“Have you checked it?”

“Yes...”

Every parent has had this conversation.

Your child finishes their homework, you ask whether they’ve checked it, they say they have, and then you glance at it and immediately spot three missing full stops, ten spelling mistakes and a sentence that appears to have wandered off halfway through and never come back.

So what’s going on? Are they being lazy?

No, not necessarily.

The truth is that most children are not naturally good at checking their own work. And there are a couple of very understandable reasons why.

Do you have a child who always seems to be in a hurry? Whether it’s finishing homework, racing through piano practice or rushing around the playground, some children seem to function at full speed all the time. While enthusiasm and energy are wonderful traits, rushing can often mean mistakes, missed details or frustration. Often, children rush because they want to get something over with. You might see it when they immediately put their pen down the second they finish the last sum on the page or when they write that final full stop and call out, “Done!” before really checking their work.