How to Decide if Your Child Needs Tutoring or Brain Training
As a parent of a student who struggles in school, it can be difficult to know what type of help your child needs in order to succeed. Should you hire a tutor, pursue brain training, give it more time, or extend accommodations? There are many options and it can be overwhelming to choose the right one.
Tutoring or Brain Training?
The decision between tutoring or brain training depends on exactly where your child’s area of struggle is.
Some signs that tutoring is the right fit include if your child:
- Is behind because of missed school days due to travel or sickness
- Struggles in one particular class
- Shows an interest or gifting in one specific subject, and you want to hire an expert in the field to advance their education in that area
- Tends to catch on to a concept right away when it is explained only 1-2 times
These are all short-term catch-up strategies that are not linked to a struggle to learn or process information in the first place.
For most struggling students, it’s easy to get sucked into a cycle of tutoring where they continue to struggle and fall behind. What if you could make learning easier in the first place? That is what brain training does.
Some indicators that brain training would be the best course include if your child:
- Has been through tutoring, yet continues to struggle in that subject
- Is behind in more than one class
- Has always struggled with or done poorly in reading (whether decoding words or reading comprehension)
- Has chronically struggled with test performance or anxiety
- Has to work harder or longer than other kids to achieve good grades
- Says they feel stupid, that they can’t succeed, or that they aren’t as smart as other kids
All of these scenarios point toward brain training as the solution because it is the best way to address long-standing cognitive weaknesses that make learning harder for your child.
Time, Accommodations, or a Root Cause Approach?
- “It’ll click if I give it more time.”
- “We just need to read everything out loud to him, then he gets it.”
- “She just needs a quiet room and extra time.”
These are all statements that excuse learning struggles and allow them to continue without addressing the WHY.
Yes, some kids need accommodations for specific learning challenges. But for virtually every situation, a look into why they struggle in a particular area can provide a path forward to easier learning and greater success.
Brain training at LearningRx takes this root cause approach to learning struggles. We don’t provide work-arounds or quick tips to help your child pass. Instead, we take a deep dive into the way their brain works in order to pinpoint the weak cognitive skills that are behind their struggles in school or life.
If you’re tired of the endless cycle of struggle, tutors, meetings, and accommodations and want a different path forward, call us today.
We’ve helped thousands of learners grow in their ability to think, learn, remember, focus, read, and more—and we’d love to chat about how we may be able to help your child too!
