Tutoring has many benefits and is sometimes the only way to help a struggling child. Whilst your child may be getting the best education, there are several reasons why this information isn’t sinking in. It may be that your child is quiet and doesn’t like to ask for help. They may not like the way the teacher explains things, or they may have a learning style that doesn’t work well in some classrooms. Below we look at five ways tutoring can help students.
Tutors Can Adapt to Your Child’s Learning Style
We all have an individual learning style which can often be overlooked when a teacher must teach a subject to a whole classroom, usually incorporating only one learning style for the whole class. When a tutor spends quality time with your child, they can understand which learning style works for them. This then allows for your child to learn in a way that they enjoy and can help them learn better.
Tutors Can Discover Your Child’s Interests
School doesn’t necessarily appeal to the masses and sometimes your child may come home from school and tell you they were bored. Tutoring allows the tutor to get a better understanding of your child’s interests, so they can then target lessons around things that interest them. Whether this be asking them to write a story about something they enjoy or calculating maths based on their favourite football team’s statistics, using your child’s interests to reinforce learning will help.
Tutoring Can Work Alongside Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is key to getting a child to sit down and learn with a tutor and to keep doing so each week. If you want your child to do well in a test and they aren’t putting the work in, hiring a tutor and providing positive reinforcement may be what they need to succeed. We often ask a lot of our kids and they aren’t capable of understanding that a loving home and food on the table is enough to sit down and study. Positive reinforcement may be something as simple as offering them a toy they’ve always wanted, or a sleepover with friends if they sit well with the tutor and get positive feedback. We often reward ourselves for studying, working or going to the gym, so doing this with our kids is important too.
Tutors Offer 1:1 Attention
Children struggle for a variety of reasons and sometimes that 1:1 support given by a tutor is enough for them to succeed and overcome any hurdles. They may have lots of questions they’ve been worried to ask, and a tutor offers that friendly support and advice where they can ask away until they understand the subject better. This can instil confidence in your child and help them do better in and out of the classroom.
Tutors Are Experts
Whilst we want to do all we can for our children, sometimes we don’t know enough about the subject to help. A tutor is an expert in their given field and understands your child’s curriculum more than you will ever be able to. Parents can help in other ways, such as completing homework with their child or doing practice tests before exams. The very widely used CAT4 test is available online in practice form and is great to practice between tutoring sessions to see how well your child is coming along.
Tutoring can help students who need that extra support, need an adapted learning style, or just need that extra push when struggling academically. You can find local tutors online or ask the school for recommendations.