Should I hire a private tutor or use school services?
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You’ve just left another meeting about your child’s reading struggles, and you’re more confused than ever. The school is recommending their reading specialist program, but your friend swears by the private tutor who “changed everything” for her daughter. Meanwhile, your child comes home each day more frustrated, and you’re wondering if you’re somehow failing them by not knowing which path to choose. This decision feels overwhelming because you want to help your child succeed, but you’re not sure which option will actually address their specific needs rather than just providing temporary relief.
Understanding What Your Child Actually Needs (Not Just What Schools Offer)
When a child receives a dyslexia diagnosis, parents often feel pulled in different directions about the best path forward. The truth is, your child’s brain isn’t broken – it simply processes information differently and needs specific skill development to unlock their reading potential. The key to making the right choice between private tutoring and school services lies in understanding that dyslexia represents gaps in specific cognitive processing skills that can be strengthened through targeted training.
Think of these processing differences like a foundation that needs reinforcing. Most traditional approaches focus on the surface level – helping with homework, providing accommodations, or teaching reading strategies. While these can be helpful, they don’t address the underlying cognitive skills that make reading automatic and effortless. Skills like auditory discrimination, visual processing, and working memory are the building blocks that allow reading to flow naturally.
The Brain Bloom System approach recognizes that when we strengthen these foundational cognitive skills, reading improvement follows naturally. This is fundamentally different from simply teaching reading strategies or providing accommodations. When your child’s brain develops stronger auditory processing abilities, for instance, they can more easily distinguish between similar sounds in words, making decoding and spelling significantly easier.
Your expectations about your child’s potential for growth will profoundly influence the outcome of whatever intervention you choose. Research consistently shows that when children are told their reading challenges are due to a permanent condition that can’t be changed, progress slows dramatically. However, when these same challenges are framed as skills that can be developed and strengthened, children show remarkable improvement. This mindset shift isn’t just positive thinking – it’s based on solid science about how neuroplasticity allows brains to grow and change throughout life.
Evaluating School-Based Services: Strengths and Limitations
School systems typically offer several types of support for children with dyslexia, including IEP accommodations, 504 plans, reading specialists, and Response to Intervention (RTI) programs. These services can provide valuable support and shouldn’t be dismissed outright. Many schools have dedicated professionals who genuinely want to help your child succeed, and these services are provided at no additional cost to your family.
However, school-based interventions often have significant limitations that parents need to understand. Most school reading programs focus on teaching compensatory strategies rather than developing the underlying processing skills that would make reading automatic. While accommodations like extra time or audio books can help your child access curriculum content, they don’t actually strengthen the cognitive skills needed for independent reading fluency.
The most concerning limitation is that many school approaches inadvertently create “word guessers” rather than skilled readers. Traditional reading programs often encourage children to use picture cues or context clues to figure out words, which can actually prevent proper cognitive processing skills development. When children learn to guess at words instead of systematically decoding them, they miss opportunities to build the neural pathways essential for reading mastery.
You’ll know school services are working when you see your child:
– Becoming more confident about reading challenges rather than avoiding them
– Showing improvement in reading skills, not just reading comprehension scores
– Developing better focus and attention during academic tasks
– Demonstrating growing independence in reading activities
Red flags that suggest school services may not be sufficient include your child continuing to avoid reading, showing little improvement in decoding skills after months of intervention, or expressing increasing frustration and negative self-talk about their abilities. If these patterns persist, it may be time to consider additional support.
Author Quote"
Your child’s brain isn’t broken – it simply processes information differently and needs specific skill development to unlock their reading potential.
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Private Tutoring Options: What to Look For and Avoid
Not all private tutoring is created equal, and understanding the difference can save you both time and money while ensuring your child gets the help they actually need. The vast majority of tutoring services focus on helping with homework and teaching content-specific strategies. While this type of academic support can boost grades temporarily, it rarely leads to lasting improvement in reading skills because it doesn’t address the root cognitive processing challenges.
What you want to look for is evidence-based intervention that targets the specific skills your child needs to develop. Structured literacy approaches that emphasize systematic, explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, and language structure are most effective for children with dyslexia. The tutor should understand that reading development isn’t just about learning sight words or reading strategies – it’s about building robust visual memory, auditory processing, and other foundational skills.
A quality intervention program will often incorporate multisensory elements and may include tools like The Attentive Ear Auditory Processing Program to specifically target auditory discrimination weaknesses. Some families also find tremendous value in complementary tools like the 5-Minute Reading Fix, which prevents word-guessing habits by presenting words in a specific sequence that encourages proper decoding skills.
When interviewing potential tutors, ask these essential questions:
– Do they assess underlying cognitive processing skills, not just reading level?
– Can they explain how their approach differs from what the school is already providing?
– Do they use evidence-based structured literacy methods?
– How do they measure progress in foundational skills, not just reading comprehension?
– Do they help children develop internal motivation and confidence about their learning abilities?
Be wary of tutors who promise quick fixes, focus primarily on homework help, or can’t explain the specific cognitive skills they’re targeting. Quality intervention takes time and should show gradual but consistent improvement in your child’s confidence and skill development.
Key Takeaways:
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Focus on Root Causes: Effective intervention targets cognitive processing skills, not just reading strategies or homework help.
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Expectations Shape Outcomes: How you frame your child's challenges significantly impacts their potential for improvement.
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Combine Both Approaches: The most successful strategy often involves using school accommodations while building skills through targeted private intervention.
Making the Decision: A Strategic Framework
The most effective approach often involves strategically combining both school services and private intervention rather than choosing one or the other. Think of school accommodations as providing your child access to learning while private intervention builds the skills that will eventually make those accommodations unnecessary. This dual approach allows you to support your child’s immediate academic needs while investing in their long-term reading development.
Consider your financial resources realistically, but remember that early, intensive intervention typically requires less time and money than years of ongoing support. Many families find that investing in quality private intervention for 6-12 months produces more lasting change than years of less intensive support. The Brain Bloom System, for example, is designed to create lasting improvements in cognitive processing skills that benefit all areas of learning, not just reading.
Timeline expectations matter tremendously for both you and your child. Meaningful improvement in foundational cognitive skills typically takes 3-6 months of consistent intervention to become noticeable, with most children showing significant progress within 6-12 months. However, every child’s timeline is different, and maintaining realistic expectations while celebrating small wins keeps motivation high for everyone involved.
You’ll know your chosen approach is working when your child shows:
– Increased willingness to attempt reading tasks
– Growing confidence in their ability to improve
– Measurable improvement in specific skills like auditory memory or visual tracking
– Better emotional regulation around academic challenges
– Comments from teachers about increased participation and effort
If progress stalls or your child’s confidence decreases, don’t hesitate to reassess your approach. The goal isn’t just academic improvement – it’s helping your child develop the cognitive skills and growth mindset that will serve them throughout their life.
To help your child develop a stronger growth mindset, consider our free course that teaches both parents and children how to embrace challenges and view mistakes as learning opportunities. Explore our growth mindset course.
For parents seeking to help their child develop stronger focus skills, our ‘Focus Foundations’ resource provides evidence-based strategies and exercises. Download the Focus Foundations guide.
Remember, your child’s brain has an incredible capacity for growth and change, and with the right support, they can develop into confident, capable readers who see challenges as opportunities to grow stronger.
Author Quote"
When children learn to guess at words instead of systematically decoding them, they miss opportunities to build the neural pathways essential for reading mastery.
"
Traditional approaches to dyslexia often trap children in a cycle of accommodations and compensations that never actually build the cognitive skills they need to become independent, confident readers. This outdated system convinces parents that their child’s potential is limited, when in fact every child’s brain has remarkable capacity for growth and change. As your child’s first and most important teacher, you have the power to break this cycle by choosing interventions that develop foundational processing skills rather than just managing symptoms. The Learning Success All Access Program provides you with the comprehensive tools and science-based strategies to build these essential cognitive skills at home, transforming your child from a struggling reader into someone who approaches challenges with confidence and capability. Start your free trial today at All Access Program and discover how the right approach can unlock your child’s true reading potential.
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