Why does my child need Tuition?

Human nature likes to place blame on non successful situations but in actual fact
there are a myriad of reasons your child may need help.

For parents/whanau/ friends, anxiety over an upset child is normal and part of the
parenting process.  As a Mum to grown up boys this never changes! But the recurring theme is the overall frustration felt as a parent or caring adult, that they are unable to 'fix' the situation.

Frustration for not being heard can escalate easily and often knee jerk reactions happen
such as pulling a child out of school which can increase the anxiety with your child.

So exactly what can cause issues for your child's learning? Let me explain 15 reasons why learning can be reduced;

• Hearing issues - Have  you noticed your child moving closer tothe television? Turning up the remote? 

• Sight issues - Have you noticed squinting?  Do they talk about words moving on the page and that the words are hard to see?

• Peer pressure - we constantly underestimate this especially with Seniors. Teenagers don't want to look silly in front of their mates and regularly don't speak up or ask questions.

• Illness - a period of illness can mean key concepts are missed which means the scaffolding aspect of education is missed.

• Holidays you organise - put simply a Teacher can't teach your child if they're not there!

• Moving location -this particularly affects secondary level students who can find they are studying a topic they've already covered elsewhere.  This is a very real reason children suffer with learning, many teachers say a child loses 6 weeks to a term of learning moving to a new school.

• Great Teacher / Bad  teacher- both massively influential in the attitudes and confidence of your child

• Speed of learning within the classroom - Teacher's are under pressure to complete a curriculum which is extremely full.  As a Teacher myself for 30 years I remember the frustration of knowing some students hadn't 'got it' but there was little I could do about it with the curriculum forcing us to move on.  Each class is full of a large number of children, all with needs of their own.

• Anxiety - kids worry too, confidence or lack of confidence have far reaching effects for any learning

• Personality - each child has their own personality brought to the classroom. Shy, retiring kids struggle to ask questions.  Likewise some overly confident kids disguise their worry by appearing confident or being the class clown.

• Friends - are their friends influencing their learning in a positive or negative way?

• You - are you influencing their learning in a positive way?  I would like a dollar for every time I've heard "Ah well, I was no good at that when I was a kid". You are immediately giving them permission to not achieve either.

• It's hard! - we can't all be amazing at all things. Some things come more easily than others.

• Learning styles - each of us learn in different styles - listening, writing, practical  etc but that's another article in it's own right! A classroom doesn't necessarily work for all children.

• Large class sizes - enough said.

Overseas for many years these issues (and many more) have been recognised as  important aspect that can affect learning.  Here in NZ we are catching up with our thinking!   We understand that parents and families feel frustrated when they can't help their child improve.

Tuition is an alternative that can help!