1. Fear of teachers
2. Not being able to understand the teacher
3. Being bullied by peers/seniors.

1. Accept the child’s level of ability
2. Teach him study skills and help him to learn through game
3. Create congenial environment at home to facilitate learning
4. Talk with the child, his peer group and teachers, and redress any school environment related issues.

There are a number of psychological factors which can cause school difficulties: 

1. Environment - Family:

• Example: Ram belongs to a lower-middle class strata. His parents want him to do well in life, and he is admitted in a good public school with English medium of instruction. Ram is not able to comprehend as in his family nobody can speak English or help him to learn English. In his neighbourhood also he cannot get any help to learn English. They cannot afford a private tutor which is an additional economic constraint. As a result, Ram is not able to do well in the school and he refuses to go to school.
• This is an example of how family environment can lead to school difficulties. 
• Parent’s expectations are one of the leading causes in school difficulty. 
• Another example of family environment is where parents tell the child that he will be doing family business, so even if he does not score good marks, it will not make any difference.
• If some family members spend lot of time watching T.V. it can interfere with the child’s study. They do not provide proper environment to the child where he can concentrate on his studies.
• Alcoholism, conflicts amongst parents, lack of discipline, poor parenting and financial constraints can disturb the child and lead to poor concentration.

2. Environment - Friends and School:

• Children are greatly affected by environmental influences such as peers, friends etc.
• The peers of the child may have a negative influence on her or him, or may keep her or him occupied in non-academic activities for more than the desired amount of time.
• The school environment may also be non-conducive to the academic pursuits (such as fear of teachers, not being able to understand the teacher, being bullied by peers or seniors etc.) which may lead to poor school performance. 

3. Lack of motivation:

• The child may be lacking in motivation to study and perform. A few children have been found to show complete disinterest in studies, as they do not have any ambition and goals to be achieved.
• The child may be unaware of the long-term benefits of good performance and participation in school activities.
• This may or may not correlate with the family environment. Very high achieving parents can have unmotivated children.
• It could be related to child’s temperament of being lazy.

4. Faulty learning style

• The child may have a faulty approach to learning, where he superficially glances through the contents, does rote learning without understanding the subject. Or the child may go in depth of every topic.
• The good approach to learning is strategic learning where one studies in depth all the topics of high relevance and goes surface learning for unimportant topics.
• The child with faulty learning strategies may spend too much time on studies or too little, not leading to satisfactory output in exams.
• The child can develop a faulty learning style if parents do everything for him, like making notes, making him rehearse through rote learning.
• Private tutors in elementary class can also harm the child if right learning approach is not used.

5. Personality:

• Some studies have been carried out to see correlation between personality and academic performance.
• Introvert boys do much better in school whereas extrovert girls perform better in school.
• An introvert boy is less likely to waste time with friends and will be more focused on studies.
• An extrovert girl can learn better through group discussions and mutual inspiration.

6. Anxiety and expectations:

• It is a well-known fact that excessive anxiety disrupts performance.
• This may hold true in case of many children, who may complain of examination phobia, inability to write or recall in the examinations, despite preparing well.
• Anxiety interferes in performance, leading to results below expectations. 
• Also, parents or teachers may have high expectations from the child, which puts the child under stress and anxiety, leading to poor performance.

7. Poor attention span:

• Some children have been found to have poor attention span, and are easily distracted from their present work.
• Children who suffer from ADHD may show poor performance because of poor concentration and impulsivity.
• Such children may also miss out on noting down important information being given in the classroom, or paying attention to the concepts being clarified in the class.
• With poor focus and inattention, the child may require more time to complete his work. This may result in poor academic performance.

8. Conduct problems:

• Children with conduct problems demonstrate signs of aggression towards others, bullying, abusing, being constantly involved in fights with others, lying, stealing or violation of rules.
• The child who demonstrates such behaviours may try to gain attention of other children and teachers.
• They may show poor academic performance as most of the school time is spent in gang work. Such problems in children call for immediate psychological intervention.

9. Substance abuse:

• Conduct problems can be associated with substance abuse.
• Use of substances like tobacco, pan masala, illicit drugs, inhalants, ink removers and alcohol is on the rise in school children.
• Illicit drugs: Drugs whose manufacture, sale and consumption is strictly prohibited by law.
• With such habits the child’s studies may be neglected or hampered.
• Long-term use of substance can cause cognitive impairment, poor school performance and social withdrawal, in addition to other problems.

10. Stressful life events:

• Children also get affected by stressful life events and daily hassles.
• Stressful life events in a child’s life include transfer of father to another city, death of grandparents/parents, illness in family member, conflicts, separation of parents, academic failure or financial problems.
• These stresses may pose a serious threat for the child.
• Change of school is also very stressful for the child as he has to make place for himself in the new environment.
• The child may show signs of loss of concentration, decrease in interest in activities previously enjoyed, being lonely and sad, decrease in motivation etc. The child’s mental and physical energy may get totally absorbed in coping with these stressful events.
• These may together contribute towards decline in academic performance.