If you’ve been wondering how to find a good tutor for your child, you’re not alone. But it can be complicated to figure out where to start, and how to navigate the many questions that arise once you do. To understand how to choose a tutor for my child from every angle possible, follow each of the six tips for finding a tutor thoroughly:
- Define Success for You and Your Child
- Create and Set Clear Goals
- Explore ALL of Your Options
- Do your Research
- Test and Vet Your Options
- Monitor your goals and results.
Tips for Finding a Tutor:
Whether it is for support, enrichment, or development in general, there are more and more parents searching for advice on “how to find a good tutor for my child” and making sense of the results can be dizzying.
The six tips for finding a tutor described below fall into the more general categories of researching, testing, and monitoring results. If you are able to master these aspects of the process, you can create scenarios for your child that will enhance their skills, accelerate their development, and maximize their potential academically and otherwise.
1. Define Success for You and Your Child
The first tip for finding a tutor is to realize that success means something different for everyone. Every student has different needs, preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. Understanding what those are is the first step to getting your child effective help that will yield results and enhance their development.
Success has many different faces:
- It might mean simply passing or going from a C- to a B+ math
- Achieving a certain score on a standardized test
- Properly completing a semester-long research project
- Gaining more confidence in a specific subject area
- Or it could mean maintaining and improving the ability to problem solve and learn new concepts in general
Regardless of how you end up defining success, you’ll want to consider more than short and long-term goals and think about your child’s ability to retain information, build on previous knowledge, and develop and improve skills over a lifetime.
2. Create and Set Clear Goals
Identifying and setting clear goals is essential. Once you have defined what success means and that is made clear to your child, you are ready to establish goals. Clear goals help to maintain focus, motivation, and reinforce a common understanding of success.
- Are your goals short-term or long-term?
- Do they involve: support, enrichment, development in general, or all of the above?
Finding help with homework, a project, or a test is different from developing skills or raising grades over time. Make sure you know exactly what your ultimate goal is so that you can begin tailoring a process in order to meet it.
Having clear goals not only makes it easier for the student to understand the expectations, it also creates clear expectations for whoever is supporting them. When you’re exploring how to find a good tutor for your child, this step will make the research and exploration phase of your search more efficient and organized.
3. Explore ALL of Your Options
Explore (and exhaust) all of your options. Don’t just resort to searching for the best tutoring services online. Remember there are free options that are certainly worth a try before looking for a private tutor:
- Teachers are always a great first option for support
- Peer tutors are another option
- Family, relatives, and close friends. Are you close with anyone who is qualified and would be willing to help out?
- Be involved as much as you can.
If you’re reading this article, it is most likely because you don’t have the time or expertise to be as involved as you’d like. Even if that is the case, make an effort to be as involved as is possible. Even if it is as simple as having your child read something out loud when they’re around you. Always be looking for ways to reinforce what they are learning and observe the progress they’re making.
If you have exhausted all of your options and you know that outside help will be required, now is a good time to begin researching your best options.
4. Do Your Research
If you’re searching ‘what are the best tutoring services’ you will see a variety of choices with varying levels of quality, service, and expertise. It is important to thoroughly research and vet any services or resources you are interested in potentially utilizing.
If you are open to remote tutoring, your options expand exponentially. If you decide to go this route, thoroughly reading profiles and reviews becomes crucial. If you don’t have the luxury of the first-hand opinion of someone you know and trust, use every piece of available information to make the most informed judgement possible.
- Thoroughly read through professional profiles and websites. Are the reviews all five stars but with no written explanation? Look for descriptions of other peoples’ experiences. Take the time to thoroughly read reviews that provide detail and insight into their experience, an instructor’s approach, and their impact and results.
- Does the instructor have experience with students on IEPs (Individualized Education Plan)? If your child has an IEP, you will want to keep an eye out for profiles that mention that, and if not, ask the tutor if they have the type of experience you require.
Once you have a list of potential candidates, it is time to start narrowing them down.
5. Test and Vet Your Options
Testing out your options by listening in and observing how they interact with your child helps to gauge:
- How much information your child is picking up
- How engaged they are with the tutor, and more importantly the content
- The chemistry between them and the tutor
If you hear the tutor do most of the talking while your child nods or shakes their head saying either “yes” or “no,” chances are, they are not engaged in or absorbing the material.
Reaching out for help with smaller tasks can be an effective strategy that allows you to test options that may be good long-term solutions. It can be a good way to test comfortability, chemistry, and results. Setting smaller goals at first can help to establish long term goals. Remember to be flexible and that every child’s process and path is different.
6. Monitor Your Goals and Results
Establish a way to measure progress and results, along with a system and expectation to have the instructor share that progress with you on a consistent basis. Some might argue that it’s not a question of how to find a good tutor for your child, but rather how to build the best and most productive relationship with a tutor.
- Set up a monthly check-in with the tutor to discuss progress
- Take a look at results from quizzes and tests
- Keep an open dialogue with your child about how they feel
Does the tutor share the details of each session or report results and progress with daily, weekly, or monthly updates? This is something you’ll want to establish either before or during the first meeting.
Your definition of success and your goals will dictate how you monitor and measure them. Grades can be a simple enough measure. However, if writing, problem solving, or reading comprehension are the issues, measuring progress can be trickier. Be willing to work this out with the tutor. Combine your understanding and knowledge of your child with their experience and expertise. Doing so successfully will help to create and develop measurement and tracking.
How Do I Know I’ve Found a Good Tutor?
It’s not always easy to know whether you’ve found the right tutor. You can follow all the tips for finding a tutor closely, and still have doubts about your final choice. However, ask yourself if your tutors are doing the following for your child.
Is your tutor:
- Having students read and explain instructions and questions: When students read and explain themselves it allows instructors to understand the student’s level of comprehension.
- Asking guiding questions that do not simply give students the answer: but allow them the chance to understand why something is incorrect and figure out the correct answer on their own.
- Questioning reasoning: Clarification should not only come from incorrect answers or misunderstood concepts. Students should explain their correct and incorrect answers and work to understand process and decision making.
All of these are signs of engagement, which is a prerequisite for academic and developmental growth.
Follow These Tips for Finding a Good Tutor Closely
When you’re looking to choose a good tutor for your child, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. But don’t settle. Yes, the process can be tedious. Particularly for parents of children with IEPs or additional learning challenges. It is important to be patient and find what or who works well with your child as an individual. It might not happen right away and it often does not happen immediately. There is no one correct or appropriate way to achieve a goal. Be willing to take the time to thoroughly research and explore your options and keep an open mind. The right solution may surprise you.
Nicholas Prutting