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Dr. Arti Verma
- December 10, 2025
- Comment 0
7 Common Year 5 NAPLAN Preparation Mistakes
Parents Make and How to Fix Them
Introduction
Year 5 NAPLAN preparation can feel like an important stage for your child, but it is also a stage where many parents unintentionally take paths that increase stress. You want your child to feel confident. You want them to practise well. You want them to understand reading and numeracy clearly. But in the process, you may create emotional pressure without realising it.
Children understand your intentions, but they also interpret your tone, your expression, and your behaviour. A small reaction from you can feel very large to them. A simple comment can feel like a judgement. A gentle reminder can feel like pressure. Year 5 children are highly sensitive to the emotional environment around them.
The truth is that most parents do not make preparation mistakes because they lack care. They make mistakes because they want to do everything right. They want to help. But sometimes help becomes overwhelming. Sometimes guidance becomes pressure. Sometimes enthusiasm becomes expectation.
The good news is that every mistake can be corrected with small changes in the way you respond and interact during Year 5 NAPLAN preparation. When you understand the emotional and psychological side of learning, you begin to guide your child in a calmer and healthier way.
Below are the seven most common mistakes parents make and clear explanations of how you can fix each one in a way that reduces stress, builds confidence, and makes preparation smoother for your child.
Mistake 1: Creating emotional pressure without realising it
Children respond far more to your behaviour than to the actual reading or numeracy task in front of them. Even if you do not intend to create pressure, your child may sense it through very subtle cues. A deep exhale, a change in tone, a quick correction, or a tense expression can send a message that they are disappointed in you. This is never your intention, but this is how children interpret emotional signals.
Emotional pressure can make even simple tasks feel difficult. The moment a child feels judged, their thinking becomes defensive. They worry about your reaction more than the actual question. Their mind moves from learning to avoiding mistakes.
A child under emotional pressure reads more slowly. They skip details. They misinterpret simple sentences. They rush through numeracy questions. They feel the need to prove themselves instead of understanding the question in a calm state.
How to fix it
Become aware of your tone and expressions during practice. Speak slowly and gently. Keep your eyebrows relaxed. Avoid fast corrections. Allow your child to finish their thought before you respond. Use reassuring lines such as let us work through this together or it is fine to pause or you are doing well.
When your child feels emotionally safe, their mind becomes clearer. Confidence increases. Stress reduces. Learning improves.
Mistake 2: Expecting perfection instead of encouraging progress
Perfection is one of the strongest emotional blocks for Year 5 children. Parents often hope for perfect answers, perfect behaviour, and perfect progress. You want your child to avoid errors. You want every practice session to be strong. But perfection creates fear. Children become hesitant to try challenging questions because they fear they will get them wrong.
Perfection also makes children dependent on external approval. They begin to measure their worth through results. This reduces creativity, curiosity, and risk-taking. Perfect practice does not build strong learners. Progress does.
When a child worries about getting everything correct, their confidence drops. They stop exploring different approaches. They stop thinking aloud. They stop enjoying the learning process. This reduces long-term growth.
How to fix it
Shift your mindset from correctness to improvement. Praise the effort, not the outcome. Celebrate small changes such as clearer handwriting, better focus, deeper thinking, or more patience with difficult questions. Tell your child that mistakes are part of growth. Tell them that you value their learning journey, not their score.
When your child sees that mistakes are safe, they try harder tasks without fear. Their learning becomes deeper and more stable.
Mistake 3: Giving too much busy work without deep learning
Many parents believe that the more worksheets their child completes, the better prepared they will be. This creates a lot of activity but very little understanding. Children complete tasks quickly without thinking carefully. Busy work leads to fatigue and frustration, not real progress.
Deep learning happens when your child engages with a task slowly and meaningfully. It happens when they explore why an answer works. It happens when they notice patterns, reflect on their reading, or explain their calculations. This type of thinking builds strong reading and numeracy skills that support Year 5 NAPLAN preparation.
Busy work creates the illusion of preparation. Real learning comes from reflection and reasoning.
How to fix it
Reduce quantity and increase quality. After each task, ask your child to explain how they arrived at their answer. Ask what they found easy. Ask what they found confusing. These conversations help your child process information fully.
Use fewer worksheets but allow deeper thinking. If your child understands deeply, they will perform better even with less practice.
Mistake 4: Comparing your child with others
Comparison is one of the most emotionally damaging patterns during Year 5 NAPLAN preparation. Many parents use comparison to motivate. You might say another child has finished more practice or another child is good at maths. But comparison rarely inspires. It usually discourages.
Children begin to believe they are behind or not good enough. They feel pressure to meet an invisible standard. Instead of focusing on their growth, they worry about how they look in your eyes. Comparison reduces self-esteem. It also increases fear of mistakes.
Comparison changes your child’s relationship with learning. They stop seeing improvement as a personal journey. They see it as a competition.
How to fix it
Remove comparison completely. Replace external benchmarks with personal benchmarks. Tell your child that you are focusing only on their growth. Use lines such as you are getting better each week or this is your journey or every child learns differently.
When your child feels valued for who they are, they gain confidence. Confident children learn better.
Mistake 5: Helping too quickly and reducing independent thinking
When your child struggles during practice, your instinct is to step in. You want to save time. You want to reduce frustration. You want to help. But if you help too quickly, your child loses the chance to think independently.
Independent thinking is essential for Year 5 NAPLAN preparation. During the assessment, your child sits alone and must interpret reading passages, analyse information, and solve numeracy problems without help. If they are always guided at home, the test environment feels unfamiliar.
Overhelping reduces resilience. Children give up quickly. They wait for your hints. They depend on your explanations instead of using their own reasoning.
How to fix it
Allow productive struggle. Give your child time to think. When they ask for help, guide with questions instead of answers. Ask What do you think this question is saying. Ask what part feels unclear. Ask what your first step might be.
This style of guidance builds independence. Independent learners feel less stress because they trust their own thinking.
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Mistake 6: Ignoring emotional cues that signal overwhelm
Children rarely express their emotional struggles through words. They communicate through behaviour. They may rush through tasks. They may guess without thinking. They may become quiet or frustrated. They may refuse to start practice. These behaviours are emotional signals, not misbehaviour.
When a child shows these signals, their brain is tired. They are overwhelmed. Continuing practice in this state reduces learning and increases anxiety. Ignoring emotional cues makes preparation feel painful.
Children remember the emotional atmosphere of practice more than the content. If practice feels heavy, they resist it in the future.
How to fix it
Observe your child carefully during practice. If their body language changes, pause. Offer a short break. Change the activity. Speak gently. Tell your child I see this is feeling tough. Let us rest for a moment.
Responding to emotional cues builds trust. Trust makes learning easier. When your child feels understood, they cooperate more willingly.
Mistake 7: Mixing parent role and teacher role at home
When practice becomes tense, many parents shift into a strict teaching mode. This can confuse your child emotionally. They see you as their comforting parent, but suddenly they also see you as a demanding instructor. This shift creates stress and reduces cooperation.
Children do not respond well to mixed roles. They need clarity. They need warmth. They need stability. When they sense that practice affects your mood, they feel responsible for your emotions. This leads to resistance or fear.
When home feels like a classroom, your child loses the emotional comfort they need to learn.
How to fix it
Keep your parenting role and guiding role separate. During practice, stay gentle. Use soft language. Avoid strict correction. Make practice feel like a shared activity, not a lesson. After practice, return fully to your nurturing role. Celebrate effort gently. Bring warmth back to the moment.
This emotional clarity helps your child connect with learning calmly and confidently.
Conclusion
Helping your child prepare for Year 5 NAPLAN is not only an academic journey. It is an emotional journey that depends on how you guide, respond, and interact during practice. Children learn best in a calm environment, not an intense one. They grow when they feel safe, not judged. They develop confidence when they feel understood, not compared.
When you reduce hidden pressure, focus on progress, avoid busy work, stop comparing, encourage independence, observe emotional cues, and keep your parenting role steady, you transform your child’s relationship with learning.
You create an atmosphere where your child feels capable, motivated, and confident. You make Year 5 NAPLAN preparation smoother and stress-free. And you build the foundation for strong learning habits that last beyond the test.
Ready to get started?
Experience a full week of
NAPLAN tutoring at no cost.
Resources Used
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan
Article on parent influence and child anxiety
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-126-6-895.pdf
Study on the emotional climate of learning
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01443410.2018.1453792
Research on parental pressure and motivation
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.705526/full
Study on parental behaviour and student performance
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10212-020-00495-7
Research on stress cues in childhood
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7082257
Helpful Links
NAPLAN test style guidance
https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/whats-in-the-tests
Raising Children Network support
https://www.raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/school-learning
Year 5 support from WA Department of Education
https://www.education.wa.edu.au/support-for-students
NAPLAN public past papers
https://www.acara.edu.au/assessment/naplan/naplan-2012-2016-test-papers
