Please recommend a tutor to help my rising 3rd grader love reading

[Anonymous]

We'd like to find a tutor that can help my 7 year old with reading. My 7yo has mild hearing loss and is being evaluated for ADHD. Her teacher says that she CAN read, but her lack of focus is preventing her from learning. The lack of focus is particularly impacting her reading level. She can read the words, but she's not comprehending what they mean. She also appears to have some anxiety about schoolwork and testing in general (her MAP test results were basically invalidated as it was clear she didn't try to even answer the questions correctly).

So while we start the evaluation process for ADHD/anxiety/etc, we'd like to find a tutor to work with her this summer to help get her reading level up in time for 3rd grade. Our school specifically recommended that we find someone who isn't going to frustrate her with worksheets but someone who will get her EXCITED to read. Does anyone have any recommendations or similar situations? We're in Rockville area. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

My 7yo tried a virtual tutor on outschool yesterday and LOVED it. They had fun games to do that got both at fluency and comprehension - it wasn’t just working through blocks of texts together. It was only 25 so he didn’t lose steam during the session, it’s a very low commitment way to try someone out

[Anonymous]

I actually had that problem. It might be anxiety like you suspect. When I was by myself, I would feel comfortable enough to take my time to comprehend what I decoded.

Try letting her read a sentence by herself, and give her extra time to digest and figure out what she just read. Then, with no pressure, gently see if she understood it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We'd like to find a tutor that can help my 7 year old with reading. My 7yo has mild hearing loss and is being evaluated for ADHD. Her teacher says that she CAN read, but her lack of focus is preventing her from learning. The lack of focus is particularly impacting her reading level. She can read the words, but she's not comprehending what they mean. She also appears to have some anxiety about schoolwork and testing in general (her MAP test results were basically invalidated as it was clear she didn't try to even answer the questions correctly).

So while we start the evaluation process for ADHD/anxiety/etc, we'd like to find a tutor to work with her this summer to help get her reading level up in time for 3rd grade. Our school specifically recommended that we find someone who isn't going to frustrate her with worksheets but someone who will get her EXCITED to read. Does anyone have any recommendations or similar situations? We're in Rockville area. Thanks!

Having worked with kids with hearing loss, even a MILD hearing loss can lead to your kiddo miss a lot of information or make it super hard to focus bc it takes a lot to attend while fighting through all the background noise. Please have an audiologist evaluate what sounds or blends she might be missing and assess if she needs amplification. So many times it looks like a kid is adhd but they are checking out bc they can’t hear. The River school can be a great resource in the dc area. As for the reading, she might not need a tutor per se. Maybe start a very fun chapter book that you read every night that is exciting. Have your whole family do quiet reading time by the pool or outside. Have her see you and dad reading books so she has a model. Make it part of your culture!

[Anonymous]

Reading comprehension depends on your ability to read the words fluently and your language skills. If she's spending a lot of effort reading the individual words, there's not enough mental energy left to understand the meaning of what she's reading. And that makes a lot of kids anxious (understandably).
I think your plan of getting her a tutor over the summer is a good one.

Check out Kids Up Reading Coaches. They make learning to read fun and they work with lots of kids with ADHD and anxiety, and some with hearing loss as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo tried a virtual tutor on outschool yesterday and LOVED it. They had fun games to do that got both at fluency and comprehension - it wasn’t just working through blocks of texts together. It was only 25 so he didn’t lose steam during the session, it’s a very low commitment way to try someone out

We've had great success with reading and maths tutors on outschool too.