How I help
An hour a week, one to one, with everything planned around your child.
Who Sophie teaches
Sophie teaches children aged 5 to 13, one to one, mostly in literacy and maths. If your child needs help with something else, ask anyway, because she may still be able to help.
She works with children who have a dyslexia diagnosis and children who do not. Plenty of families arrive before anyone has put a name to the problem.
Your child may understand a lesson perfectly well when it is talked through and still be unable to get at the work on the page, or be able to see that they have been given easier work than the rest of the class. That takes a real toll on a child's self-esteem, and for some it starts to show in their mental health and their day-to-day lives. Sophie teaches to the way your child thinks, so the work finally matches what they already understand.
What a lesson looks like
Lessons run for an hour once a week and they are active: games, movement, things to build and sort and say out loud, with movement breaks along the way. Very little of it involves sitting still, which is why an hour works even for the younger children.
Everything in a lesson comes from the assessment, so she is never working through a published programme and hoping it fits your child.
In person or online
Sophie thinks in person works better, mostly because she can put real objects in front of a child. Online works well too.
At Sophie's teaching room
A room in her home in Tooting, set up for teaching.
At your home
Sophie travels to families within about an hour of Tooting, across Wandsworth and south west London and into central London.
Online
Online suits families further away, or weeks when getting across London is not going to happen. Online lessons are not recorded.
The assessment comes first
Before teaching a child anything, Sophie finds out where they actually are. She looks at reading single words and reading in context, spelling, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, memory and sequencing, and free writing.
It takes two or three hours with your child, split across more than one session, because that much in one sitting is too much for anybody. Afterwards you receive a strengths and needs grid: what your child does well, the things getting in the way, and what she is going to do about it. Every parent gets the grid as standard.
Some parents want a full written report as well, and that can be bought separately. The prices are on the fees page.
What Sophie does not offer
The assessment tells Sophie how to teach your child, and that is all it does. It is a teaching assessment, never a diagnosis.
Sophie does not offer diagnostic assessments for dyslexia, and she does not assess for exam access arrangements such as extra time.
If a formal diagnosis is what you need, say so on the call and she will point you towards someone who does them. The British Dyslexia Association is a good place to start. For exam access arrangements, ask your child's school, because the school applies for them.
You do not need a diagnosis to start lessons.
Questions parents ask
How long before we see a difference?
It varies, and anyone who gives you a number is guessing. What usually shifts first is how your child feels about the work, and that often comes within a few weeks.
Do you set homework?
A small amount, and always something short, because children with dyslexia are usually exhausted by school already.
Will Sophie talk to my child's school?
Yes, Sophie is happy to talk to your child's school.
Do I have to commit to a term?
You do not need to commit to a whole term. Lessons are booked as a regular weekly slot, with a minimum of six lessons after the initial assessment, and after that you can stop at any time with two lessons' notice.
Start with a free call
Tell Sophie what is happening and you can work out together whether she is the right person for your child. The call takes 15 minutes.