I'm stuck

The advantage a tutor has over a teacher is that she can tailor a lesson to a specific child. Sometimes that's as easy as spending a little extra time on something or playing a learning game he loves. Last year I had a child with autism who became obsessed with manhole covers. With my handy Pampered Chef can opener (which leaves no sharp edges), I gathered a bunch of can lids, wrote words on the "manhole covers", and he read them happily.

Sometimes a kid gets really stuck on something that is very important and I want to make sure he has the concept before we go on. My student A. is having trouble with consonant blends. Because they are ubiquitous, it's important to have a good grasp of them. We've done workbook pages, played Go Fish and other games with them, dictated, used the magnet board . . . I've pulled everything I have out of my bag of tricks. He's getting better, but he isn't consistent and he certainly hasn't over-learned them. For instance, today he spelled spin sinp. It's almost as if he sees the word as a whole and misses the parts. And to make it worse, he refuses to tap the sounds out; that's just too weird for him. I'd love to find a substitute for tapping that he would do.

This guy has one strength that I very seldom see in my students. He loves to put things in alphabetical order and he's good at it, even when he has to go to the third or fourth letter. He also loves patterns. How can I use these strengths to help him with his weaknesses? One thing I will try next session is to write words on index cards, perhaps all with s blends, have him alphabetize them and then read them. To alphabetize he must first look at the letters in order. And then I'll try . . . hmm. I must admit I'm stuck. Is there a way to use his love of patterns to help him overcome this block? He likes sorting games, and that helped him master -ng and -nk.

So, master tutors, teachers, and generally creative thinkers: what would you do? I'd love to hear your best ideas. Helping a child learn in the way she learns best is my favorite part of tutoring. I'm just stuck, sort of like A. is. And it's my job to get us both unstuck.