A Parent's Guide to Tutors and Tutoring: How to Support the Unique Needs of Your Child
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  • Wiley

More About This Title A Parent's Guide to Tutors and Tutoring: How to Support the Unique Needs of Your Child

English

A Parent's Guide to Tutors and Tutoring offers a survival guide for helping parents decide whether or not to hire a tutor; advice for choosing the right person; and ideas for evaluating if the job is well done. In addition, the book includes suggestions for selecting a tutor for kids with special needs and shows what it takes to tutor for an individual child's unique weaknesses and strengths.

Praise for A Parent's Guide to Tutors and Tutoring:

"James Mendelsohn understands how tutoring and education must fit the unique core nature of every child. His ideas, methods, and techniques are brilliant and can make a big positive impact on improving your child's success in school and in life."
—Michael Gurian, author, The Minds of Boys, Boys and Girls Learn Differently, and Nurture the Nature

"This book shows parents how to avoid the stress and pressure of competition and instead pay attention to what our individual kids really need for success at school and in life."
—Michele Borba, Ed.D., author, Parents Do Make a Difference and Building Moral Intelligence

"Dr. Mendelsohn has written a wonderful book that is a great gift and resource to any parent struggling with the question of whether—and if so, how—to tutor their kid. For them, it is a must-read."
—Alvin Rosenfeld, M.D., coauthor, The Over-Scheduled Child

"If you are lucky, you might find a tutor like Dr. Mendelsohn. Reading this book should certainly be your first step."
—Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., educational psychologist and author, Your Child's Mind and Endangered Minds

English

James Mendelsohn, Ph.D., is a busy, highly regarded tutor and founder of JRM Tutoring (jrmtutoring.com) in New York City. He has been on the faculty of the Dalton School, Boston University, and MIT and is a two-time winner of the Fulbright Lectureship.

English

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction

To Tutor or Not to Tutor 1

Students Whose Parents Believe They Should Make Their Child Smarter 4

Students Whose Parents Want Them to Perform Flawlessly on the PSAT, SAT, or ACT 7

Students Who Do Well in One Subject but Not Another 9

Students Who Have Been Diagnosed with ADHD and Urged to Medicate 11

Students Who Have Poor Study Habits 13

Students Who Have Been Diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder 18

Learning How to Learn: The Importance of Intellectual Independence 20

Chapter 1

Finding the Right Tutor for Your Child 23

What Underlying Approach Should a Tutor Take? 24

What Does Good Tutoring Look Like? 30

Three Characteristics of Good Tutoring 33

What Qualifications Should a Tutor Have? 38

Chapter 2

Expectations and the Tutoring Process 43

A Cautionary Tale 44

Basic Assumptions and Expectations 47

A Frame for Tutoring 63

Chapter 3

Parents and Tutors: Positive Contributions and Problematic Involvement 67

Positive Contributions 71

Problematic Involvement 80

Chapter 4

Teachers and Tutors 95

How Tutors Can Reach Out to Teachers 95

How Tutors Should Relate to Teachers 99

The Importance of Selective Contact 107

Chapter 5

The Challenges of Learning Disabilities 117

What Does Learning Disabled Mean? 118

The Role of Tutoring for Learning Disabled Students 120

The Challenges of Learning Disabilities for Parents 131

Chapter 6

The Challenges of Psychological Difficulties 139

A First Impression 140

Help for Students with Psychological Difficulties 143

Variations on Help for Students with Psychological Difficulties 149

Chapter 7

Finding the Right Tutor 159

How Parents Find Tutors 160

Resources for Finding the Right Tutor 162

The Question of Expense 168

A Brief Survey of Fees 171

Further Resources for Parents 175

About the Author 179

Index 181

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