Q: I have a fifth-grade daughter, who up until this year had been an A and B student. This year, she is bringing home papers and tests with D's and F's on them. She says she forgets to bring material home from school to study and makes careless mistakes. I've asked her whether she has problems in school, and her answer is always "no." She seems to like school, her teachers and her friends. One of her problems is that she doesn't know how to prioritize her work or organize herself. Do you have any suggestions as to what I might do to help her? I've asked her teacher for some help and guidance, but her teacher says they want the children to learn to be responsible for their work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A: I'm glad you asked this question at the start of this problem. Fifth grade seems to be a classic grade for some children to begin an underachieving pattern similar to the one you've described for your daughter. Two changes happen concurrently. The first change is that the curriculum usually becomes considerably more difficult, including more homework and harder grading than earlier years. The second issue is that in many schools, there's peer pressure to underachieve, and A's may no longer be considered cool by the other children her age.

You can begin by asking your daughter how her friends feel about good grades. If she admits that she feels peer pressure, this is a good time to have a talk with her about always doing her best and about how important good performance will be for the rest of her life. If that isn't the issue, you can say, "Fifth grade is a more difficult grade, so don't be disappointed in yourself. You have to work harder this year. Most kids work harder to keep good grades." Show your daughter how to use her assignment notebook, and help her create a simple system she can use to stay organized. Ask her to routinely check the notebook before she leaves school to be sure she has packed all of the needed materials for her homework. When she gets home, have her unload her backpack and sort what she needs for each assignment. As she completes each part of her homework, have her check it off the list and place it back in her school bag. When the pile is gone, she's done, and she'll feel more organized. If you go over the routine with her a few times, she will feel reassured and supported and will be able to manage the routine independently as her teacher expects.

To help her with her careless mistakes, suggest she check things over twice and let you look over her work when she's done. If you see a few mistakes, you can point them out to her. If she's done careful work, tell her you're proud of her improvement, and play a board game with her after her homework's done.

If these simple approaches don't take care of the problem, I suggest you read more about underachievement in my book "Why Bright Kids Get Poor Grades" to determine whether your daughter fits into the underachievement patterns I've described. If you need help beyond the book, consult with a psychologist to determine whether there are other underlying difficulties.

Dr. Sylvia B. Rimm is the director of the Family Achievement Clinic in Cleveland, a clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the author of many books on parenting. More information on raising kids is available at www.sylviarimm.com. Please send questions to: Sylvia B. Rimm on Raising Kids, P.O. Box 32, Watertown, WI 53094 or srimm@sylviarimm.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.