Tutoring Methods, Techniques and Strategies

How You Can Tutor Your Child at Home

Discovering What Your Child Needs

Before you tutor your child, it's usually best to figure out precisely what kind of help he or she needs. Don't be shy when it comes to talking to your child's teachers, school counselors or any other education professional that is working with your child. In certain cases, you may even want to consult a learning expert or child psychologist.

Helpful Tutoring Tips

There are many components to tutoring successfully, from time management to verbal communication. First of all, if possible, provide your child with a calm, uncluttered, dedicated study space that's free of distractions, like television or the Internet. To help your child remain focused and on task, be sure to set specific goals before getting started. When going through a lesson, use positive feedback to encourage your child and ask him or her lots of questions. Repetition is a key to learning, so the more your child reviews difficult concepts, the more embedded they'll become in his or her brain.

Helping Your Child with Reading

The more your child reads - whether it's for pleasure or for school - the more his or her reading skills are likely to improve. If it's possible, sit down with your child and read texts together on a daily basis. After finishing a passage, ask your child questions about the plot and characters in order to help him or her work on reading comprehension. For younger students, have your child read aloud to develop reading fluency.

Helping Your Child with Math

When tutoring your child in math, you'll mostly follow the same basic tutoring guidelines you would for most other subjects as far as maintaining a positive attitude and instilling your child with a sense of accomplishment. Especially with math, you should make sure that you aren't completing the math problems for your child. Instead, help him or her work through the problems with guidance. Have your child explain the process of what he or she is doing to you, rather then the other way around. Keep in mind that many kids find math stressful and frustrating. As a result, it's important that you remain calm and supportive.