We have found peer tutoring to be very motivating and effective for children and young adults with Down syndrome. Our tutors seek to be fun and engaging and use positive reinforcement to help enhance learning. 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.

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 skill. Some of our tutors work with the tutee using an online learning platform such as IXL. Each relationship is informed by the parent and based on the individual need of the tutee. Our peer volunteers often screen share online reading and math content and also can use the whiteboard function to make the tutoring session more interactive despite being online. Further, we frequently seek feedback from the parents on how to best work with the tutee and improve sessions.

Inspired to Learn has also collected and compiled various Math and ELA resources to help augment the materials to work with.