Underachievement

Much of the information in this packet is from Bright Minds, Poor Grades: Understanding and Motivating Your Underachieving Child

by Michael D. Whitley, Ph.D.

A list of references can be found at the end of the packet.

What is underachievement?

Definition: a student who has shown exceptional performance on a measure of knowledge and skills, but who performs significantly lower than average on school-related tasks for the age or grade level, as evidenced by grades and teacher reports.  (Clark)

What is an underachiever?

General characteristics of underachievers:

·        They are bright: they don’t put out effort necessary for success.

·        They lack persistence even when they want to do well.

·        Underachievement is a chronic problem and will not just go away by itself.

·        Underachievement usually occurs in more than one area of life.

·        Underachievers do not do ordinary tasks.

Character problems for underachievers:

·        They lack self-discipline.

·        They fail to accept responsibility for themselves.

·        Underachievers do not sacrifice for the future.

·        They are dependent in their work.

·        They fear feelings of personal responsibility.

·        Underachievers make excuses that keep them irresponsible.

·        They lie to themselves and others.

·        They lack self-mastery.

·        Underachievers lack insight and self-knowledge.

“The crucial truth parents must grasp is that their underachieving children are highly motivated to do exactly what they do: fail.  It is not that these kids openly seek out failure.  Far from it…” (Whitley)

Where does underachievement come from?

          Some possible causes of underachievement are the personality of the child, the behavior of the parents or some other home-related problems, or the classroom.  However, underachievement is a learned behavior and is therefore possible to remediate or prevent.  (Clark)

          …”A pervasive cause of underachievement among the gifted is the fear of rejection because of their high intelligence.  They can decide surprisingly early to hide their abilities in order to conform.  Adolescent girls are especially at risk, feeling they must choose between academic excellence and intimacy.

          “Some find that after several years of not performing, they have missed some basic skills.  Suspecting and fearing that they are no longer able to perform at a high level, they resist trying.  For them, underachievement has become a pattern that will be hard to break.”  (Halsted)

What can parents do to help?

Fundamental principles for parents and disciplines for change: (mostly from Whitley)

·        Parents work together

·        Parents set the values

·        Make no excuses

·        Change the child, not the environment

·        Life is tough

·        Create a parenting philosophy

·        Be a totally positive parent

·        End lying about school

·        Establish the “work must be done” policy

·        No grades below a C

·        Encountering resistance and dependency – who’s the boss?

·        The Socratic dialogue technique

·        Develop persistence

·        Promote resilience

The Ten-Step Program – a technique and discipline that is the heart and soul of changing the character patterns of underachievers and helping them become independent and successful individuals. (Whitley)

1.    Establish values of honesty, trust, and truth.

2.    Set long-term and short-term goals.

3.    Explore how goals will be achieved.

4.    Select one problem and explore your child’s perspective.

5.    Link your child’s problem to goal attainment or failure.

6.    Help your child make concrete plans to solve achievement problems.

7.    Redefine success and failure as following his own plans – analyze the decisions he must make to succeed or fail.

8.    Initiate introspection – explore conflicts and feelings about following his plans.

9.    Cement commitments to follow through on plans.

10.     Perform follow-up and a sequence analysis of his specific decisions to succeed or fail.

 References

Clark, Barbara. Growing Up Gifted, Seventh Edition. 2008, Pearson

Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Halsted, Judith Wynn. Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding

Gifted Readers from Preschool to High School, 2^nd Edition.

2002, Great Potential Press. Scottsdale, AZ.

Watts, Jean. In Search of Perspective. 1989, Ohio Psychology Press.

Dayton, OH.

Whitley, Michael. Bright Minds, Poor Grades: Understanding and

Motivating Your Underachieving Child. 2001, Penguin Group Inc. New York.