It’s sometimes hard for parents to know when it’s time to get outside help for their struggling student. Answer the questions below (taking your time to reflect honestly on your child’s academic situation) to see if your child may need tutoring.

1. Are your child’s grades in a class (or across all subjects) consistently lower than you believe his/her abilities and potential would suggest they should be?

2. Does your child feel upset or anxious about a class or about school in general?

3. Does your child verbalize or demonstrate that he/she believes statements such as: “I’m just not good at ____ [class, test taking, school in general].” “I’m not one of the smart kids.”?

4. Does your child often lose or forget to do homework assignments and/or generally lack organization and accountability for school work?

5. Is it difficult for you to help your child academically (due to difficulty of material, time constraints, conflict that arises when you try to help, etc.)?

6. Do you feel that your child would benefit from enrichment activities because he/she isn’t being challenged enough at school?

7. Does your child seem to lack motivation and/or the appropriate effort in a particular class or school in general?

8. Does your child seem to know the material but performs poorly on tests/quizzes?

9. Does your child have academic skill weaknesses or any diagnosed learning difficulty?*

10. Do you feel that your child would benefit from having someone outside your family provide academic support and guidance?

*For question 9, if your child has been diagnosed with one or more learning issues and is receiving adequate support at school, you can answer “no.”

If you answered “yes” to one or more of the questions above, your child may benefit from academic tutoring. The more “yes” responses, the greater the likelihood that tutoring would help your child.

In my experience as a tutor (primarily working with students in grades 6+), many parents report that their kids’ academic difficulties began in grades 3-6. Other tutors I’ve spoken with feel that grades 3-4 are when many academic weaknesses start to show up. If unaddressed, these weaknesses often continue to cause students to struggle throughout middle and high school.

I’ve come to believe that it’s best for kids to get help as soon as they begin to have difficulty (rather than taking a wait and see approach) in order to build proficiency and confidence with the skills they’ll need for higher grade levels. I’ve found this especially true for math, which builds upon previous skills with added complexity year after year.

In a separate article I’ll discuss what to look for in a tutor.