Tutoring Isn’t Working… What Do We Do Now?
When parents see their child struggling in school, tutoring often feels like the most logical first step. After all, isn’t the goal to help your child catch up? But what happens when tutoring doesn’t seem to be making a difference? It’s a frustrating and discouraging situation for both parents and kids, especially when the investment of time, money, and effort yields little progress. Here’s why tutoring may not be working for your child—and what you can do instead.
Tutoring Repeats the Classroom Environment
If your child is already struggling in the classroom, recreating that environment during tutoring sessions may not help. Many tutors follow a model similar to what happens at school: reviewing material, going over assignments, and reteaching concepts. For kids who’ve had difficulty grasping the content the first time, repeating it without addressing the root of the problem can feel overwhelming and ineffective, leading to greater frustration and burnout.
The Real Issue May Not Be Content Knowledge
Tutoring often assumes that a child’s struggles stem from gaps in knowledge. However, for many students, the underlying issue isn’t the content but rather the cognitive skills needed to process, understand, and retain it. Cognitive skills include things like memory, attention, processing speed, and problem-solving abilities. If these foundational skills are weak, simply reteaching the material won’t fix the problem.
Imagine trying to build a house on a shaky foundation. No matter how beautiful the structure, it will struggle to stand without addressing the underlying instability. The same is true for learning. Without strong cognitive skills, students can struggle to keep up, no matter how many times they’re retaught the material.
Continued Frustration and Low Confidence
When kids don’t see results from tutoring, it can erode their confidence and motivation. They may feel as though they’re failing despite their efforts, leading to frustration and burnout. Parents, too, can feel the emotional and financial strain of investing in tutoring that doesn’t seem to help.
Brain Training Isn’t Tutoring
If tutoring hasn’t worked, it may be time to consider an alternative. Unlike tutoring, which focuses on reteaching content, brain training targets the cognitive skills that make learning possible. Through a series of targeted exercises, brain training strengthens skills like memory, attention, processing speed, and logic—the foundational abilities your child needs to learn effectively.
Research shows that when cognitive skills improve, so does the ability to grasp and retain new information. This means your child won’t just catch up; they’ll gain the tools they need to succeed independently in the classroom and beyond. At LearningRx, our programs are designed to identify the root cause of learning struggles and address it directly, providing lasting results rather than temporary fixes.
If your child is struggling despite tutoring, it’s worth exploring a different approach. Brain training has helped thousands of students transform their learning abilities and regain confidence in their academic journey.
