How a Tutor Can Improve Your Child’s Reading Skills

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Good readers have strong listening skills, make connections, and are aware of their own thought processes. But even the best readers need explicit instructions to master reading comprehension, and that’s where tutors come in. Tutoring is one of the most impactful forms of educational support. A tutor helps a learner use various problem-solving strategies so they understand and interpret text independently. 

Tutoring can help improve subject comprehension, build important learning skills, and boost confidence. It gives learners individualized attention that they don’t get in a classroom. It’s perfect for kids who struggle to keep up or aren’t challenged enough. Here’s how a tutor can help your child. 

Activate Prior Knowledge

All excellent readers use prior knowledge and their experiences to understand what they are reading. They read the preview to get some background knowledge about the text. A tutor can activate prior knowledge in students, helping them make connections and remember the text long after reading. 

As a learner reads, the tutor draws their attention to important vocabulary and phrases and helps them master them. They may ask the student what they already know about the topic, concept, author, or genre. Then they explain to the student what they want them to learn from the text, which helps establish a purpose for reading. If you want to help your child improve their reading comprehension skills, you can easily find a tutor by searching for “reading tutor near me.”

Answering and Generating Questions

The secret to becoming an excellent reader lies in asking questions before, during, and after reading the text. Asking questions, reflecting on the text, and answering questions enhances children’s understanding. Tutors typically ask children questions or encourage them to ask questions about the text, which improves their comprehension and helps them recall elements about the topic. 

Questions help children understand the purpose of reading, monitor their comprehension, and focus their attention on what they want to learn. They also help children to think actively as they read, review the reading material, and relate what they read to what they already know.

Tutors can help children ask themselves questions or find clues in the reading material, which enhances their comprehension. They can also encourage children to write their questions in notebooks. 

Using Mental Imagery and Visualization

Visualization is a reading strategy good readers use to create mental images or movies in their minds. The images and movies represent the ideas they read in the text and help them understand what they are reading at a deeper level.

Guided visualization prepares students for reading, helps them learn how to form mental pictures, and deepens their understanding as they read. Tutors can help students practice visualization by asking them to focus and describe details such as color, shape, size, and smell. This enhances mental imagery.

Tutors can assess children’s mental images by finding out whether images of the characters remained the same or they changed. They can also find out if creating the mental pictures gave them new questions or ideas.

When children learn to read purposefully, they become proficient readers. And readers are leaders. Tutors can help students become better readers and develop a love for reading with guided practice and direct explanation. 

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