No one can tell you for certain when the right time is to consider finding a tutor to work one-on-one with your child. However, we can describe the various ways that a qualified tutor can impact your child's education.

With the increased academic demands in schools, parents are more frequently turning to one-on-one tutors to help supplement their child's education.  Parents' reasons for wanting a tutor to work with their child are as varied as the individual students themselves.  Here's a list of some of the most common ways that one-on-one tutors can help students be more successful:

• Tutors can develop a long-term relationship with struggling students and help remediate skills that they're missing to bring them up to grade level.
• Tutors can work with students on a short-term basis to help prepare them for a test, work with them on an important project, or guide them through a particularly challenging unit of study.
• Tutors can act as mentors to students who need extra motivation and encouragement to be successful.  They can develop a supportive relationship with the student to help them improve their focus, organization, and study skills. 
• Tutors can work with academically gifted or advanced students to help provide opportunities for enrichment than may not be possible in the regular classroom. 
• Tutors can work with students on a regular basis to provide homework help and support to reinforce concepts taught in the child's classroom.

Virtually all children would benefit from the above support at least some of the time. So how can you know when the time is right to consider a tutor for your child?  Some of the following may be indications that your child could benefit from one-on-one tutoring:

•  Your child is expressing frustration in a specific subject, or with school in general;
• Your child seems to be trying his best, but his grades are not improving;
• Your child is having difficulty completing homework on a regular basis;
• Your child is most receptive to help from someone who isn't Mom, Dad, older brother or older sister (let's face it, this is the case for most kids--even the brightest!);
• Your child is experiencing test anxiety or poor test performance;
• Your child's teacher indicates that he/she could benefit from extra support;
• Your child is driven and enthusiastic about school, but doesn't feel challenged enough.

No matter what your reasons are for considering one-on-one tutoring, make sure that the tutor you choose is someone who can really "click" with your child.  Children will learn best from someone they feel cares about them and understands them!