I have always been passionate about helping struggling learners.
As a former classroom teacher and tutor, I was always frustrated that I couldn’t really help the students who needed my help the most. No matter how much extra time I spent tutoring them, they never seemed to move beyond needing my help. Even though I was a qualified teacher, I lacked specialized training that would really allow me to help struggling learners succeed.
When one of my tutoring students came to me with a formal assessment report, I discovered NILD Educational Therapy® listed as one of the recommended next steps. I eagerly investigated the program and was so encouraged by what I saw that I signed up for the Level I course immediately. NILD Educational Therapy was exactly the program I had been looking for! NILD has developed a research based program that believes in every student’s potential and trains therapists with tools to truly help struggling students succeed.
Struggling students are often given a tutor to help them with their school subjects, but I realized that NILD Educational Therapy could do more than tutoring could offer.
So how does NILD Educational Therapy differ from Tutoring services?
Generally, tutoring is enough for students who need to hear the explanation one more time, see it done another way, or simply need extra practice. If a child has a learning disability, tutoring may get them through the course but it usually leaves them dependent on receiving tutoring services or other accommodations. Educational therapy, on the other hand, is an individualized program that strengthens the underlying cause(s) of the learning struggle and teaches students how to learn. The goal of NILD Educational Therapy is to help students develop tools for independent learning in the classroom and in life. If you are like me, you want to see the comparison so that you can make wise decisions as to what’s best for your child.
Educational Therapy:
- Focuses on learning how to learn
- Influences 4 key areas
- Cognition (thinking processes including reasoning, reflection, attaching meaning, remembering, evaluation)
- Perception (how information is received and processed through the different senses)
- Academics (how to learn and independent learning skills, core academic areas are included)
- Emotion (building self-confidence to positively influence academic performance)
- Educational therapists are highly trained professionals who also have a degree in education or a child development area
- Mediates the learning experience and provides an intensive individualized program based on formal and informal assessments
- Lasting long term benefitsv
- Research proven
- Accredited by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA)
Tutoring:
- Focuses on one subject
- Influences performance/grades for one particular subject area
- Tutors may or may not be qualified (range from high school students to retired teachers)
- Provides instruction or enrichment
- Short-term benefits (passing grade)
As I finished my Level I training with NILD Canada, I was more convinced than ever that NILD Educational Therapy would benefit children (and adults) that learned differently! In the 3 years of working as an Educational Therapist, I have had first-hand experience at watching students grow into independent learners – students with mild learning disability, or weak processing speed or struggling with working memory.
I love how NILD Educational Therapy goes way beyond tutoring!
