Tutoring For Kids With Learning Disabilities

If your kid is falling behind in school work, then tutoring could help in boosting those grades.  But if your child has a diagnosed learning disability (LD), then you should have a specialized tutor that can handle the disability.

Children with disability cannot improve on their own, they need somebody to help them and show them how to learn easily.  Most people would think that learning disabilities are intellectual defects, but actually is has something to do with how the brain functions.  Problems in processing sensory information are reasons for learning disabilities.

The most common learning disabilities are:

• Dyslexia – Children with dyslexia would experience problem in processing language.  They would encounter problem in reading, writing, spelling and speaking.

• Dyscalculia -  Children with dyscalculia would mainly have problems in math.  In general, they would have difficulty in solving math problems, understanding time and using money.

• Dysgraphia – This kind of learning disability could result to problems with writing, spelling and organizing ideas.

• Dyspraxia – This is a sensory integration disorder.  Those who suffered this learning disability would have difficulty in motor skills, hand and eye coordination, balance and manual dexterity.

• Auditory Processing disorder- Just the same as its name, it would be about problems in hearing and differentiating sounds which would affect their reading, comprehension and also language.

• Visual Processing Disorder- This is mainly about problems in interpreting and reading visual information like maps, charts, symbols and pictures.

A tutor would be able to reinforce lessons taught in school.  A tutor can also help the children develop their study skills which is a positive manner. A tutor would also help the children get as much practice as they need to learn and overcome their disabilities. Surveys have also showed that it a child is tutored, there would be a relative increase in self-confidence ad esteem.

When choosing tutors for children with learning disabilities, we would like to extra cautious.  Getting a tutor who cannot understand and cope with the disability, would make the child and the tutor very frustrated on the end of the day.  You would have to remember several things when looking for a tutor for kids with LD.

When getting a tutor, you should first explain to your children that it is not about making your child pity themselves.  It is to help them cope with their disabilities.  You can ask your teacher or co-parent , if they could recommend several tutors that would be able to help.

Once somebody has applied for the tutor position, the first thing you do is check about the credentials, education and training, experience and references.  You can check  previous clients and see if they are satisfied with the tutoring.  Once you meet with the tutor explain clearly the needs of your child and set goals and how to achieve them.  Planning is important, you would have to be patient and at the same schedule lessons in a pace that they could easily be comfortable with.

Children with learning disabilities sometimes find it hard to deal with tutoring sessions that comes right after regular classes.  The problem is that regular school work can be very much for them, so you could schedule tutoring session times where children are not too tired and are ready to learn.

Tutoring should be an interactive time for you kids.  You would have to be conscious about that.  If your tutor is still using the same technique used in classrooms, then you would have to notify them.   Children with learning disabilities respond better to direct teaching and guided practice. It is also important that the tutor will be notifying you about any changes or improvements