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What do I do when my child freezes on a question?
Answered by Sam Stirling, former P7 teacher · Last checked: 29 October 2026
The short answer
When your child freezes, ask, "What are you going to do first?" and then, "And then what are you going to do?" If they say "I don't know", say, "I don't care if you're wrong. I want you to tell me what you think you do first." One small first step gives them a way into the rest of the question.
Why it works: the questions are layered
A lot of SEAG questions are layered. In P6 there's usually one layer, sometimes two. By P7 there are three, sometimes even four.
If your child looks at the whole question at once, it's too much, and that's when they freeze. But the brain can cope with one small step. Doing the first step gives them access to the next layer, then the next, until the whole question is done.
Then keep asking
After each step, ask again: "And then what?" When the brain starts with the smallest step, it can begin to figure out the next one, and so on. I use this all the time.
A lot of children stop early, and some of the wrong answers are there to catch exactly that. So the last step is always to check they've answered what the question wants, not what's in their head.
Last checked: 29 October 2026 by Sam. This answer is Sam's own teaching advice, so it doesn't rely on official dates or figures. Answers that do always list their official sources here.
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