With classroom activities in full-swing, parents have been asking me some honest questions as to what to do if their child is caught cheating.

Cheating, as you all know, is when a person deceives others or acts dishonestly on purpose. It can happen at school, in a sport, or at home.

–

Why do some children cheat?

–

During the school age and teen years, a child may cheat because they are too competitive and want to cheat to win. They may also cheat because they have high expectations of themselves or think others do and cheat to meet those expectations.

It may be they are sadly too lazy to put effort into doing their homework, so they turn to an artificial intelligence program instead, despite their teacher telling them not to do so.

The good news is that as children get older, they better understand the importance of fairness and honesty, and that may curb some or all the cheating they previously had been doing.

Some children may cheat once, and feel so bad, they never do it again — but others may start and not be able to stop to the point where it becomes a habit.

In this case, the sooner you bring the problem to the attention of your child such as when they cheat in a game or plagiarize, and you then take action — the better the outcome.

–

Ways you can help

–

First, ask your child calmly why they cheated.

Talk with them about the stresses and pressures of school. You can tell your child you don’t expect them to be the best, but you do expect them to try their hardest and not use an artificial intelligence system without their teacher’s approval. This may be all it takes to reassure a child and have them stop cheating.

When you tell a child no one will want to play with them if they do cheat in a game (which can happen), and that winning isn’t everything, the more likely they are to develop proper strategies to stop cheating.

If you need help figuring out how to stop your child from cheating, consider talking to your child’s health care professional who can recommend some strategies or refer your child to a counselor who can also help.

Most importantly, parents — you need to be good role models.

Avoid telling your child they’re a cheat or the label may stick.

If your child sees you keeping some extra change you received from a store cashier by accident – and you do not return the extra change to that cashier – that may be all it takes for them to feel it is ok to cheat as well. So, don’t cheat and your child won’t cheat.

Hopefully tips like these will not cheat you out of what you need to know when it comes to helping your child not be a cheater.

——

Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.