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tutoing

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

My son 9 year old son is dyslexic and ADHD. I just recently had him tested. I am looking for him a tutor for the summer. I recently contacted a lady and she told me her price was $70 a hour. Does anyone know if this is a good price? She is very knowledgable in dyslexia but she would only be working with him during the summer because she works in schools during the school year. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Jessie

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/14/2004 - 1:41 AM

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But if she is good then she is worth it… :lol: But he would need more than once a week to really make a dent with his Dyslexia expecially if is ADHD is not treated first. :shock: You will spend more money on wasted sessions if he isn’t focusing on learning and she is just controlling his attention and behaviors… :cry:

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/14/2004 - 2:03 AM

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If you have one in your area, you may wish to contact your Learning Disability Association. The organization in our area offers specialized tutoring at a reasonable price. For the sake of continuity, we’ll be using the tutoring through our son’s private LD school over the summer, at a cost of $55 per hour. Good luck!

Submitted by des on Fri, 05/14/2004 - 2:23 AM

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Well it’s hard to tell about the price without knowing where you live. If you are in NY city or CA somewhere, it prolly is pretty ok. If you are in the nether regions as I am then it is tantamont to highway robbery.
It’s just that variable. I doubt I could EVER get that much being in a hinterland state, regardless of being certified (now). Even if I were trained in multiple approaches including LMB.

So look at where you live, the training of the person, etc. You should not do once a week. I will not take anyone for once a week, because it won’t get you anywhere.

—des

Submitted by victoria on Fri, 05/14/2004 - 3:52 AM

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Yes, we had the price discussion here before. Prices vary with location and your local cost of living. Fees for *qualified* tutors range from a low of around $20 or $25 in the hinterlands ($30 Canadian for me) up to $100 and maybe more in NY city. Average seems to be in the $50 range, so your quote is high unless you are in a high cost area, low if you’re in NYC.

Prices are somewhat higher for special programs that require special training and/or materials such as PACE, Interactive Metronome, Lindamood Bell, etc.

As far as a fair price, remember that the tutor has to pay mortgage and electric bills and gas prices too. And the number of prime after-school hours available to work is very limited.

I stress *qualified* tutors. Many people just decide they’re going to tutor, especially students, and they undercut our prices, as well as generally wasting the time and money because they can’t analyze what the underlying probvlems are and where to attack them.

Alas, just because someone works as a schoolteacher doesn’t mean they are effective at teaching and especially tells you nothing about their ability to diagnose and prescribe for learning problems. They may be good, may be hopeless.
The only way to know is (a) to get references from former tutoring students, (b) to discuss methodology (best is planned and organized, but with room for flexibility) and knowledge of reading research, and/or (c) to make a trial contract for a week or two and see if you see any changes in learning behaviour.

One hour per week is really not enough. You end up re-starting every lesson and never seem to get past the starting gate. Three sessions per week is highly recommended. Two sessions, spaced a couple of days apart, is the minimum to keep up a steady learning progress.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 05/16/2004 - 12:44 AM

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The tutor we use charges $60 an hour, but it decreases to $45 if you have 3 or more sessions in one week. You might check to see if the rate would go down if you have multiple sessions per week.

Another idea: I ask our tutor to time the time on task with a stop watch. My son was spending more time delaying/arguing/trying to get out of work. At first it was sometimes as low as 15 minutess of time on task. (Which is discouraging when you are paying so much for so little work.) And the tutor was definitely not doing anything wrong. So she would chart the time on task on a chart in his notebook, and I would reward for certain goals. Now he does 50+ min on task out of the hour, because I have set 50 as the score he needs to get a “bonus”. She had a reward system for him too, but ours is more effective because we can offer more salient reinforcers.

Submitted by LindaW on Mon, 05/17/2004 - 5:00 PM

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I would want to know what kind of training and certifications she has. She should be using a multisensory method that teaches word attack and decoding. You might even want to get references.

I am a PG trained reading tutor. I end up sending about 1/3 of my students for a developmental vision exam from a qualified developmental optometrist. Every child I have sent had vision issues that also needed to be addressed in order for them to become successful readers. Figuring this out before you start tutoring could save you a lot of money and time. If your child does have vision issues, you could be correcting them at the same time as tutoring and see more rapid progress.

Some speech language pathologists are certified Phono-Graphix or Lindamood Bell tutors. Sometimes medical insurance policies will reimburse you for “speech therapy” and you can bring down the cost a lot that way.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 05/18/2004 - 2:35 PM

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check out my post under the prof board. If you’re interested in LMB for the summer there might be a solution.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/26/2004 - 12:57 AM

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We live in Orlando and I found a tutor with lots of qualifications (she said). Was trained in all the major reading programs. She would only do tutoring for 2 times a week or more. $70/hour.

I was almost going to sign up, but then we found out we were moving, so I didn’t.

Good Luck.

Submitted by Sue on Wed, 05/26/2004 - 2:57 AM

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Yea, those are typical prices for good tutors — you may want to talk to the person and see if s/he can help you figure out ways to practice with your child between tutoring sessions, and use those fat dollar signs as motivation to get your money’s worth. Daily hard work — like learning to play an instrument or do a gymnastics routine — tends to produce the best results.

Submitted by Amy on Thu, 05/27/2004 - 2:59 AM

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In L.A. $70/hr for someone qualified is an amazing bargain.

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