Dropping Out of Achievement

by Cassandra Ma, PhD

Cassandra Ma began by defining underachievement for the audience She made clear that she would narrow the term to it's psychological definition and use it in that sense only. By this definition, underachievement refers to children who are performing below their intellectual potential or below the standards that are set for their age or their grade level. Ma then went on to describe and discuss a cycle commonly known as the "cycle of underachievement".

For Ma, underachievement is one of the most painful problems that families encounter. She noted that this is particularly difficult for those families whose children have been diagnosed as having tremendous potential and yet are not living up to that potential. Underachievement is also one of those problems that, if not remediated, leads to a vicious, negative, self-reinforcing cycle.

Poor school performance can engender a variety of emotional symptoms and behavioral problems including but not limited to depression, withdrawal, and low motivation. When children underachieve and do poorly in school, they feel badly about themselves. One of the ways that children cope with these negative self-perceptions is by putting into operation a pattern of behavior that Ma termed "the sour grapes phenomenon". The famous parable of the wolf who failed to reach the grapes he desperately wanted and so consoled himself by telling himself that they were probably sour anyway, illustrates perfectly the pattern of behavior that underachieving children may start to employ. When they fail to achieve in school, they adapt and comfort themselves by minimizing the importance of school. Typically they will make statements like "I don't care that I failed that test because I don't care about that class" or "I don't care about that teacher". While Ma acknowledged that this behavior is self-protective, she also pointed out the way it can serve to reinforce this cycle, which can become never-ending and lead to further poor performance which, in turn, leads to a more serious negative self concept.

Ma summarized recent research about the relationship between self-esteem and school performance. This research suggests that children who feel badly about themselves more typically perform poorly at school and also report feeling less adequate than their peers. Children may label themselves "dumb" or express the belief that they're not really as smart as everyone else. It is vital to stop this cycle early on because if it continues it often leads to other negative behavior, withdrawing from classroom activities and interactions with peers. The research Ma quoted showed that children who see themselves in a negative light also tend to see others in a negative light. These children will see their teachers more negatively, which is ironic because often these are the people who could help them reverse this problem.

Ma identified four factors that contribute to initiating the pattern of underachievement.

Learning Disabilities: Ma defined a child as having a learning disability if the child performs at an achievement level which is two standard deviations below their intellectual abilities. In other words, if a child demonstrates a certain level of intellectual potential, but is performing way below that level, this may indicate that the child has a learning disability. The child may show great potential on an intelligence test that may not be reflected on an achievement test at school which tests skills acquired in subjects like reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, for example. The gifted population is estimated to be about 3% of the population nationally. Of that 3% , 5% demonstrate a gifted I Q plus a learning disability. Parents often wait too long before diagnosing this and Ma urges early detection of learning disabilities.

A poor fit between the child and the school placement: Not all schools have programs for children who are intellectually gifted. Children who are not challenged by and engaged in their studies will exhibit their frustration through boredom. When children report that they are bored in class, it is important to ascertain whether or not they are being adequately challenged in their particular school placement. Consistent boredom encourages children to develop attitudes such as "school or homework are not important" and therefore to disengage from classroom activities and learning in general. This then contributes to a further cycle of underachievement

Intentional Underachieving: Gifted children will sometimes underachieve to fit in and be accepted by their peers. They may feel different or isolated from classmates because they know things and think about them differently than most other children. Most children don't like to feel different and so when they do, their response is to pull away from that which they perceive to be making them different‹achievement. While some children are aware that they are intentionally underachieving, for most, it is an unconscious process. Children learn that the way to fit in is not to let their talents be apparent. While this is a syndrome that occurs in both boys and girls, the research literature suggests that it may account for the decline in achievement typically found for females around ages 10 to 12. Parents and educators of gifted girls need to pay particular attention to this possibility.

Family Dynamics and Emotional Struggles: There has been a good deal of research to show that gifted children process information differently than other children. For example, their processing is often faster than other children, and the way they approach problem solving is often noticeably more creative They may also be more persistent at learning tasks compared to other children. While this is a quality that parents often cherish in their children, it can also be a very frustrating one. Often when a parent is ready to get on with the next task, a child is still pondering the last task. To illustrate how frustrating this can be for a parent, Ma gave the example of a family with which she has worked. In this instance, the mother was having a dinner party and asked her child to put away a project he had been working on diligently in the dining room. Since he did not want to disrupt his project, he spent much time thinking about how to comply with his mother's request. After much thought, the 13 year old son came up with the following solution. He told his mother that he needed to go to the garage to get a jack to place under the folding table so that he could wheel it to his room and when the guests left, he could wheel it back without having disrupted the project at all. When faced with this kind of stubbornness, parents often, understandably, lose patience. They want to help their children develop their talents without squashing their creative abilities, yet practically, household tasks must get done. Parents of gifted children will often need help to deal with these kinds of challenges, i.e. how to show children that you value their problem solving without allowing them to disrupt or take over the household.

Ma went on to discuss some of the interventions parents and educators can employ to address the problem of underachievement.

Ma noted that the time of onset of underachievement can provide us with clues about how to assist the child Although it can occur at any point in development, there are three main developmental stages at which the cycle of underachievement is more likely to begin and each may have a different, underlying cause.

The first period of onset of underachievement which is around pre-school through third grade. The problem starts when the child really does try hard, but somehow cannot master the mechanics of something like reading. If this is not addressed, the child may simply lose hope and interest in achieving. Early remediation is the best intervention in this scenario. While this may seem obvious, often learning disabilities in gifted children are unremediated for a long time precisely because they're performing so well in other areas. Often gifted children can be very verbally precocious and so teachers and parents don't identify that there is a learning disability. It is vital to identify these early causes of underachievement so that the cycle does not become entrenched.

Second, there is a stage of underachievement that typically begins during the middle years and junior high school. At this point, the cause would not necessarily be a learning disability but is more likely to be an expression of an emotional struggle for the child, for example, a family move or a divorce may cause the child to become confused and to be distracted from achieving. If the problem is not addressed, this emotional struggle can be greatly exacerbated when the child enters high school.

Third, underachievement may appear at the beginning of high school. This is a period of development when children are particularly vulnerable to issues of identity and the press of the peer culture. Children may begin to underachieve in order to gain peer acceptance. Also, there is a great shift in what is expected from a child from junior high to high school. Expectations for independent study and the amount of homework greatly increase. If children have not had to study to achieve good grades, they may be overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy when high marks do not come easily. Gifted children sometimes miss out on learning how to learn, which is in itself a complex task and therefore are unable to succeed in high school. For these gifted children, it is very difficult to adjust. When they start to do poorly in school, their very identity as gifted children is thrown into question.

The first way to assist your child through the cycle of underachievement is to look for the positives in your child. Parents need to reassure the child that the area of underachievement is only one component of their lives. Parents should reward children for the excellence they achieve in other arenas, thereby helping them to bring the confidence they have in that sphere to the area in which they are underachieving.

Ma also recommends psychological evaluations of the child. The psychological assessment will help to tease out whether the underachievement is related to an emotional problem, a developmental problem, or a learning disability. Psychological evaluations are also important in measuring a child's intellectual abilities and potential and how these relate to actual achievement.

Ma recommends is that parents educate themselves about their resources in the school system. It is important to learn what is available in the local school and if the school does not offer appropriate services for gifted children, parents should speak with individual teachers and get assistance.

Parents should also encourage their child's participation in extra-curricula activities, for example, sports, clubs, or involvement in enrichment classes. Often parents make the mistake of thinking that if underachievement is the problem, the child should stay home and study more, but in fact, other kinds of intellectual enrichment can help the child bring some of what they've learned outside of school to their in-school work. When children are stimulated in arenas other than school, for example, through peer interactions in an activity they are interested in, they can become excited about learning and take that energy back into the classroom.

Research has shown that it is sometimes discouraging for parents to deal with children who are so challenging in terms of their emotional and intellectual needs. Often gifted children learn things in areas their parents know nothing about and this can raise insecurities for the parents. Sometimes children feel that they should fail rather than succeed in order not to displease or distress their parents. One of the things parents can do to prevent this problem is to find an area you can both learn about together The project may be as simple as buying a botany book, going for weekly walks with your child, and studying a plant that you encounter. When children learn with their parents, they pick up their parent' enthusiasm and try harder to please them. This has obvious benefits for both parents and children.

Cassandra Ma, PhD, is a Senior Staff Therapist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University.