It’s the most frustrating, heart breaking thing in the world when your child is not thriving at their school and you don’t know why. Here are the five most common reasons at the core of poor grades, and a few suggestions to course correct the issue.

While there are many types of learners, teachers are fairly limited in the methods they can use to teach a particular subject. Your student may favor a hands-on (kinesthetic) approach, but the teacher may only be able to accommodate for a lecture and a few examples, leaving your child lost in the woods, or simply bored. Fortunately, this particular issue is an easy fix. Depending on your child’s learning style, there are a variety of techniques to tutor any given subject. Youtube and Pinterest are great resources for educational games and ideas.

Everyone has a subject they don’t like. Either your student feels he or she has already mastered the subject and has no vested interest in the material, or the material simply is not interesting. If the first, schools often offer screening for gifted and talented programs. Psychology Today also offers some wonderful resources and insight on how to gauge if and how far your child is ahead of the curve. If the second, try to find a way to relate the subject to their interests. It might be hard to get a History buff to care about Math, but if they hear the story of the life and times of Pythagoras, they might be a little more inclined to crunch some numbers.

Let’s be honest: even you procrastinate sometimes. It’s hard to get excited about work when just outside your window it’s warm and sunny. Try introducing a routine and don’t be afraid to add in 10-15 minute study breaks, maybe every hour or between subjects. After sitting through seven hours of school and two or three more hours of homework it’s easy to burn out. If you break up the work into parcels, it’s much easier to focus on the task at hand.

How do you study for a test when your dog has apparently eaten your notes with fava beans and a nice chianti? Set aside separate folders and notebooks for each subject and take a few minutes after homework and before bed organizing them. It also helps to have designated pockets in your child’s backpack for certain supplies, such as pencils and pens in one area, cell phone and wallet in another. For the hard luck cases, some tutoring services, such as Frog Tutoring, also offer organizational assistance as part of their tutoring packages.

Education is a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it is easy to get discouraged. Remind your student that there is no such thing as stupid; it’s only a matter of finding the best way to understand. Personal issues, such as bullying or major life events, may also affect how much focus he or she is putting on school. Generally speaking, the best way to solve these problems is to talk to and really listen to your child. About 90% of building a relationship with a student is just making sure that they understand that when they speak, they are heard.