Personalized instruction focuses on your student's unique learning profile, breaking down concepts into manageable steps and using multisensory techniques tailored to their strengths. Rather than working through a standard curriculum, tutors can slow down on challenging areas, provide frequent breaks, and use alternative strategies—like visual aids for reading, manipulatives for math, or verbal processing for writing. This targeted approach often leads to faster progress because instruction is designed specifically for how your student's brain works, not against it.

The first session focuses on understanding your student's learning profile, strengths, challenges, and academic goals. Tutors ask about past struggles, what strategies have worked, any formal evaluations or diagnoses, and what you hope to improve. This information helps the tutor design a customized approach for future sessions, so by session two, instruction is already tailored to your student's specific needs rather than generic.

Students often struggle with reading fluency and comprehension, math fact fluency and multi-step problem-solving, written expression and organization, and keeping up with grade-level expectations while managing slower processing speeds. Many also face confidence issues after years of academic struggle. Personalized tutoring addresses both the academic gaps and the confidence piece—when students experience success with strategies that actually work for them, motivation and self-belief often improve alongside skills.

Varsity Tutors connects you with tutors who have expertise in learning differences, including specialized training in structured literacy, math intervention, executive function coaching, and evidence-based strategies like multi-sensory instruction and explicit teaching. Many tutors have backgrounds in special education, speech-language pathology, or educational psychology. When you connect with a tutor, you can discuss their specific experience with your student's learning profile to ensure a strong match.

Progress looks different for each student—it might be improved reading fluency, stronger math computation, better organization, or increased confidence and independence. Tutors track specific skills through regular assessment, and you should see measurable improvement within 4-6 weeks of consistent sessions. Many students also show non-academic gains first, like willingness to attempt challenging work or decreased anxiety around academics, which often precedes academic skill growth.

With Richmond's 14:1 average student-teacher ratio, classroom teachers do their best to support diverse learners, but they're managing many students at different levels simultaneously. Personalized tutoring provides one-on-one attention where instruction is completely customized to your student's pace, learning style, and specific gaps. Tutors can pause to reteach, adjust difficulty in real-time, use specialized techniques, and build in the repetition and practice that students with learning differences often need to master skills.

Varsity Tutors matches you with tutors experienced in your student's specific learning difference and academic needs. You'll share information about your student's challenges, goals, and any relevant evaluations or diagnoses, and we connect you with a tutor who's a strong fit. Most students begin with 1-2 sessions per week, though frequency can be adjusted based on your student's needs and progress.