SEN & Dyslexia Tutor.
Specialist tutors experienced with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and other special educational needs. Patient, structured sessions adapted to each child's learning profile and EHCP goals.
- Age range
- 5-18 years
- Timeline
- Ongoing support
- Category
- Specialist Support
Children with special educational needs often don't need a better version of standard tutoring — they need a genuinely different approach. A good SEN tutor understands that what works for a neurotypical learner may be actively counterproductive for a child with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, dyscalculia, or other learning differences.
They structure sessions to match the child's attention pattern, use multi-sensory methods for literacy and maths, and build confidence that school environments may have eroded. Critically, they work in partnership with parents and, where appropriate, the child's school, SENCO, and any EHCP provision. Progress with SEN students is often slower and less linear than with neurotypical children, but it's real, and the right tutor can make a significant difference to a child's academic trajectory and self-belief.
Dyslexia and specific literacy difficulties
Dyslexia affects reading fluency, spelling, and often writing — but not intelligence or verbal reasoning. Children with dyslexia benefit from structured, cumulative phonics programmes (such as Orton-Gillingham, Toe by Toe, or Sound Discovery), multi-sensory methods that combine visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learning, and plenty of repetition without shame. A specialist dyslexia tutor can make progress that classroom teaching often can't, because they work one-to-one at the child's pace with a systematic plan. Overlearning — practising material beyond the point where the child seems to 'have it' — is essential for retention.
ADHD and executive function support
ADHD affects attention, working memory, task initiation, and self-regulation — not comprehension or ability. A good ADHD tutor uses shorter, more varied session structures, frequent movement breaks, clear visual cues, and concrete goals for each session. They also teach executive function strategies: planning, breaking tasks into chunks, managing time, and checking work. For older students, this often matters as much as the actual subject content — a child with ADHD who can't plan an essay will underperform regardless of how much English they know.
Autism and autistic learners
Autistic children are hugely diverse, so blanket advice is unhelpful. That said, most autistic learners benefit from predictable session structures, clear and literal instructions, advance notice of changes, and tutors who understand sensory sensitivities and don't mistake autistic communication styles (limited eye contact, special interests, direct questions) for rudeness or disengagement. Many autistic children are strong at detail, pattern recognition, and areas of deep interest — a good tutor works with these strengths rather than trying to make the child neurotypical.
EHCPs, SENCOs, and working with schools
If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), the provision specified in Section F is legally binding on the school. A tutor working alongside an EHCP can focus on the specific goals listed, coordinating with the school's SENCO where appropriate. Even without an EHCP, most schools have a SENCO who can share your child's learning profile, strategies that work in class, and targets from their support plan. A tutor who engages with this information — rather than starting from zero — will make faster progress.
What SEN tutoring actually looks like in practice
A typical SEN tutoring session is quieter, more structured, and often shorter than a standard tutoring session — 45 minutes is common rather than an hour. The tutor has a clear plan for what they want to achieve but is ready to adapt based on how the child is presenting that day. For a child with dyslexia, a session might include 10 minutes of phonics practice, 15 minutes of reading aloud with prompting, 10 minutes of structured spelling work, and 10 minutes of writing using mind maps or scaffolds rather than blank-page tasks. For a child with ADHD, the same 45 minutes might be broken into three 10-minute focused segments with brief transition activities between, each with a visible goal. For an autistic child, the session might follow a consistent structure every week (this is a feature, not a lack of variety), with the same greeting, warm-up, main task, and closing activity pattern. Across all three, the tutor is reading the child's engagement in real time — adjusting pace, difficulty, and method to keep them in the productive zone between boredom and frustration. This requires experience; a generalist tutor without SEN training often struggles to hold that balance and loses the child's engagement quickly. When it's done well, SEN tutoring can unlock progress that seemed stuck, rebuild confidence that school has damaged, and give parents a concrete sense that their child is moving forward.
Key focus areas
Find an experienced SEN tutor
Whether your child has a formal diagnosis, is awaiting assessment, or simply learns differently, we can match you with a tutor experienced in the specific needs your child has. Ask about their training, case load, and experience — it matters more for SEN than for any other kind of tutoring.