Features of parental perception of academic performance and reading literacy in 5th-grade pupils

The objective of the study is to identify the specifics of parental perception of academic difficulties and reading competence in 5th-grade pupils with different levels of academic achievement. In doing so, the author aims to optimize interaction with parents for the development of effective strategies for psychological and pedagogical support of families and to improve the educational outcomes of pupils. The article presents the results of a comparative study of the features of parental perception (n = 89) of academic difficulties and reading competence in 5th-grade pupils in groups with different levels of learning ability, using an original questionnaire. Significant differences were revealed between the groups in assessing children’s reading skills, emotional reactions to learning difficulties, and parameters of the family educational environment, which can serve as a basis for developing programs for psychological and pedagogical support of families of pupils with learning difficulties. The scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying the nature of the relationship between parental perception of academic difficulties and objective indicators of reading competence of pupils at the stage of transition from elementary to secondary school, which allows to determine potential risk areas in the development of meta-subject skills of fifth-graders and optimize strategies for psychological and pedagogical support of the family. As a result of the study, it was found that parental assessment of academic difficulties of fifth-graders is characterized by heterogeneity and variability depending on the level of reading competence of pupils, while there is a tendency for parents to underestimate the degree of influence of insufficient reading skills on overall academic performance in 68% of cases. This indicates the need to increase parental competence in monitoring reading development of children at the stage of transition to subject-based learning.