Training and Tutoring

When deciding on a strategy to help a struggling student, it is important to understand the difference between training and tutoring.  For those seeking reading help, math help, attention help or general assistance with academics, tutoring is a common strategy.  But is that the ideal strategy in every circumstance?  It’s important to understand the difference between tutoring and training as they serve different purposes depending on the academic help you are seeking.  

Tutoring can be an effective strategy if a student needs to catch-up due to missed classes or has recently switched schools and is behind on certain subjects. Or sometimes a child can have a struggle with a specific topic. Tutors can provide a review of the academic content to help a student grasp it and is a helpful strategy in these circumstances. 

However, for students who have on-going difficulties in areas like reading, math or general academics, tutoring is often not the best choice. For example, if a child is struggling year-after-year with reading and consistently doing reading tutoring, this strategy is more of a band-aid and usually not addressing why the child is struggling in the first place.   The additional practice in reading can help but given this type of reading tutoring is not addressing the root cause, it is a strategy that more helps a student tread water vs. drive significant reading improvements.  Students with consistent reading (or other academic) struggles will likely need on-going tutoring and interventions as academic expectations increase every school year.  Why?  Because tutoring does not focus on the source of your child’s struggles. 

LearningRx training identifies the root cause of the academic struggle and provides 1-on-1 training to strengthen the core skill weaknesses causing the difficulty. For example, in the case of reading, weaknesses in memory and auditory processing are often the reason a child is having difficulty as these skills impact word recognition, spelling, comprehension and decoding. In these cases, tutoring is helping a child tread water, but not unlocking reading skills because it is not focused on strengthening the skills holding the child back. 

Often parents seek tutoring for homework help, especially if this is a frustrating process and students struggle with motivation.  Tutoring can take the burden off a parent in helping their child and enable a student to work with someone equipped in the specific subject area, but again tutoring is not focused on addressing the key cause so kids need homework help on an on-going basis. 

With LearningRx, we find that students who struggle with homework completion or motivation have cognitive skill weaknesses contributing to or causing the issue.  Once these skills are stronger and homework and school is easier, homework is easier to complete and motivation increases.  In fact, we have peer-reviewed research published in the Frontiers in Education showing the positive impact LearningRx training has on motivation and academic difficulty.  

If your child is struggling and you are considering tutoring, call LearningRx in Eagan and we can help you determine if tutoring or training is the right approach.