What is the Difference Between Tutoring, Academic Upgrading and Brain Training? What Does Your Child Need?
TUTORING: Tutoring is basically re-teaching and reviewing what has been taught in class. If your child was sick and missed classroom instruction or if you moved and changed schools and missed some concepts or content, then tutoring will help. This assumes that your child has no problem actually understanding concepts and content.
ACADEMIC UPGRADING: If your child is performing in school significantly below grade level, perhaps being moved to the next grade without mastering the concepts and content of the previous grade – a standardized academic assessment is needed to determine the missed concepts and content. An individualized, academic program can target these areas and bring the student up to their grade level. However, academic upgrading will not be as successful if there is learning challenges.
BRAIN TRAINING: If your child is struggling to read or can read but has difficulty comprehending or trouble understanding math concepts or has a lot of trouble processing or comprehending information – then it is likely there is an underlying difficulty. My experience is that the primary caregiver (usually the mother) knows their child best. If you help your child with their homework and they just can’t seem to grasp the concept or you need to repeat content because it is forgotten the next day or your child repeatedly gets frustrated and shuts down or refuses to learn, then there might be a learning disability.
Testing by a trained psychologist is your next best step. Tutoring is not the answer because it does not target the reason your child struggles to understand concepts or read fluently. Tutoring will actually increase the frustration level.
Brain training, based on proven neuroscience can strengthen the brain much like fitness training can strengthen the body. Brain Training can improve weak cognitive skills such as short and long-term memory, auditory and visual processing, attention and reasoning.
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This article is submitted by: Brian Nashman, Director, Scholars Education Centre, 113 Park St. S. ON K9J 3R8 705-742-4152
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