One of the most popular ways parents try to help their children learn and succeed in school is by sending them to a tutoring service. Tutoring services offer small groups of children help with learning by following some kind of preset program. Most of these services are excellent, and can help children learn and increase their grade levels, but this is not always the case. I have worked with parents who have spent enormous sums of money sending their child to one of these programs with limited results. The guarantees offered do not always work either – why give your child more of what is not working in the hope that it will work the second time?
There is nothing wrong with the programs. The two best known, Sylvan and Kumon, both have excellent reputations and well designed tutoring programs and can be very helpful for many children. So, you may be thinking, if the programs are good but my child still does not learn, there must be something wrong with my child. Perhaps he or she is lazy, does not listen, cannot do the work, perhaps my child really is stupid!
Don’t despair! There is nothing wrong with either your child’s learning ability or the educational programs, the problem is that the way your child learns and the way the programs are taught probably do not match. That is why programs like Kumon, which use a very structured and repetitive teaching style, work well for some children but not others. If your child likes to learn in a structured, step-by-step way with lots of repetition and reinforcement a program like Kumon would work well for him or her. However, if your child has a more informal, open ended earning style, a less formally structured tutoring program would be more helpful.
Here are five tips to help you decide which tutoring program might best meet your child’s learning needs and provide the him or her with learning opportunities that leads to the best results.
1. Be sure that you know exactly what your child needs to learn.
Does your child need help to catch up in one subject, such as math, or does he need support in several subjects? Once you have decided this you can begin to look for the kind of tutoring programs that offers the type of support your child needs.
If your child needs help with a specific subject you need to find a tutoring program that offers tutoring in that subject.
If your child need help with more than one subject you need to explore the types of services that offer general learning strategies rather than concentrating on specific subjects.
How are you going to know what your child needs to learn? Asking your child’s teacher is a good first step. Information from your child’s report card or gleaned from parent/teacher conferences can help too.
2. Think about how your child likes to learn.
Does your child learn best through repetition and workbook type exercises or does he or she prefer a more hands-on approach? Is your child a ‘big picture’ thinker or someone who takes things a step at time?
Children who think in terms of the big picture hate to learn in a structured, formalized way and prefer the freedom to explore different ways of learning. Children who need a step-by-step approach cannot use ‘big picture’ thinking to help them learn.
You know your child best. Watch what your child likes to do an how he or she likes to do in order to get an indication of their preferred learning style.
3. Find a program that best matches your child’s learning needs.
When you are sure what your child needs to learn, and how he or she learns best, you have a created a picture of your child’s learning needs.
For instance, your child might need specific help with language skills (reading, writing, comprehension) and has a preferred learning style that lends itself to a formal, step-by-step teaching approach. If that is the case you need to find a tutoring service that offers a language skill program that is structured and formalized.
Or,your child might need to be taught specific learning strategies that he or she has not fully grasped and needs to learn them in an informal, open ended way. In that case you need to find a tutoring program that emphasizes the teaching of learning strategies over the teaching or specific subjects.
In order to find the type of program your child will get the most benefit from you will need to do some homework.
First,select a couple or more programs in your area (get information about what programs are available from friends, school or the phone book), and then interview people running the programs and meet the person who will be your child’s tutor. Do you think there is a fit between your child’s learning needs and the services provided?
Secondly, ask about the type of feedback you will be given and how often. In this way you can keep an eye on your child’s progress and if your child is not doing well you can try another program.
Next, get buy-in from your child. Explain what you are doing and why, and ask your child what he or she thinks about the different programs. Once your child is involved in the process he or she will take more responsibility for doing the work.
Last, but not least, set a time line. You need to know how much this will cost, and your child needs to have an idea of when he or she will be able to stop going to extra tutoring!
This may seem like a lot to think about when all you want is for your child to get better grades, but unless you take the time and effort to match your child’s learning needs with the type of support that is offered you will be wasting your money and, more importantly, you will not be helping your child reach their full learning potential.
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