Making the Most of Tutoring Help
How to ensure your child's tutoring sessions are productive and beneficial

Numerous students receive tutoring help to improve their grades, study skills or become better organized. According to Arthur Lilly of the Mission Viejo Huntington Learning Center, while seeking help for your child is the first important step, there are many things a parent can do to help make his or her child's tutoring experience as positive as possible.

"The best tutoring relationship is one that is collaborative between the parent, child and tutor," says Lilly.

To make the most of tutoring, Lilly offers the following tips:

Identify the root cause of the problem. Whether your child is falling behind or struggling with basic concepts, a tutor must first understand the problem before providing help. Lilly says that at Huntington, teachers perform a diagnostic evaluation prior to beginning instruction in order to identify a child's strengths and weaknesses.

Make sure the tutoring curriculum is tailored to your child. For a tutoring program to be successful, it must be customized to your child to addresses his or her precise needs. Be sure that the tutor does a thorough assessment of your child's current abilities before developing a tutoring plan.

Foster good communication with your child's tutor. Arrange regular appointments to discuss your child's progress. Also, frequently revisit the initial goals you set at the beginning.

Ensure the child and tutor have good rapport. Because of the one-on-one relationship between the tutor and your child, parents should give tutoring proper time to be effective. If your child opposes the idea of tutoring, remember that trained tutors have significant experience working with children who were initially resistant. As your child closes those learning gaps, he or she will become more accepting and welcoming of tutoring.

Let your child's teacher know your child is working with a tutor. Consider introducing your child's tutor and teacher so that the two can discuss specific areas of concern as well as your child's ability to transfer his or her new skills to the classroom as the tutoring continues.

Tutoring can make a vast difference in a child's life, helping him or her overcome learning gaps and improving confidence and self-esteem. "It's important that parents and their child go in with an open mind, set goals with the tutor, and evaluate results together with the tutor after a few weeks of tutoring," says Lilly. "We often see that children want to continue tutoring because the change is so noticeable to them and their parents."