Your Questions About AI
& Your Child's Learning

It depends on how it's used. Using ChatGPT to generate an entire essay or solve a problem without engagement is widely considered academic dishonesty — the student submits work that isn't theirs. However, using it like a tutor (asking for explanations, checking reasoning, or brainstorming ideas that the student then develops) is more defensible. The key question is: did your child do the thinking, or did the AI?

Watch for these signals: homework finished unusually fast, writing that sounds more sophisticated than how they normally speak, an inability to explain their own work when asked, or copy-paste formatting artifacts. The most reliable test is the "explain-back" method — ask your child to walk you through their reasoning verbally. If they can't, the thinking wasn't theirs.

Yes, if used passively. The cognitive struggle of working through a hard problem is exactly where learning happens. When AI removes that struggle, students miss the chance to build mental models, develop analytical reasoning, and retain knowledge. Studies in cognitive science consistently show that "desirable difficulty" improves long-term learning — and AI shortcuts remove that difficulty entirely.

Lead with curiosity, not accusation. Start by asking what AI tools they're using and why. Establish that you're not against AI — you're for their genuine development. Frame it around ownership: "I want you to be proud of what you create and actually know the material." Then set clear household rules together, which gives your child agency and makes them more likely to follow them.

A practical framework: (1) AI can be used to understand concepts, but not to generate final answers. (2) Whatever AI produces must be rewritten in the child's own words. (3) The child must be able to explain any submitted work verbally. (4) AI use must be disclosed to the teacher where required. Post these where your child works and revisit them regularly.

AI tutoring puts the student in the driver's seat — the AI explains, prompts, and challenges while the student does the cognitive work. AI cheating puts the AI in the driver's seat — it produces the output and the student just submits it. A good litmus test: after using AI, does your child understand the material better, or just have a completed assignment?

This varies significantly by tool and school district. Consumer versions of ChatGPT and similar tools are not COPPA/FERPA compliant and should not be used by minors without parental consent. Ask your school: (1) What AI tools are officially approved? (2) Do they have a Data Processing Agreement with each vendor? (3) Is student data used to train AI models? Approved EdTech tools typically offer student-safe versions with data protections.

The explain-back test is simple: after your child completes an assignment, ask them to explain the core concept to you as if you've never heard of it. If they genuinely learned, they can do this naturally. If they used AI to generate the work without engaging, they'll struggle. This technique works because it tests for true comprehension — the ability to transfer knowledge — which AI-generated text cannot fake when the student has to speak it in their own words.

Only if we let it. AI excels at pattern-matching and information retrieval, but the highest-value human skills — judgment, creativity, ethical reasoning, and the ability to ask the right question — are precisely what AI cannot replicate. These skills are built through effortful practice. The risk isn't AI itself; it's allowing AI to substitute for the productive struggle that builds these capacities.

Usually one of three reasons: (1) academic pressure and anxiety — AI offers a way out of stress, (2) a genuine knowledge gap where they don't understand the material and don't know how to ask for help, or (3) it's simply convenient and they haven't been taught why the process matters. Understanding which of these is driving your child's behaviour will tell you whether the response is a conversation about integrity, a tutoring session, or a talk about time management.