Have you found yourself questioning whether or not a tutor or after-school enrichment class is right for your child? Does struggling in a subject mean you need to hire a tutor now, or is it part of the learning process?
If this sounds similar to your situation, we have the answer!
Need to Hire a Tutor Now?
5 Signs Not to Wait
1. Falling Grades
You know your children and how they normally perform in subjects at school. If you see that their grades start to decline in subjects they usually do well in, this may mean it is time for a tutor.
This situation is especially urgent towards the end of the year when there are fewer opportunities to make up missed points. When the falling grade can quickly threaten the students’ GPA, it’s better to act sooner rather than later.
2. Lack of Focus
If a student starts to become disinterested in a subject or stop completing the work, he or she may be struggling, but the student could also be bored. Many times, it is thought that tutors are only needed for students needing to improve their understandings, but tutors and enrichment classes can be very beneficial for students needing an extra challenge.
3. Absence of Confidence
Certain concepts are more challenging for various people. It is common to not feel completely confident with new ideas, but if the confusion and stress is becoming consistent, this may be a sign your child is not grasping what they need to.
It’s also a sign to talk to your child’s teacher to find out how important the current topics will be for the rest of the curriculum. If it’s a subject that is needed to understand future topics (like arithmetic, exponents, parts of speech, or complete sentences), then getting tutoring fast is vital. Waiting to get help will only increase the number of topics the student doesn’t understand.
4. Significant Increase in Time Needed to Complete Work
At times, concepts will take longer to complete compared to others. In this case, taking more time to finish work is understandable and normal. When your child starts taking significantly more time to complete the homework than is normal for the child, this is a sign a tutor might be helpful to strengthen your child’s fluidity. For example, a worksheet of simple arithmetic should not take more than a few minutes.
5. More Dependence on Your Help to Finish Work
If your student starts to need your help with majority or all of his or her homework, this means the child is not understanding an idea and needs to increase his or her confidence in the concept (which will lead to more independence). A tutor would be helpful in this case.
To have a good idea of whether your student needs a tutor, you need to know your child. Being aware of their normal behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses is vital to knowing if a tutor is a beneficial idea. No student is the same, which means no case of deciding whether a student needs a tutor is going to be the same.
With any one of these signs, especially if your child is just starting a new concept or beginning a new school year, the student may only need a little time to adjust. Anything is awkward in the beginning until your mind gets a hold of it. If there is no improvement within a couple weeks, however, or the student starts to exhibit more than one of these 5 signs, you can be confident it is time to consider finding a tutor.
Is your child exhibiting any of these signs? What subject do they struggle with the most?
Author: Sarah B., Teacher and Writer at A Grade Ahead
