How to Choose a Tutor for Your Child

After recommendations from two teachers, I made the decision to acquire a summer tutor for my daughter, Larkin. She had passed kindergarten, but both her kindergarten teacher and her small group tutor were concerned about the possibility of her falling behind her peers during the summer.

I knew my daughter would love the one on one attention of a tutor, but I also knew she would not love summer homework. I carefully considered the following four guidelines when I chose the tutor she would work with.

1. Subject Area

The first consideration is finding a tutor with expertise in the subject area your child needs help with. Grade school teachers handle all subjects, but most had an area of concentration in college. Matching this area of expertise with the needs of your child could yield better results from the tutoring.

2. Age Appropriate

Choose a tutor with experience working with children in the age range of your child. A high school English teacher may have trouble helping a first grader develop reading skills, in spite of subject area expertise.

3. Personality Fit

As a parent, you know what type of teacher brings out the best in your child. You may not have a choice of teachers for the classroom, but when choosing a tutor, you can seek out someone whose teaching style complements your child's learning style.

Tutoring is extra schoolwork over and above the normal workload. Adding a personality conflict to the extra workload may prove counterproductive.

4. Flexible with Scheduling

Your tutor of choice should be willing to work with your family schedule. In addition, he or she should respect your wishes regarding the amount of time spent tutoring. A the expert, the tutor can offer a guideline to determine how much extra help your child needs, but only you know at what point the tutoring will just be overkill.

"Characteristics of Successful Literacy Tutoring", written by Dorothy Leal and published on Findarticles.com, notes that one on one tutoring can be very effective for improving performance for students that are struggling. Wanting to increase my daughter's chance of scholastic success led me to seek out a tutor for her, but I knew I had to make a good decision, if I wanted the sessions to be helpful.

If a teacher or other school personnel has suggested tutoring for your student, careful consideration of the four guidelines above can boost the success of tutoring for your child.