Let’s start by differentiating between remedial lessons and extra lessons.
Remedial lessons are for learners who are struggling with the foundations in his or her learning. It is the act of ‘fixing’ to help the learner overcome their barrier to enhance learning. Remedial lessons are in the areas of language or mathematics and will begin at a level where instructional learning can take place.
Extra lessons are for learners who require extra support in a topic in any learning area at the level of education that they are currently at by re-teaching, re-explaining to the learner to enable him or her to understand.
The act of ‘fixing’ or remediation requires consistent and regular lessons that are ongoing, ideally done on a one to one with the therapist and learner. Remedial lessons are progressive, working towards reducing the gaps in the learner’s foundational knowledge. They can be done by a specialist teacher (therapist) in remedial education. Before starting therapy, the therapist will,
- engage with the stakeholders such as parent, teacher, and any other professionals such as an educational psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist amongst others to gain insight into the problems that the learner is experiencing.
- Implement an individual educational plan.
- Make regular observations and provide regular informal assessments.
- Feedback loop to parents and other professionals.
With extra lessons a tutor or teacher will re-teach the learner in the area they find difficult. Lessons don’t need to be progressive and are only necessary for as long as the parent / learner requires. There is usually little to no engagement with other professionals.
Let us look at the following two scenarios,
Scenario A, a learner in the senior phase of primary school is struggling with reading. And the teacher has noticed that the learner also has trouble with spelling.
Scenario B, a learner in the senior phase of primary school is struggling with Perimeter in Mathematics. The learner experiences no other difficulties within Mathematics.
Scenario A, would require remedial lessons.
The teacher would need to investigate at what level the learner can read independently and where the learner is making spelling errors. The teacher would need to provide remediation for the learner in the areas of reading and spelling from the specific skill level of the child and to build on from this framework. The teacher would also need to investigate other building blocks that develop reading to see if the problem does not stem these building blocks, such as phonemic awareness skills. Has the learner’s vision been screened? Has the learner’s hearing been screened? As you can see there is a lot of investigation (and this is not exhaustive) into why and where the child is struggling with reading and spelling.
Scenario B, would require extra lessons.
The learner finds no difficulty in other areas of Mathematics so we can assume that the child is struggling with the calculation of Perimeter, remembering the formula and / or understanding the meaning of perimeter. The teacher would not need to consult with other professionals, there would be no need for further investigation and the learner would be retaught the information on the current level he / she is at. To assist the learner, the teacher should converse with the learner to find out where he / she started to misunderstand. The teacher would then need to differentiate his / her teaching for the learner to understand. As soon as the learner understands, no more lessons would be required.
Now that you know the difference between the two types of lessons, be guided by what the class teacher is saying and implement a plan as soon as possible. Help your child by providing them with the right support! Don’t delay!