When it comes to getting ready for senior year or setting up effective study habits around technology, we often hear parents say ‘…I’ve probably left it too late…’
For some parents, it’s more of an exculpatory excuse. They’ve already decided it’s too late, a lost cause. Because apparently, all teenagers can’t help but be distracted by technology that it’s impossible to address once they’re in high school.
Or at least, in their mind anyway.
Then, there is the vast majority of other parents — the ones who don’t really believe it’s too late.
Their parental instincts tell them there’s time to help their child improve. But they don’t know for sure or how to go about it.
And so, the remark is usually tacked on to whatever discussion, occasionally as a rueful afterthought — just in case I happen to confirm as an ‘independent expert on the subject’ that it is, indeed, irrevocably and immutably too late to change their child’s habits.
If you’ve ever had the same doubts or thought, ‘We probably should have started earlier, but I still want to support them and give them the best possible chance’, then you’re not alone.
And it is definitely NOT too late.
In this article, we unpack ways to help your child get the most out of technology without succumbing to distraction so they achieve higher marks and access to future opportunities.
Technology is NOT the Enemy of Effective Study Habits
If you’re a committed parent, you want your child to achieve strong academic results because that’s their ticket to a higher ATAR rank, the right university and course preference for the best future career and lifestyle.
But if your child can’t get anything done because they’d prefer to binge-watch the latest episodes on Netflix, keep hundreds of tabs open and constantly check their phone notifications online… that can be a problem. In trying to help your child develop the effective study habits your child needs to get their ideal results, it’s too easy to slip into pointing to technology or device use as the main culprit.
But technology and devices aren’t really the real problem to address here. Because it’s not the device itself you’re really worried about. It’s the distractions, procrastination, mental health issues, the getting sucked in and losing track of time for hours on end that result from your child’s seemingly insatiable attachment to their phones or laptops.
But seeing technology as the enemy isn’t going to help. In fact, a 2020 Gonski Institute for Education report found that educators are seeing more prolific use of technology in learning, with benefits both teachers and students can take advantage of. Even the Department of Education has created initiatives involving generative AI as a learning aid to support students and teachers that are designed with specific safeguards and filters for children’s safety. These represent real opportunities to engage in critical conversations with your child about how to respect the benefits and dangers of technology. You may not like what you hear at first but you might be surprised at how open and mindful they are—if you take the right approach.
Of course, new technology doesn’t come without a broad range of challenges to overall student health and well-being. That’s why parents have such a critical role to play in helping children safely adopt new technology and guide them towards prioritising the productive powers of devices without succumbing to the darker pulls of temptation and distractions.
Tips for Effective Study Habits Around Technology
If your child struggles with distraction and procrastination around their phones and other devices, there are so many ways you can help them develop better, effective study habits without completely banning technology. Our strategy is to amplify their study effectiveness.
Here are some tips you can use to help your child develop effective study habits:
#1. Clear boundaries.
Make sure to set and enforce clear boundaries around technology together. Agree on things like how much screen time do they need for a quick break or when can they check their social media notifications?
Being a parent doesn’t mean you have to impose all the rules as a dictator. By having a conversation and discussing rules and boundaries together, you help your child learn self-regulation, and they should be able to enforce these boundaries on their own.
#2. Clarify the intentions.
Talk about the reasons behind your child’s use of devices and technology. Why are they online? When is it okay to be scrolling on TikTok? What kind of digital creators and content should they follow?
Technology and the internet are container dumps of all kinds of content and platforms without many filters for your teen. Clarifying the intentionality behind the platforms they’re on and the content they consume will help them self-select and responsibly take advantage of technology to improve their school outcomes.
#3. Clean the space and remove temptations.
If you’re on a weight loss journey and cookies or sweets are just right there on the countertop, it’s so easy to grab one or two and give in to temptation. The same applies to building effective study habits.
Clean up your child’s learning space of possible temptations. Can’t focus with notification sounds from their phone? Ask them to turn their phone off, put it in a sock, then wrap it in cling film and put it in a drawer in the garage. It might sound a bit ridiculous, but it works. Just like in weight loss, if you put the cookie jar at the back of the highest cupboard, there will be less temptation to grab it. And if your child doesn’t want to do it — well, that’s another fantastic opportunity right there to clarify intentions!
#4. Create a digital plan.
Having a digital plan helps you and your child manage all these things and amplify their study effectiveness for better school outcomes. This plan should be tailored to your child’s unique learning profile, needs and tendencies— otherwise, it’s not going to work.
You don’t have to figure this out on your own. Our education strategists at Kalibrate-Ed regularly brainstorm the ways to change teenage habits and can help you create a plan to help support your child in turning their distractions into effective study habits.
Managing digital devices is just the tip of the iceberg. To really amplify your child’s study effectiveness around technology, you need them to be organised, focused and self-motivated. But devices have a huge role to play in influencing success in each one of these domains.
If you’d like to start helping your child overcome distractions around technology and improve their learning without disenabling their critical learning skills, we’re running a live interactive session for parents of Year 7-12 students.
Join us in ‘Teens, Tech and Academic Success’, a FREE live session where we show you how to create a Digital Plan to help your child be focused and productive around digital devices without jeopardising their future opportunities.
Click below to check out the event details and register for your access link.
