Our peer volunteers are ready to help your child with homework and school projects.

Our goal is for peer tutoring to be effective in helping children with Down syndrome improve academic skills while also being fun and engaging. We believe increasing academic skills not only makes school a more engaging environment, but it can increase self-esteem and reduce behavioral issues. Because our tutors are not professionals and are all volunteers, they do not have burnout and the loss of enthusiasm we often see with professional tutors and teachers.

The effectiveness of peer tutoring in children in individuals with learning differences is also backed by science. For example, a research study found over 50 percent of the students with ADHD who received peer tutoring 15 to 20 minutes per day for 3 to 4 days a week exhibited improvements in academic performance in math or spelling and there were also reductions in off-task behavior for most participants.⁽¹⁾ In a study evaluating peer tutoring in children with autism by neurotypical peers, peer tutoring consisting of 25 to 30 minutes in class was shown to increased reading fluency and reading comprehension accuracy for students for both groups of children.⁽²⁾ While there is are not studying evaluating the effectiveness of remote peer tutoring on children with Down syndrome, studies that have evaluated the efficacy of remote learning programs in disadvantaged children and those with learning disabilities, have found remote learning to produce gains, helping validate the effectiveness of this mode of learning.⁽³⁾

The parents of the self-advocate advise on the curriculum and the volunteers implement the curriculum based on the wishes of the parents. For example, parents email photos of homework or projects to the volunteers in advance of the sessions. In other cases, parents ask the peer volunteer to work on reading or reinforce a specific math skills. Our peer volunteers take feedback from the parents on areas to academic areas focus on. Our peer volunteers often screen share online reading and math content and also can use the whiteboard function to make the tutoring more interactive despite being online. We also encourage our tutors to make learning fun.

Inspired to Learn has also collected and compiled various Math and ELA resources to help augment the materials to work with. We also provide a login to learning platforms like IXL.com (designed for K-12) for those who just want to brush up on general math or ELA skills.

⁽¹⁾ DuPaul, G.J., Ervin, R.A., Hook, C.L. & McGoey, K.E., Peer Tutoring for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Effects on Classroom Behavior and Academic Performance. J. Applied Beh. Analysis, 1998, 31: 579-592. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1998.31-579

⁽²⁾ Kamps, D.M., Barbetta, P.M., Leonard, B.R. & Delquadri, J., Classwide Peer Tutoring: An Integration Strategy to Improve Reading Skills and Promote Peer Interactions Among Students with Autism and General Education Peers. J. of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1994, 27: 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1994.27-49

⁽³⁾ Carlana, M. and Ferrara, E., Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring and Student Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2021, HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP21-001; Gortazar, L., Hupkau, C., Roldán-Monés, A., Online tutoring works: Experimental evidence from a program with vulnerable children. Journal of Public Economics, 2024, 232, 105082, ISSN 0047-2727, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105082; Robinson, C.D., Pollard, C., Novicoff, S., White, S., and Loeb, S.. The Effects of Virtual Tutoring on Young Readers: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial. 2024.(EdWorkingPaper: 24-955). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/rtxg-5111.