A Tutor Tutorial

Sometimes people come along in our children's lives who really make a difference. You probably hear a lot more about the instances where the opposite is true: when a teacher, aide or therapist has taken advantage of their position over a student and at the very least wasted precious time, or, at the other end of the harm spectrum, actually abused a student mentally, emotionally, or physically. There's a particularly nasty instance of this on the internet right now.    
So this post is, rather, to sing the praises of tutors who've come into our lives in the past year.  Call it the Tale of Two Tutors, if you will. 


Yes, this is a long post, but hang in there, especially if you're the parent of a teen with HFA or Asperger's.  You might find some hope here.


Daughter Dearest has struggled mightily for the past three years with high anxiety in the classroom paired with some pretty severe executive function challenges as well. (If you're just joining us, read Introductions Are in Order to catch up on who we are and what ails us, so to speak.) She's had a tendency, as a result, to abandon her college classes after the first four weeks or so. It was painful (and not cheap!) to watch her go through this semester after semester. We'll come back to DD and her tutors later.


Fickle Fan, now in his senior year of high school, is about to take the Algebra End-of-Course Assessment (ECA) for the fifth time. Yes, the fifth. In addition to his extreme problems with writing, he's also been living with an intense hatred of all things math-related, probably since about the third grade. (For some reason, this doesn't seem to be unusual in a subset of students with high-functioning autism. I know others going through this same math aversion as well. Something to do with the hardwiring, I'm sure. Researchers, we need more studies on this problem, please!) 


For those of you not from Hoosierland and/or who don't live and breathe all-things-high-school, here's the scoop on the ECA: by state law, high school students are required to take the algebra, English and biology ECA tests. Currently, they need to pass the algebra and English tests in order to graduate with a general diploma. (More on diploma choices in a later post--don't get me started on that tangent now!) Students who don't pass the ECAs their first time, need to not only take the test again every time it's offered--in our case twice a year--but also take a remedial course to prepare for the test.  


FF passed the English ECA following stellar remediation in school his sophomore year. We were thrilled. But he's been beating his head against the Algebra brick wall for four years, really five, because the process started in 8th grade. His freshman year he had to take Algebra and remediation simultaneously, because his 8th grade scores, although close, weren't in the passing range. After just five weeks of freshman Algebra, his resource teacher shared with us that FF's Algebra teachers didn't think he would ever pass the test (despite his "almost" scores the previous year) and would probably only get a D+ in their class. Rather than feeling supported and encouraged in remediation, he felt tortured. So did we, with the homework. It was a disastrous situation for us. Rather than repeat it, his sophomore year he completed remediation by doing an online program that was extremely unhelpful, didn't teach the skills FF needed, and didn't always cover the material on the test. His junior year, he took remediation with his resource teacher, and though he improved on the test, he was still a ways away.  


Okay, enter the wonderful world of tutors. We started with DD, who needed to  pass her freshman Algebra course at Ivy Tech. DD, keep in mind, is highly intelligent and scored fairly well on the math section of the ACT. She's not derailed cognitively or from a lack of skills; she's challenged by other aspects of her Asperger's. That's difficult to understand for a lot of tutors (and teachers). Ivy Tech has campus-based tutors, but it's at a drop-in center where you get whoever's on duty that day, and that tutor may be working with several students at once; there's no continuity and no focus or understanding of DD's particular challenges or strengths. Moreover, DD would need a boatload of courage and self-advocacy to walk into the tutoring center, and, at the time, she was highly skeptical and didn't see the value in having a tutor. (Postsecondary support for students with high functioning ASDs is another post that's on my to-do list.) 


So we sought out and found a tutor who is not only truly gifted in math, he also has has Asperger's himself. We were, not surprisingly, hesitant about this arrangement, but he insisted he could get her through the class. After the first two weeks, he took me aside and assured me that DD is extremely intelligent and would not have a problem.  And she didn't. At first she still struggled with studying and homework deadlines, but meeting with the tutor-- usually at the public library--helped keep her on track with assignments and even helped her work through some of the concepts she just wasn't getting in class. After flunking this class the first time (she stopped going), DD passed with a B.


During the summer, the tutor approached us and said he could help FF even more than he could DD.  We politely said we'd think about it, but knew FF would balk at the very suggestion of giving up precious afterschool time to work with a tutor.  And he did.  But rather than undergo in-school remediation again his senior year, he eventually agreed to work with the tutor twice a week, and school staff blessed that arrangement as well. Tutoring began in the fall, and we gradually increased the time to 90 minutes twice a week, so that FF wouldn't have to worry about dreaded homework. He didn't pass the ECA in December, but after just six weeks of tutoring, he again increased his score to "almost." He's probably two or three problems away from passing. And with the data from the first test, it's now evident that what FF needed the most help with is graphing and learning to use a more sophisticated calculator. His processing speed for problem solving is extremely slow, so the calculator is a must. For the past several months, they've been focusing on those skills and doing practice tests. FF is at his wits end and really wants it to be over, but he's tolerated the repetition and the time investment. I'm pretty sure he'll pass this time, and probably with a pretty good margin.  I'll let you know what happens. One way or another, the tutor deserves a medal.  So does FF.  Does he like or appreciate Algebra now?  Absolutely not! He still hates the subject with a passion, but he realizes this is just to get him through the test.  Fortunately, the tutor has the patience of a saint and doesn't take personally that fact that FF isn't willing to connect with him on a math-loving level. 


Back to DD, who this spring was about to retake an Exposition and Persuasion writing class. Different skill, different tutor needed. This time, though, after seeing the value of working with a tutor, DD was ready and willing to accept help. After contacting the English department at IU, we found a grad student who had an interest in students with Asperger's. Long story short, DD has completed all her writing assignments and is passing that class with an A. More importantly, though, the tutor not only helped DD improve her writing and researching skills, she also helped with the organization challenges and took the burden off of us, so that we didn't always need to be the nagging parents. The tremendous side benefit has been that after the first couple of times meeting at home, DD and the tutor made their own plans to meet at a local coffee shop, so it became a social opportunity as well. DD's mood has brightened and we've watched the stress and anxiety melt away.  Her competence and self-confidence have also risen.  Hallelujah!


We pay for tutors out of pocket, of course. Usually about $25/hour, but we've increased that to $30 when we've seen their work and dedication.  I wish that the schools and Ivy Tech had these kinds of supports at the ready for students like ours, and I'd like to see parent groups advocate for that. But for now, we believe it's an investment well worth making.  And after watching how far our children have come in the past year, I think teaching the benefits of and how to work with tutors should be a goal included on the IEP of almost every 8th grade student with a high-functioning ASD.


So, here's to tutors. You're an essential part of the successes we've had in the past year. Please know you are valued and have our many, many thanks!