#41 - Is My Child Lazy? Why Students Avoid Work and What Actually Helps

About this episode

This episode explores the reasons behind student procrastination and offers insights into how to help children overcome it.

Have you ever looked at your child, perfectly capable, intelligent and full of potential, and wondered why they delay starting their work? Many parents describe this behaviour as laziness. But more often than not, something else is driving that behaviour. In this episode, I unpack what is really going on when students procrastinate or struggle to begin their work. Drawing on neuroscience, psychology and learning science, we explore why simply telling a child to try harder rarely works and what actually helps. You will learn why starting a task is often the hardest step, how executive function and planning skills affect a student’s ability to organise their work and why factors such as cognitive overload and mental fatigue can create behaviours that look like low effort from the outside. 🎙️ In this episode, you’ll learn: ✅ Why the word “lazy” is rarely an accurate explanation for academic procrastination ✅ How executive function and planning skills influence a child’s ability to start and organise work ✅ Why motivation often follows action and not the other way around ✅ What activation energy means in behavioural science and how reducing it helps students begin tasks ✅ How…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Anna York-Weaving

Topics covered

• procrastination
• executive function
• motivation
• cognitive load
• academic performance

Keywords

• laziness
• academic procrastination
• planning skills
• activation energy
• mental fatigue

More episodes of Academic Coaching for Parents with Dr Anna York-Weaving

• #47 - The Psychology of Eating: How Children Develop Their Relationship with Food with Professor Jane Ogden · June 12, 2026 · 39 min
• #46 - Understanding Disconnection in Children and How Parents Can Help with Amber Chandler · June 2, 2026 · 56 min
• #45 - Struggling to Support Your Child During Exams? A Practical Guide to Revision Season · May 13, 2026 · 15 min
• #44 - How to Teach Critical Thinking to Teenagers in a World of Social Media & Misinformation with Dr Maree Davies · May 7, 2026 · 57 min
• #43 - GCSE & A-Level Exam Stress: Is Your Child Revising Properly? · March 25, 2026 · 10 min
• #42 - Why Working Less Makes You More Productive with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang · March 13, 2026 · 1h 18m