Hello and thank you for writing to JustAsk!

First, we need to ascertain why your daughter takes longer than you expect for her to answer. Is she distracted?  Are their environmental distractions, such as computer, phones, TV or people talking?  Is she hungry? Did she have time to relax before starting her homework in order to recharge her "study/ homework batteries"?

Also, there may issues with the work itself.  Are the tasks too hard? Is she completing them correctly or meeting with failure?

Once you are able to ascertain the "why" you can then employ some study skills strategies.

Here are a few suggestions to make learning fun and help her "speed" along:

1- Use fun markers and pens to create a work environment that is not boring.
2- Ask the teacher to determine and communicate the average length of a task to be completed by his/her average student. Then add ten minutes.  Set a timer for that time.  When the timer goes off ask her... "Do you need more time or shall we pass on this question and go on to the next?"  If she passes, write to the teacher or email her/ him that your child used quite a bit of time with supervision and still could not answer the question.  This could be good feedback.  A good teacher will learn much from knowing that a task could not be accomplished in a generous amount of time.  If there is a problem with the student's learning- she/he should then consider referring the child for adjunct support.
3.  Keep a log.  Have your child log the amount of time she has spent doing homework.  And her grades.  Determine if you see a trend.  Were Mondays worse than Thursdays?  Was Math harder than Language Arts?

I hope these suggestions help.

Good luck!

Louise Sattler, NCSP
Psychologist
Owner of SIGNING FAMILIES