The first session is an assessment and relationship-building opportunity. A tutor will typically evaluate your child's current reading level, identify specific strengths and areas for growth, and discuss your goals. This helps create a personalized plan focused on whether your child needs help with foundational skills like phonics, building fluency, or improving comprehension strategies.

Reading comprehension involves multiple skills—vocabulary, making connections, asking questions, and visualizing—that tutors can teach explicitly. Through personalized instruction, tutors use strategies like guided questioning, text annotation, and discussion to help students engage more deeply with stories and informational texts. Regular practice with feedback helps students internalize these strategies and apply them independently.

Reading fluency—the ability to read smoothly and with expression—typically improves within 4-6 weeks of consistent, targeted practice. However, the timeline depends on your child's starting point and frequency of tutoring sessions. Most students benefit from 1-2 sessions per week combined with daily reading practice at home, which accelerates progress.

Varsity Tutors connects students with tutors who have strong backgrounds in reading instruction, literacy development, and elementary education. Many have teaching experience, education degrees, or specialized training in reading intervention. When you get matched with a tutor, you'll have access to their background and qualifications so you can feel confident in their expertise.

Both are essential, and they work together. Early elementary typically emphasizes phonics and decoding, while upper elementary increasingly focuses on comprehension. A reading tutor will assess where your child is in this progression and address the most critical gaps. For example, a student strong in decoding but weak in comprehension needs different strategies than one struggling with phonics.

Reading together daily is one of the most powerful things you can do. Ask your child questions about what they're reading, let them choose books they're interested in, and model reading yourself. Your tutor will also suggest specific strategies and practice activities tailored to your child's needs—consistency between tutoring sessions and home practice dramatically accelerates improvement.

Varsity Tutors makes it easy to connect with a reading tutor who understands your child's needs. You'll share information about your child's current reading level and goals, then get matched with a tutor experienced in elementary reading instruction. From there, you can schedule your first session and begin working on personalized reading growth.