parents and tutors must have for your child to succeed.
You may think that providing tutoring services for a fifth grader in reading comprehension might not have such a big effect. But believe it or not, whether tutoring a 1st grade, 2nd grade, or 3rd grade student, with the right reading tutor at the right time, reading tutoring can help prevent a host of learning, behavior, and self esteem issues in your child's life.
I earned my Master’s Degree in Diagnostic and Testing of Reading. I spent years as a reading tutor for both remedial and gifted children. What I’ve learned and observed over the years can be tremendously valuable to you whether you are a parent, teacher, or are interested in offering reading tutoring yourself.
Here are a few simple things to you keep in mind:
- Kids are doing the best they can - with the vocabulary and language skills they currently have - otherwise they would do it differently. All children want to succeed. Believe in your child's greatness. When your child improves their reading and comprehension skills and their performance will improve.
- Learning to read is like building a flight of stairs. If one stair is missing, the whole construction will fall down.
- Reading tutors work best when they are partners in learning, not punishers.
- The first thing to look for in a reading tutor is their attitude towards a child’s challenges. My approach is to give positive reinforcement. Make your child believe that there’s a simple piece missing - not something wrong with them.
- Look for a reading tutor that believes your child will succeed. Studies have shown that if a teacher and parent believe in a child's ability to succeed, the child succeeds.
If you begin to treat your child’s reading challenges in this way you may find a noticeable difference in a very short and critical time.
Reading problems can create a real stigma for children. They can quickly go from feeling confident to feeling stupid. With an ESL learners label, many children will become unmotivated and lose interest in academic studies. Because we use the internet more and more, reading has become a more essential part of contemporary life.
There are new forms of technology which can help you with reading challenges. Numerous online reading computer tutoring courses and sites give you reading activities, materials, information, and reading tutoring sessions. Online reading computer tutors use the flexibility of the internet to help adults and children overcome difficulties in the privacy of their own homes, and at a time that works best with busy schedules.
Online tutoring often uses positive reinforcement to help encourage the student. The ultimate partner, online reading tutoring modules often use bright sounds and graphics to reinforce success.
Sites like reading tutors.com have a host of innovative packages you can try. You can test with free downloads, games, instructions—all readily understandable and instantly useable. They also have reading comprehension exercises and vocabulary exercises to help improve your reading comprehension.
Experiment with online tutoring in your own home. See how you or your child like it. If you start with a site you don’t resonate with, don’t give up. Online tutoring for reading comes in many different forms and if you persevere, you will likely find a reading teaching site that will work for you.
One of the things that I always did in my reading tutoring sessions was report positive improvements to parents with the child present. If your reading tutors don’t do this, encourage her or him to try it. It really helps a child feel proud of their reading skills and lets parents and children share in these forward movements together.
Remember, reading tutors are just one way to help your child through learning disabilities such as dyslexia. You can find them at the Sylvan learning center or other learning centers too. However, most importantly, give your child your support and love. Be involved. Read with your child every night. Find fun and interesting books. Give your child encouragement.
I have always believed that the attitude of the teacher (or parent) determines the success of a student. If you believe this too, you can see how much more you can help improve your child’s reading performance.
But if things don’t change, don’t just blame yourself. There may be other learning disabilities that are hidden but real. Get your child’s eyesight and hearing tested. Tutoring for reading can help with many things, but it won’t correct blurred vision.
Remember, reading is a great gift. Whether you have english as a second language or have dyslexia, there are ways of helping that. In fact, Tom Cruise overcame his dyslexia to become a famous movie star! So, keep the doors open for you or your children. Support them with the right reading tutor and they’ll appreciate it for life.