I have often been asked this question by parents, and even educators. It is important for parents and professionals to know the differences between speech-language therapy and tutoring in order to make informed decisions about the services they retain or recommend for their children and students. While both speech-language therapy and tutoring can involve academic subjects and homework, the goals of speech-language therapy and tutoring are very different, as are the manners in which curricular materials are used.
The goal of tutoring is to help students succeed with academic subjects and complete homework. Candidates for tutoring are those who need additional explanation of the curriculum presented in class, not necessarily because of an underlying language problem or learning disability, but because further elaboration or clarification of the material is required. Imagine a student in high school who is succeeding in every class except for chemistry. The student does not have a language impairment or learning disability, but needs additional explanation of the material in order to understand it, because chemistry in particular is a particularly difficult subject for this student. Tutoring sessions will most likely be devoted to helping the student understand the materials and complete homework. Given effective tutoring, this student will most likely succeed in chemistry, now that the subject has been better explained.
Speech and language therapy, on the other hand, targets the linguistic and/or cognitive weaknesses or vulnerabilities of a student, in order for the student to be able to access curricular material. Rather than focusing on helping the student to complete homework assignments, the goal is to build and strengthen skills that the student needs in order to understand and complete the assignments. For example, let’s say that a student has a receptive language impairment (difficulty understanding and/or processing language). Many subskills are involved in language comprehension and processing. A speech language therapist would investigate the areas that contribute to the impairment, and provide the student with direct, targeted instruction and practice using strategies in order to improve upon specific linguistic areas of need. Curricular materials often are used in order to target speech or language skills, but the goal of using these materials is to help the child practice using strategies to improve speech and language in a functional context; therefore, although the homework assignments may well be completed, this is not the ultimate goal of a speech-language therapist. The goal is to improve the student’s language skills so the student will be able to independently understand and complete assignments across all classes or subjects.
Another important difference between tutoring and speech-language therapy is that the latter targets goal areas outside of the academic arena. Language permeates all aspects of life, and so language therapy is also devoted to improving language skills not only to help children succeed in school, but to to help improve communication skills in the context of daily life situations.
Both tutoring and speech-language therapy are valuable services, but they have different goals. It is important to keep this information in mind when determining whether to obtain tutoring or speech-language therapy services for your child.
