Every fall, parents scramble to book tutors before the “summer slide” turns into a full school-year struggle. For many families, tutoring is the first call. But for kids whose struggles go deeper than content gaps, tutoring alone may only go so far.
That’s not a knock on tutoring… it’s a mismatch between the tool and the problem.
Two Different Problems, Two Different Solutions
Learning requires two things: strong educational content, and the cognitive skills needed to absorb and apply that content. Tutoring is built for the first. Brain training is built for the second.
What Tutoring Does Well
Tutoring is the right call when a child has fallen behind because of how or when content was delivered, i.e. a missed unit due to illness, a tough transition to a new school, or a teacher explanation that didn’t quite land. Tutoring redelivers material the child didn’t fully grasp the first time around, which makes it a great fit for kids who catch on quickly once a concept is re-explained.
Where Tutoring Runs Into a Wall
But if a child has already been tutored in a subject and still struggles, that’s often a sign the issue isn’t the content; it’s one or more of the underlying cognitive skills the brain uses to learn: things like auditory processing, working memory, and long-term memory. Re-teaching the same material to a brain that’s struggling to process, store, or retrieve it can mean a lot of effort for very little payoff.
The Skills Behind Most Reading Struggles
Most reading challenges trace back to auditory processing, or the brain’s ability to analyze, distinguish, and make sense of sounds, along with working memory and long-term memory. When these skills are weak, a child can be tutored on phonics rules over and over and still struggle to apply them while reading independently.
At Learning Rx Chattanooga East, we don’t diagnose, treat, or cure reading challenges or any other condition. What our one-on-one brain training programs do is target and strengthen the specific cognitive skills tied to reading, through structured, intensive, one-on-one exercises with a personal brain trainer.
Among past clients who came to LearningRx with dyslexia and/or reading struggles, auditory processing skills improved an average of 4.9 years after just 24 weeks of training, and in a separate study of more than 3,500 struggling readers, the average gain across five reading skills was 4.1 years in 24 weeks.*
Real Chattanooga Families with Real Results
“My child was struggling to keep up with basic reading and his classmates. He felt intimidated and often got very frustrated. I decided he needed more than the school system and I could offer. LEARNING RX has been a life saver. My child is no longer timid and ashamed to read and/or read aloud and feels very confident about going into the 4th grade.” — Darlene G., Chattanooga, TN*
How to Know Which Approach Your Child Needs
Ask yourself if any of the following describe your child:
- Has received tutoring in a subject and still struggles with it
- Is behind in more than one class
- Has always disliked or struggled with reading
- Takes a long time to complete homework
- Has to work harder or longer than other kids to get good grades
- Says he or she feels “not as smart” as other kids
If one or more of these sound familiar, there’s a good chance one or more cognitive skills need strengthening; and a cognitive skills assessment is the best place to start.
Start With an Assessment, Not a Guess
A LearningRx cognitive skills assessment measures how your child’s brain performs the seven core skills used to think, learn, read, remember, and pay attention. If the assessment shows strong cognitive skills, tutoring is likely the better next step. If it shows one or more weak areas, brain training is likely the better fit.
Schedule a cognitive skills assessment today and find out why your child is struggling… before the next report card comes home. 👉Get Started
📍LearningRx Chattanooga East serves the Greater Chattanooga including East Brainerd, Shallowford, Ooltewah/Collegedale, Apison, Brainerd, East Ridge, Hixson, Belvoir/Germantown, and North Georgia
*Results based on past clients. You or your child may or may not achieve the same results. To learn more about our research and results, visit www.learningrx.com/brain-training-results.