One of the most common signs is a stomach ache or other ailment
that mysteriously appears on Sunday night or Monday morning—only to
go away again on Friday afternoon. Many children who are
struggling feel real pain. Their symptoms are real, but the
cure is not medical. The best cure is to help your child
master the skills that are demanded at school. Medical help
will only mask the problem and potentially add side effects that
will make things worse in the long run. Many of the children
who have come to our tutoring center have been suffering from these
aches and then been miraculously cured by gaining stronger skills in
reading and math.
Missing Work
You ask to see your child’s school work and it is consistently
missing—or, when asked about homework, your son or daughter says
they “don’t have any homework today.” No corrected tests
appear and whenever you wonder about it your child pleads the fifth.
Papers with high marks aren’t usually lost! It’s time to
pursue them and find out what has happened. The more connected
you are to you child’s progress the better sense you will have of
what they need. Get in touch with your child’s teacher and
make sure you have the real story on how things are going!
Missing Children
When it is time to do school related work, or help your child
with homework, both work and child mysteriously disappear into thin
air. Or you try to help but things do not go too well.
You get upset and so does your child. After a few of these
attempts you are ready to give up. But your child is still
struggling—and you know you must do something to help.
Slow Reading
When you listen to your child read what does it sound like?
Reading is the foundation of all school performances—even in higher
level mathematics. If your child is not reading well, it is
definitely time to seek assistance. When the child reads, does
it sound natural, with good inflection and understandable sentences?
Or is the reading halting, lacking in rhythm or inflection,
and frequently inaccurate. Can your child sound out an
unfamiliar word or guess at what it might be based upon other words
around it?
Many classrooms on the South Shore use a “whole language”
approach to reading instruction. As a result, children learn
words by memorizing their “word wall.” But quite a number of
children may not have learned a strategy to break words down; and
when presented with an unfamiliar word they will guess or skip over
it.
Does your child enjoy reading?
Children who are struggling with reading rarely enjoy it.
As a result they are very unlikely to improve their skills without
skilled tutoring. Reading every day is the absolute best way
to improve reading skills. And by reading I mean reading out
loud as much as possible, and not depending upon silent reading as a
method for building skill.
It is very rare for a child to be able to read silently any
faster or more accurately than they can read aloud. Reading
out loud is an ideal way to get the feedback to develop the skills
necessary to become a better reader. Try to arrange for at
least a few minutes of reading each night. You can try
alternating the reading, with you taking one sentence and your child
the next. In this way you’ll provide some teaching as well as
some feedback, and the load on your child will not be so heavy.
Why a Tutor?
As any parent who has tried to help a child with school work can
tell you, it can be quite a challenge for parents to tutor their
child themselves. Expectations on the part of both the parent
and the child sometimes create a level of stress and frustration
that can actually make learning more difficult. But there is
no reason for your child to fall behind in school, and quality
tutoring can help to make school both more enjoyable and more
successful for a child. Choosing the right tutor can sometimes
seem daunting but it will be simpler if you keep in mind a few tips
Make sure that the tutoring center provides an initial skills
evaluation. It’s important to know where your child
stands—and a good assessment gets everyone on the same page.
The educational method used is as important as what is being
taught. Make sure you understand and are in agreement with
the approach that will be used. Quality learning centers use
techniques that are effective and research-based to teach children
and tailor the learning experience to each individual child.
Recommendations are important. Ask for references
and talk to parents (and their kids!) about the learning center you
are considering prior to making any commitment. And don’t
forget to ask about outcomes. Quality learning centers get
results.
Comfort is critical. Both you and your child should
feel welcome in any learning center you consider. It’s normal
for a struggling child to feel apprehensive about tutoring—but a
good learning center understands this and its staff goes out of
their way to make sure a child feels successful even after one
session.
If you see any of the warning signs listed above you should
consider providing assistance to restore or build confidence and
skill—and a tutoring center is an excellent way to do so.
Richard McManus is the Director of the Fluency Factory, a
learning center for children located in Hingham. He welcomes
your questions about learning and education. He can be reached
at rgmcmanus@comcast.net or (781) 749-7400.
