“My child hit a wall in middle and high school.”
Many students who have done well in elementary school find that they are hitting a wall in middle and high school. Often the difficulty is the result of increased demands in the areas of writing and organization. Some students, who had success with Orton-Gillingham reading tutorials, now need an Orton-Gillingham writing tutorial. Others require a less intense approach which trouble-shoots the writing skills deficits and fills in the gaps. In addition to the language piece, students need organizational skills, not only to know how to plan and execute an assignment and get it in on time, but to focus on the organizational aspects of writing reports and research papers. Students with a history of attention or language-based learning difficulties may need to develop reading comprehension skills at a higher level than that which was considered proficient in primary school. In middle and high school, students are expected to extract the major themes in literary works, to explicate them, and to write creatively about them. The sessions for writing research papers focus on reading comprehension, planning, time-management, organization and process writing. Remedial writing at this level is called “diagnostic and prescriptive:” the tutor finds the specific writing weaknesses and designs remedial routines to address them. As students experience success, they begin to sort out their strengths and weaknesses and begin to advocate for themselves with support from parents and academic coach.