Why choose an online special education tutor?

We here at Progress Parade specialize in working with neurodiverse including students with ADHD, learning disabilities, autism, executive functioning challenges, and other diverse learning needs!

Our tutors are all professional, career educators. Our team is made up of learning behavior specialists, reading specialists, school psychologists, Orton-Gillingham and Wilson trained teachers, and other learning specialists. With these diverse backgrounds, we’re able to choose the best fit for each student who is ready to join the Progress Parade.

All of that said, you may be wondering why you should consider hiring an online special education tutor instead of an in-person tutor. In this article, we’ll discuss many of the benefits of online special education tutoring as well as some of the drawbacks.

“When your student has diverse learning needs, there is nothing more important than having the right match. That’s exactly what hiring an online special education tutor with Progress Parade allows you to have!”

Benefit #1 to an online special education tutor

Leave location, location, location for choosing a home, not for choosing the right tutor match!

Years ago, our founder started an in-person special education tutoring company and has made thousands of effective student, tutor matches. What was the one thing that repeatedly and most frustrated her? The limitations of matching students and tutors based on geography.

Each student who contacts us has very specific needs and often complex backgrounds. Working online allows us to take geography out of the matching equation! No more do we have to give your student a 75% best match who lives close enough to you to tutor in your home. We can give your student the 100% best match from our team! That is exciting and very powerful!

Some of our tutors specialize in working with math, others with multisensory reading strategies and others with executive functioning skills. Within those skill sets, our tutors often further specialize in specific age groups and developmental needs. When your student has diverse learning needs, there is nothing more important than having the right match. That’s exactly what hiring an online special education tutor with Progress Parade allows you to have!

“For students with social anxiety, online tutoring allows students to be comfortable in their own homes and takes away as much of that anxiety producing stuff as possible.”

Benefit #2 to hiring an online special education tutor: Six times the scheduling possibilities

Have you ever contacted a local tutoring company and been unable to workout a compatible schedule? It’s a real challenge! Everyone in your area is looking for tutoring between about 4 pm and 6 pm in your local time, so those time slots often book up very early in the school year! Since we’re matching you with tutors across the nation, we’ve got six time zones AND six times the scheduling possibilities!

Benefit #3 to hiring an online special education tutor: Some students respond better to online tutoring than in-person tutoring.

We work with students with social anxiety, social challenges, students with complex medical issues, immune deficiencies and more. For these students, online tutoring is often simply a better fit. For students with social anxiety, online tutoring allows students to be comfortable in their own homes and takes away as much of that anxiety producing stuff as possible. And for some students with social challenges, online tutoring is the best way to get their attention focused on learning. Students with immune deficiencies can limit contact with others and students with other medical issues are right at home if they should need their medication or other treatment. Believe it or not, we’ve heard from some of our families that the time of at home learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the best year of learning of their student’s life! 

“With an online tutor, you can set up your student with their computer and headphones at the table while you go about cooking, tidying up, or doing whatever else you need to do.”

Benefit #4  to hiring an online special education tutor: You don’t have to clean the house (and other conveniences). 

Having an in-person tutor at your house means you have to find a dedicated space to host a person in your home. This often means cleaning, setting up the space, and just generally interrupting your daily routine. For example, many of our tutoring sessions take place at the kitchen table. With an online tutor, you can set up your student with their computer and headphones at the table while you go about cooking, tidying up, or doing whatever else you need to do. It’s usually not so easy with an in-person tutor. We work in many cities where space is a luxury, and it can be hard to find enough space for everything that needs to happen in the home!

Benefit #5 to hiring an online special education tutor: no parking and no traffic

As we’ve been talking about in-home tutoring, maybe you’ve been thinking of your experiences with visiting a local tutoring center. If you’re going to a location for tutoring, then you don’t have to clean your home or find a dedicated space. You do, however, have to get there! Suddenly your student’s hour-long tutoring session is taking 1.5 hours of your busy evening since you have to leave time for finding parking and traffic. With online tutoring, an hour long tutoring session only takes an hour, leaving more time in your packed evenings for other important things!

Are there drawbacks to hiring an online special education tutor?

Though hiring an online special education tutor with Progress Parade is a great choice for many families due to having access to our best match and other convenience factors, it’s not for everyone. 

Some learners really struggle with engaging through an online platform. Some children, especially really young children, can really struggle with getting the maximum benefit out of tutoring that takes place online. Also, some students who need intensive behavior management may not be responsive to online tutoring (e.g. students who have severe tantrums when online). It can be difficult for us to manage some externalizing behaviors over the computer. If you’re not sure if online special education tutoring is right for your student, we’d be happy to talk through your student’s particular situation with you! 

“With online tutoring, an hour long tutoring session only takes an hour, leaving more time in your packed evenings for other important things!”

Online special education tutoring summarized

Online tutoring gives you more scheduling options during the short after school window and makes tutoring all around more convenient. But the biggest benefit of hiring an online special education tutor (a benefit that, in our opinion, can’t be emphasized enough) is that it allows us to give your student the absolute best match for their particular needs! Having the right match is especially important when we’re talking about hiring a special education tutor for your student!

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