When Online School Does More Harm Than Good

This video is for those of you who are feeling stressed about the online schooling situation for your young child, child with special needs, or child who for whatever reason is struggling. For those of you who are beating yourselves up over not being able to make this work. And for those of you not sleeping at night thinking about how you’re going to get your child to sit and do online learning tomorrow.

I want to give you permission right now to step back, take a big deep breath, and realize that it’s not you. It’s not your child. This is not something that’s wrong with you or your child. You are being asked to do something that is not appropriate in the first place!

For most families, what’s being offered are developmentally inappropriate practices and requirements pretending to be “school” and “learning”. These options aren’t meeting the learning and development needs of your kids. They are actually creating harm by massively increasing the stress and overwhelm and processing demands. They are breaking down the relationship between you and your child because of all the stress and unreasonable expectations.

Trying to force yourself and your child to participate in inappropriate online school options is probably taking you in a worse direction than not having anything provided at all. And you need to feel empowered to do something different.

Watch the video above to hear more of my candid thoughts about all of this, and what I think parents should do. This was originally done as a Facebook live at the start of the 2020-2021 school year, and has resonated with thousands of parents around the world.

What You Should Do Next:

Sign up for my Better Behavior Naturally community newsletter

Sign up for my newsletter to get tips, resources, and supports to improve your child’s attention, anxiety, mood, and behavior…while making your job as a parent easier.

Enroll in one of my workshops

Check out one of my many workshops where you’ll join my exclusive community of parents in a one-of-a-kind virtual resource accessible 24/7. Whether you’ve got a child with a diagnosis like autism or ADHD, or are becoming more and more frustrated with a child who struggles to listen and cope, these workshops are designed to give you the information, tools, and support you need…whenever you need it.

Related Posts

School Consult

School Consultation Highlights: What is Going Right

I’ll be honest. I was not looking forward to the 3-hour school consultation on my schedule for one morning recently. ...
Read Post
Contagious Stress

Contagious Stress

Stress is no stranger to parents of children with special needs; but did you know that new research shows stress ...
Read Post
Autism Spectrum Disorder More Than Genes

Research Review: Autism Spectrum Disorder – More Than Just Genes

An important study released this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that environmental factors play a ...
Read Post