Tutoring vs. Brain Training

Learning is a continuous life process, which goes on up to adulthood. The quality of learning that children undergo during their formative years greatly determines the kind of adults that they will grow into. Brain training and one-one-one tutoring are two of the most popular learning techniques that parents use on their school-going children.

You children’s academic excellence is accentuated by their ability to learn. This means that as a parent, you must ensure that they receive high quality learning. Nonetheless, children require specific learning techniques for them to attain maximum academic excellence. The end objective of both brain training and tutoring is to help children who are struggling with learning difficulties to become academic high-fliers.

Brain Training

This learning technique is also referred to as cognitive skills training. Its objective is to improve your child’s brain performance. Your child could be struggling academically simply because he/she has weak cognitive skills. This disputes many individual’s perception that learning struggles are a result of poorly presented information. Weak cognitive skills can make academic progress difficult irrespective of the number of times that the information is taught and re-taught.

Tutoring is not a permanent solution for your children if they have weak cognitive skills. This is because they will struggle to comprehend and process information right from the first time they are taught. In as much as they may be able to get through class projects, they will continue struggling thereafter.

One-on-One Tutoring

This learning technique is akin to teaching since its main objective is to deliver new ideas and information to learners. It also seeks to create opportunities for your children so that they can learn skills such as reading, thinking, remembering, and paying attention. These skills help learners to find solutions to problems, and undertake various academic tasks.

The success of this learning technique relies on learner’s cognitive strength. Nonetheless, tutoring is preferred among learners who failed to grasp information due to other factors apart from weak cognitive skills. This may include absence from class, and change of tutors.

What is the Best Alternative?

As a parent, it is advisable to know the root cause of your child’s learning difficulties before you choose a learning technique for him/her. This means you must identify weaknesses that are making him/her lose the ability to decipher new information. Tutoring is an effective learning technique if an external factor interfered with your child’s ability to grasp and process information. In this case, it is advisable to redeliver the information that was missed in the first place.

Brain training on the other hand is used to address the causes of your child’s learning struggles. The weaknesses are first identified and then strengthened. Research indicates that four-fifths of students who perform poorly academically do so due to weak cognitive skills. Therefore, brain training provides transferable gains since it improves how the brain processes information in every topic taught. This makes it the best training technique for your child.

One-On-One Tutoring vs. Brain Training

Watching your child struggle through school work can be as frustrating for you as it is for them. Children who continuously find reading, math, or any subject challenging are often offered outside help or tutoring. Is this the best solution for your child?

One-on-One Tutoring vs. Brain Training

Tutoring is often offered as a solution to students who are experiencing struggles with one or more subjects. If you are seeing a change in your child's academic success due to missed days at school, a change in their program, or any other external change in routine then tutoring is a great alternative to help them regain the knowledge needed to catch up with material. If your child's struggles have been ongoing and they consistently experience challenges with school work, they may be suffering from weak cognitive skills, and this needs special training to overcome those challenges.

When Tutoring is Effective

If your child has previously been successful with school studies and suddenly falls behind in one or more subject, it may be related to a change in routine. They may have experienced a change in the classroom such as a new teacher who changes how material is delivered or may have been out of the classroom due to illness or vacation time. When these situations affect your child's understanding, a tutor is a great alternative for them to catch up on missed instructions. This alternative can also deliver the lesson in a different manner that is easier for them to grasp.

Tutoring can be a very useful tool to help your child receive additional material to build on their skills. Additional teaching will deliver information to assist in solving problems and complete their academic tasks.  When the struggles your child is experiencing is not related to missed class instruction and is a result of weak cognitive skills, tutoring may only further frustrate them. They may need to train their brain how to learn material.

When to use Brain Training

Struggling with learning can be due to weak cognitive skills the brain needs to think, perform, and learn. These cognitive skills help your child:

·         Pay attention to the delivery of material

·         Help your child process the material

·         Allow them to remember what they hear

·         Allow them to use reasoning and logic to understand

Brain Training provides your child with a personal trainer who targets their weak skills and strengthens them through mental exercises that are fun and challenging. Brain Training provides your child with the mental edge needed to improve their learning potential. They will be taught better thinking skills they can transfer to any learning environment. This training will build your child's cognitive skills and allow them to discontinue medications, no longer need remediation reading groups, and no longer have to be pulled from class for special help.

Brain Training for your child will help them eliminate struggles with academics. This training will help your child develop better self-esteem and confidence in themselves as they experience more success in the classroom. 

Is brain training better than tutoring?

Brain training and tutoring have provided help for many families of children who are struggling with reading or learning. Is one better than the other?

Actually, tutoring and brain training are both great solutions, but they are not interchangeable. In fact, tutoring and brain training are two very different answers to two very different problems.

There are circumstances in which tutoring will be more effective than brain training, and circumstances in which the reverse is true.

It really boils down to this: Learning requires two things: strong educational content, and strongHYPERLINK "http://www.learningrx.com/charlotte-north/charlotte-north-cognitive-skills/" cognitive skills to learn and apply that content. Typically, tutoring is the preferred method of delivering (or redelivering) educational content, while brain training is the preferred method of strengthening weak cognitive skills.

When is tutoring the right choice?

Is your child:

• Struggling as a result of missing classes due to illness or vacation?

• Struggling as a result of moving to a new school, or relocating frequently?

• Struggling in a single class due to poor presentation of information (inexperienced or absent teacher, missing class materials, etc)?

• Demonstrating a special gifting or passion, and you want to hire someone knowledgeable in that subject to tutor your child at an advanced level?

• Good at catching on right away if a concept needs to be explained a second time?

Since tutoring redelivers educational content that wasn’t grasped the first time it was presented, hire a tutor when your child needs help getting “caught up” because something has interfered with the delivery of that content the first time around.

When is brain training the right choice?

Do any of the following statements describe your child?

• Has received tutoring in subjects in which he/she still struggles

• Is struggling in more than one class

• Has always disliked or struggled with reading

• Takes a long time doing homework

• Has chronically struggled in school or with tests

• Has to work harder or longer than other kids to achieve good grades

• Says he or she feels stupid, can’t succeed, or isn’t as smart as other kids

If even one of the above statements describes your child, there is a good chance that brain training will prove more effective than tutoring. This is because each of the above statements describe common experiences when one or more cognitive skills are weak.

Brain training strengthens foundational cognitive skills the brain uses to think and learn, making it the right way to address weak skills that are making learning harder than it should be. This is not uncommon, by the way. Studies show that the majority of learning struggles are caused by one or more weak cognitive skills.

One-on-one brain training, a form of cognitive training, pairs clients of all ages with their own personal brain trainers. Programs consist of fun, challenging mental exercises that strengthen attention, long-term memory, short-term memory, auditory processing, visual processing, logic & reasoning, and processing speed. The improvements are often dramatic (see www.learningrx.com/results).

If weak skills are at the root of your child’s struggle with reading, learning, or paying attention, brain training is the best approach.

Begin by having your child take a one-hour cognitive assessment

Whatever you ultimately decide in terms of the right intervention for your child, a good first step is to have your child take a cognitive assessment so you can know for sure if weak cognitive skills are at the root of the struggles. If the assessment shows that your child has strong cognitive skills, then the root of the problem lies elsewhere, and tutoring is probably the better choice.

If the assessment shows one or more weak cognitive skills, those skills need to be strengthened, and brain training is probably the better choice. A cognitive skills assessment is the right place to begin, and will give you a detailed look at your child’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Cognitive assessments are offered by LearningRx, the largest one-on-one brain training company in the world with 80 centers across the nation and 40 locations around the globe.

Contact us today and schedule a cognitive skills assessment for yourself or your child.

The Benefits of Tutoring For Math and Reading

When it comes to increasing a student's academic performance, there are few things that are more helpful than a tutoring program that is designed to improve their math and reading aptitude. Thanks to the assistance of Brain Training, students can improve their grades and change the manner that they are accustomed to learning.

Struggling students no longer have to shoulder their academic burdens alone and with the help of programs like Brain Training, they can enjoy a number of different benefits. Be sure to read on and learn more about all of the advantages that a student is able to enjoy by enrolling.

1. Individualized Learning Regimen

It can be difficult for students who are struggling with math and reading to keep up with their more advanced peers and teachers are not always capable of tailoring their curriculum to the needs of students who learn at a different pace. With the help of an experienced tutor, a student that needs additional attention outside of the traditional classroom environment can receive assistance that is structured to their particular areas of weakness.

Teachers can be great and while they are typically well equipped to handle the needs of the children in their classroom, it can be challenging to balance the learning requirements of several different children at one time. For kids that could use some additional one on one time outside of their usual classroom environment, math and reading tutors are an invaluable resource that cannot be ignored. Students benefit immensely from customized activities and lessons that are designed to turn their weaknesses into strengths.

2. Avoiding the All Too Common Summer Backslide

When children finally receive a much needed respite from the classroom and the demands on their teachers, there is a certain tendency to exhale and allow the lessons that have been learned during the school room to fade from memory. Parents that wish to delay the effects of the summer slide and keep the mind of their young student sharp all year round will often enlist the services of a math or reading tutor to ensure better performance during the next school term.

If kids are not practicing these crucial skills during the summer months, a simple break can turn into an unavoidable backslide, causing the student to forget all of the lessons that they have just learned. Tutoring provides students with a much needed opportunity to remain ahead of the curve and steer clear of the dreaded summer backslide period. Not only does tutoring help a student remain sharp, but it also places them on the fast track for greater levels of success during the next school year.

3. Eliminating Any and All Distractions

Sometimes, a child may struggle to learn at the same pace as their peers because their classroom environment is littered with distractions that keep them from taking the proper steps. Some children will become too focused on spending time with their friends, while other children may have a tendency to spend their classroom time daydreaming, as opposed to learning. If your child fits into one of these categories, they will benefit greatly from the presence of a math and reading tutor.

Tutoring creates a special space where the student and their tutor are 100 percent focused on the process of learning. Children who simply need more time to practice and receive increased repetitions are able to avoid the frustration associated with practicing their skills in the wrong manner. Practicing their math and reading skills with a helpful manner keeps them from establishing poor study habits that could dog them well into adulthood.

4. Improved Grades

There are certain skills that need to be mastered in the classroom in order for a student to receive satisfactory marks in their math and reading related courses and when these skills are not properly cultivated by their teacher, this can leave them woefully behind the rest of their classmates when it comes to their grade point average, which can also adversely affect their ability to choose the proper college or secondary learning institution to advance their education.

Tutors have the unique ability to spend time with a student and learn more about where their weaknesses lie, developing an advanced learning plan that targets the areas that are causing students to experience unsatisfactory grades. In many instances, all it takes is a little bit of extra practice and some helpful math and reading review for a student to change their C’s and D’s into B’s and A’s. The aspects that the student is struggling to grasp become the primary areas of focus.

5. Challenging Your Gifted Student

There is a common misconception that math and reading tutors are only assigned to children who lag behind their peers, but in many instances, a gifted child will also begin to struggle in school when they do not feel as if they are being properly challenged. A gifted student may become bored and feel as if the lessons that they are being taught are beneath them, which can cause grades to slip.

That's why it is important to enlist a tutor to push your gifted student and ensure that they remain challenged at all times. Tutoring is not only beneficial to the students who are in danger of falling behind, a student who is currently excelling can also stand to benefit as well. A student who does not feel as if they are being pushed will greatly enjoy the customized lessons and specialized practice that only the best tutors can provide.