a difference in how the brain manages attention, memory, and self-regulation.
- An estimated 11.4% of U.S. Children aged 3–17 have been diagnosed with ADHD.
- Autism, which can cause a range of difficulties in communication, sensory processing, and navigating unfamiliar environments and social situations.
- 1 in 31 children in the U.S. has autism, with boys 4 times more likely to be diagnosed.
- See our post on the best schools for students with autism.
- Sensory Processing disorder, which means students process stimulation like light, sound, and touch more or less intensely than their neurotypical peers.
- See our post on the best schools for sensory processing disorder.
By some definitions, gifted students also have a learning difference, as they need a unique educational approach to reach their full potential.
Learning disabilities are often diagnosed at the start of a child’s school career — for example, through dyslexia screening in kindergarten. However, students may go undiagnosed for much longer. The classic example here is of a girl with ADHD or autism. Girls are typically able to “mask” symptoms more effectively than boys, at least until their school work and school environment become more intense in middle school or high school.
When learning differences go undiagnosed, the effects can be profound — impacting not only a child’s grades but also their self-esteem. Without early support, students move through the school system without understanding what makes them “different.” As a result, anxiety about school often grows, and depending on how their learning difference presents, they may even experience bullying.
Strategies to Support Children with Learning Differences in School
If you suspect your child is falling behind because of a learning difference, diagnosis is the first step. When the underlying condition is named, you can put the right support strategies in place and help your child understand why they’ve been experiencing school struggles.
It’s important to partner with your child’s school and share information so adjustments can be made. For example, many diagnoses can lead to children receiving accommodations such as extra time on tests or access to multisensory learning tools, such as speech-to-text software, for their schoolwork.
Knowing a learning difference is in play can also help you build a stronger support team around your child as they catch up with their peers. For example, if you know your child has a sensory processing difference, you can look for tutors with specific knowledge and experience of how that impacts your child’s learning preferences and the environment they need to succeed.
Again, struggles relating to learning differences are neurological. It’s not about children “being difficult” and they shouldn’t be expected to “tough it out.” Joie Laykoff, the Senior Director of Teaching and Learning at Fusion Academy, told us, “Their behavior is not intended to disrupt and to be problematic. No child wants all that negative attention on them … These children are just trying to find regulation.”
They’re Experiencing Social Struggles
Social life is an essential part of the school experience. Friendships are so inseparable from a child’s education that they can easily affect their academic performance. What’s more, as students grow, they must learn to navigate increasingly complex social dynamics, including:
- Building new friendships, especially in a new school or classroom
- Managing emotions when friendship circles shift or change
- Adapting to different teaching styles and expectations across classes
- Handling difficult situations such as bullying or social isolation
All these situations have the potential to cause anxiety about attending school. In turn, this can impact a child’s academic progress and cause them to fall behind.
Dr. Martha Shinn is a psychologist and expert on anxiety. She explains how anxiety, whether around social situations or academic demands, “hijacks” the brain and makes it incredibly difficult for students to concentrate and retain information. As she puts it, “In the same way that it is when you’re frantically looking for your keys … try learning under those conditions!”
Learn more about school anxiety and strategies to manage it here: Student Anxiety and School Podcast: Why it Happens and How Parents and Educators Can Help
Identifying Children Who Need Additional Support
Executive function challenges, learning differences, and social struggles can all lead to children falling behind in school. But even when you start to figure out what’s going on beneath the surface, it’s common to second-guess the next steps.
For many parents, it’s hard to make a call on whether a child needs extra support at home (for example, from a tutor) or whether it’s time to speak with the school’s intervention team or the child’s healthcare provider.
In our experience, there’s likely something deeper going on when:
- A child’s emotional reactions are abnormally large for the situation. We expect kids and teens to have big emotions, but if they’re showing a change from their “normal,” the reason for the outburst might be more complex than your child can immediately explain.
- They seem “tuned out.” If you feel like you’re repeating yourself even when your child is looking right at you, or if your child can’t explain what happened in school because they haven’t retained the information, it can be a sign that they’re dissociating as a protective mechanism.
- They take several months to regain information lost over the summer. While it’s natural for students to forget some of what they learned in the previous school year, it can be an issue if this is causing them to fall behind.
- They’re still not progressing despite the opportunities to do so. If your first-line strategies (talking to your child’s teacher, sitting with your child as they do their homework, etc.) aren’t helping them catch up or re-engage with school, they may need more support to get them back on track.
How Fusion Academy Can Help
Fusion Academy is a fully accredited private middle and high school. We offer tutoring, classes-for-credit, summer options, full-time programs, and more at over 80 campuses across the U.S. and fully online with the Fusion Global Academy. The education program at Fusion is fully customizable. We use a personalized, one-to-one approach, which makes Fusion an ideal solution for students who have fallen behind in the traditional public school setting.
At Fusion, students learn one-to-one (one teacher and one student) while also benefiting from small group experiences that support their growth. Whatever the reason a child has fallen behind, and however many different factors are in play, this model is ideal for students who need extra support to close the gaps in their learning and catch up to their grade level.
When they work together one-to-one:
- Teachers personalize the curriculum to the child in front of them and the academic struggles that have caused them to fall behind. This targeted approach identifies the areas where students need a more in-depth review of a topic, helping them catch up more quickly.
- Teachers adjust their approach to the individual child, their learning differences, and their preferences. This helps students engage with and retain information covered in class.
- Teachers mentor students in areas beyond their subject knowledge. For example, a teacher can coach a child in executive function skills and take the time to help them understand how their brain processes information. This improves their self-confidence as well as their academic performance.
- Students have continual opportunities to ask questions and advocate for themselves, for example, when they want to adjust the pace to review a concept or to explore it in more depth.
Students who are falling behind in school are sometimes overlooked simply because they can’t advocate for themselves in a busy classroom. At Fusion, they learn in a safe, open, and encouraging setting where everything — from the pace of the lesson to the environment it’s delivered in — can be adjusted to meet a student’s needs.
“I came to Fusion after a year of not consistently being in school and two to three years of high anxiety and depression in response to a traditional school environment … The individualized learning environment at Fusion, as well as the school’s flexibility in scheduling and deadlines, proved to be exactly what I needed. The teachers are extraordinarily attentive to student needs and are endlessly supportive … The way classes are taught at Fusion makes me feel that I am learning valuable information and skills in order to meet my goals … Fusion has helped me to get my education back on track and feel better about what I’m doing in the process.”
– Abigail C., Fusion Academy Student
There are multiple ways to learn at Fusion: in person, online, or as a hybrid. Now, we’ll discuss our range of tutoring programs, the Fusion Academy summer programs, and our full-time options.
Tutoring Programs
When a child is falling behind in school, tutoring is one of the first interventions to try. A tutor can explain course material differently from the child’s teacher, answer their questions, and encourage them to review and practice the material until they master it.
Like classes at Fusion, tutoring is one-to-one and customizable. Our tutoring programs are not based strictly on a child’s grade level or a certain textbook, but on what that student needs to help them achieve their academic goals and recover their enthusiasm for learning.
We currently offer customizable tutoring packages, like tutoring packages focused on math or reading and writing. Students can also bring their own school material into the tutoring sessions.
To try tutoring, we offer an Introductory 5-Pack of Customized Tutoring for families who are new to Fusion. This is an economical way to see our personalized learning model in action. You can schedule tutoring in the morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on your child’s schedule. If it’s a good fit, you can choose to continue with longer packages of 10, 20, or 30 sessions.
Fusion also offers Reading and Math Remediation Programs for students with significant learning gaps in these core skills. Currently, we offer two reading remediation programs depending on where a student’s skills measure according to standardized tests:
- The Reading Skills and Strategies program for students between the 15th and 40th percentiles
- The Structured Literacy Program for students at the 15th percentile or below
Reading Skills and Strategies is our flagship program. It blends one-to-one support from a Fusion teacher with the Lexia PowerUp Literacy software platform, which gamifies and reinforces the building blocks of literacy. Classes are roughly half self-study and half teacher-led instruction.
For math remediation, we offer a class for students in 6th grade or higher who have reached at least a 4th-grade level in the subject. This class supplements their regular school math class with direct instruction from a Fusion teacher and the ALEKS online math skills platform.
In these remediation programs, students attend two classes per week either at a Fusion campus or online, and generally need to spend 30 hours in classes to complete a course successfully.
“Before I came to Fusion, I felt defeated and drained of trying in school. Nothing was working, and I was depressed and unmotivated constantly. When I came to Fusion, I found both an academically and emotionally supportive environment for the first time in my life. I was in 10th grade, and for the first time, I felt what it was like to thrive and be proud of who I had become. I give a large part of that credit to Fusion for fostering that strength and journey.”
Summer Programs
Summer is an opportunity for students to catch up, get ahead, or even plan for the future. If your child had a tough semester or a difficult school year, summer is the perfect time to help them get back on track.
Our summer programs include:
- Summer classes for credit in core and elective subjects like math, science, English, history, and world languages. These courses can be completed in as little as four weeks.
- Small group classes for credit, where students learn in a group of 2–5 students that balances personalization with collaboration. Popular small group classes include algebra, Spanish, biology, studio art, and United States history.
- Summer remediation and enrichment, where students review important topics and build key skills.
All these options also have the benefit of keeping learners engaged over summer. This smooths the back-to-school transition and helps them start the new school year strong.
Full-time Personalized Learning at Fusion Academy
There are also cases where students have fallen behind in their current school, and a new school is their best option. Changing schools is never an easy decision, and it can feel like a drastic step. But when a child is falling behind because of sustained issues with bullying, because their school can’t meet their educational needs or accommodate their learning difference, or because their mental health is suffering to the point where they refuse to attend school at all, a fresh start is an option worth exploring.
Fusion offers open enrollment throughout the school year, and it’s not uncommon for families to approach us when their child is simply not thriving in their current school.
In contrast to the vast majority of both public and private schools, our school setting is:
- Designed entirely around the individual student. Each learner’s plan begins with in-depth conversations with the student and their family, along with standardized tests to determine their current level in key subjects. This information allows us to tailor the curriculum, materials, and teaching approach to each student’s learning needs, strengths, interests, and areas for growth. Scheduling is also flexible. Students can condense or space out their classes to match their personal rhythms and preferences.
- Built on a culture of mentoring. Teachers see the whole student, adapt to the way the student shows up to class on any given day, and focus on building all the skills they need to succeed.
- Close-knit. Fusion campuses typically don’t exceed 100 students, and because of our flexible scheduling, it’s rare for all those students to be in the building at the same time. This makes it easier for students to find their place in school, make meaningful connections with other learners, and decompress during the school day when needed. We also offer a vibrant program of student clubs, volunteer opportunities, and field trips to foster the community spirit.
A great example of this philosophy is the Homework Café, which is the hub of our brick-and-mortar campuses. All students have a scheduled time in the Homework Café equal to the time they spend in class. If they have homework to complete, they can do it in this space, so schoolwork doesn’t have to go home. Teachers are on hand if they have questions, and the space is overseen by the Director of Student Life.
Fusion campuses have one quiet Homework Café and one Social Homework Café, where student clubs and meetings are held. This is an opportunity for students to connect with their peers, pursue their personal interests, or try new activities and leadership roles, as our clubs are often student-led. We see this time as essential to a student’s social-emotional learning.
“I spent my previous years with horrible grades, no friends, and I was just all-around sad. The minute I came to Fusion, I knew I wanted to be here. I have better grades. I met my best friend, and all of the teachers are super sweet. I don’t think I would be able to graduate without going to Fusion, and I got into my top college because of Fusion.”
– Winter H., Fusion Academy Student
Find Out More About Learning at Fusion Academy
This post has highlighted the reasons children fall behind in school and some strategies that can help. Find out more about how Fusion Academy can support children as they catch up:
