Biography and Philosophy
Laurence Perry, MS
I am a passionate and dedicated teacher with over twenty years
My focus is working with special needs students. My philosophy towards teaching has not changed since I began my career: I have always had a great deal of patience when it comes to working with children (with or without special needs). Any child will at times experience periods of frustration and impatience while at school or at home. The key is to realize and anticipate this, so when it does occur the tutor/teacher/parent is prepared and can thus manage it appropriately.
I believe in positive reinforcement. When I tutor a child, there is nothing that he/she can do wrong with regard to concepts being worked on. If the child gives a wrong answer, I tell him/her to “try another way”; or: “you are very close to a perfect response, let’s try again.” I strongly feel that negative reinforcement will only make the child feel angry at himself and less confident. The key is to reward positively when appropriate and build within the student enough self confidence to allow him/her to succeed. I also design my lessons so that the tasks are not too easy, but also not too difficult. The idea is to present the child with work that is challenging, but success achievable. If I see that a particular concept is too difficult, I will break it down into smaller steps (task analysis) to make sure that the child continues to move upward.
Children with learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome or other special needs often experience a short attention span and difficult focusing onto task. I have found that their level of attention usually increases dramatically when working with devices of high interest (like the computer, iPod or computer games). I assure you that your child will approach online tutoring with much curiosity and excitement primarily because it is like nothing they have ever seen before.