A specific gap needs specific teaching — not more of the same lesson.
A child who cannot decode does not improve by reading more. They improve by being taught the thing that is missing, explicitly and in sequence, by someone who can tell you exactly which step they are on. Most of the support families pay for is extra practice of a skill nobody has actually taught yet.
A specific learning difference is formally identified by an independent educational psychologist, not by us. Our assessment tells you what your child can do now and what has to be taught next — which is a different and more immediately useful question.
Where this sits in the five stages
You may recognise some of this.
None of these is a diagnosis and none of them means something is wrong. They are the patterns that tend to be described on the first call.
- Reading accuracy that has stalled while comprehension in conversation is fine
- Spelling that stays phonetically plausible long after peers have moved on
- Avoidance and stomach aches around reading or writing tasks
- A tutor who is re-teaching the curriculum rather than the underlying skill
- A school offering extra time but no different teaching
Learning differences and dyslexia, through the five stages.
The pathway is the same for every child. What changes is what each stage contains.
Understand
A functional needs assessment across home and school.
Build
Structured, sequential teaching.
Transfer
Into classwork and homework.
Step Back
Support reduces on purpose.
What we do
- Pinpoint the exact skill level, then teach in a structured sequence from there
- Use the same goals in tutoring, school support and home practice
- Give the class teacher the accommodations that matter and drop the ones that don't
- Review progress against a rate, so a plateau is visible in weeks not terms
- Hand the routine to you and the school once the skill is reliable
What we don't do
- Sell a general tutoring package as a specialist intervention
- Promise a reading age gain by a fixed date
- Keep teaching a step your child has already mastered
- Treat a learning difference as something that will be outgrown
If any of these is what you are looking for, we are the wrong provider and we would rather say so now than three months in.
Straight answers.
Is this the same as tutoring?
No. A tutor generally re-teaches curriculum content. Structured literacy or numeracy teaching addresses the underlying skill in a fixed sequence, and it stops when the skill is reliable. We offer tutoring too, and we will tell you plainly which one your child actually needs.
Do we need an educational psychologist report first?
Not to start. A formal report can matter for school accommodations and exam access arrangements, and where that is the case we will say so and name independent assessors. Our own assessment tells you what to teach next, which does not require a label.
How quickly should we see change?
Faster than a term. Structured teaching produces a measurable rate of change, and if the rate is flat across two consecutive reviews we rewrite the plan rather than adding hours.
Other profiles we support.
Autism
Support built around how your child already communicates, not around making them appear typical.
Who we supportADHD
Support that changes the demands around a child, not just the child's effort level.
Who we supportSpeech and language delay
Communication that works in real life, with whatever method gets your child there fastest.
Tell us what you've noticed.
Twenty minutes on the phone with someone who does this every day. No assessment, no cost, and no obligation to become a client at the end of it.
If we're not the right people, we'll tell you who is. That includes naming providers we don't own, and it costs you nothing either way.