Whether you're looking for a tutor for your second grader in science or your sixth grader in reading, you'll need to know how to make the best decision. There are many things to consider when you're looking for a tutor. The first consideration is whether to hire a certified teacher, a student or volunteer who will help.

The professional will be more expensive, but will definitely be trained to teach the grade school curriculum. The professional will have learned how-to teach and will be familiar with different learning styles. Sylvan offers tutoring by working teachers after school hours.

Your child may just need the one on one approach that tutoring offers in order to learn the subject he or she is having problems with. A trained teacher with experience will be able to see where your child is having problems and be able to help.

The professional teacher will be trained to recognize your child's learning style. A learning style is the best one a particular child learns, it's easier for him to learn that way. Your child may learn easier by visual aids or by audio aids.

Also, a teacher knows how to determine if your child has a higher or lesser aptitude in a given subject. This advantage can help the teacher determine if your child needs to be taught at a particular subject a much slower pace. Some children have a high aptitude for English and others an average and still others a lower aptitude.

This is important to know because your child may get too frustrated if this isn't understood and dealt with properly.

The high school student may be a good student and know the subject you want your child tutored in, but he won't have the training to know how-to teach. The upside to hiring a student is that he will work cheaper. Another disadvantage to having a student tutor your child is that your child may get a crush on the older student and not pay attention to the subject matter.

If you hire a student watch them and see if he or she is really interested in tutoring and if they have the ability to teach at all. A person can know how to read or add, but may not be able to get the subject across to someone else.

Another option is to find a suitable volunteer and you may find one easily if your child's school has teacher's aids. The aid has some classroom experience and has been taught useful information and skills from the teacher he or she works with. Along with this knowledge the aid has had experience in teaching one on one and knows about controlling a child's behavior, which may be necessary in order to get the student to pay attention.

If the aid wants to be compensated for tutoring your child, the price should be lower than a teacher would charge and this may accommodate your budget, as well as give you some of the advantages that having a trained teacher would offer.

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About the Author

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about Tutoring and Tutoring Centers.