Ways to support your child during online classes

Support a child in online classes by listening when they report problems, talking with the teacher directly, requesting lesson material in advance so they can prepare, and setting up a quiet dedicated study spot at home. Celebrate small wins and coach organisation gently; screens make learning harder for many children, hardest for those with learning difficulties.

The pandemic made online classes universal, more than 1.5 billion children were affected by school closures worldwide, and though classrooms have reopened, online learning has stayed: tuition, hybrid classes, sick days and online courses all still put children in front of screens for lessons. India’s Lockdown Learning report by Vidyasaarathi captured the load at its peak: 60% of students spent one to four hours a day on e-learning, 31% spent four to eight, and 79% studied on a smartphone. Four or five classes a day through a phone screen is genuinely hard work, and hardest of all for children with learning difficulties.

Online, a parent inherits pieces of the teacher’s job, because the child has no physical contact with one. Knowing where the difficulties come from makes the job manageable.

Why do children struggle in online classes?

Survey data from the online-learning period found 31% of students struggling to focus and 12% unable to get doubts clarified. Two mechanisms drive most of it:

Disconnect from the teacher. Without physical interaction, communication squeezes through an interface or written messages. Many children cannot express their difficulty through that channel, so the real problem stays masked.

Writing against the clock. Copying or writing within a short online class is difficult for many children; they finish late or not at all, feel left out, and carry the stress forward. For children with handwriting challenges or other learning difficulties, this pressure multiplies.

How should you respond when your child reports a problem?

First, listen. Never brush off a child who says something is hard; understanding the problem from their side is the whole foundation. Then:

1. Discuss it with the teacher. They are the other half of the interaction, and between you a solution usually exists.
2. Request lesson material beforehand. A child who has previewed the lesson attends it with less anxiety, keeps pace at their own speed, and stops feeling left behind.
3. Ask the teacher to avoid putting your child on the spot. A stressed child freezes in the spotlight; a one-on-one check-in after class gets the same information kindly.

How can you help from home?

Give them a fixed place for classes. Comfortable, and free of disturbance. Once the spot becomes “the class spot,” settling into lessons gets easier by habit.

Help them organise, without doing it for them. Sit with them during homework, read out the instructions, and show the process rather than supplying answers. Help them prioritise; the routine and scheduling skills that grow from this outlast the online classes themselves.

Talk about the classes and prepare them. Assure them you are there for support, but engage them in reaching the result rather than making them dependent on you.

Celebrate small wins throughout the day. Applaud effort, tell them they did well, and teach one small step at a time instead of pressurising. Progress that is noticed repeats itself.

On a screen, a struggling child is easy to miss: the camera shows attendance, not understanding. At home, you are the one person close enough to see the difference.

Watch for signs of distress or behaviour changes whenever screen learning is heavy, and treat them as information, the same way you would guard their emotional health in any other season.

Dr. V.S. Gayathri is a Certified Dyslexia Therapist, an Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist, and the founder of Flourishing Kids. She has delivered over 4,000 hours of one-to-one reading and spelling intervention, helping children across multiple countries build stronger literacy skills. much of it online. If online learning exposed gaps that have not closed, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.