Personally vetted instructors
Learning Disability Support tutors, lessons & classes
How can I help today? The first question every good LD tutor asks.
Personally vetted tutors who specialize in supporting students with learning disabilities. Reading, math, writing, processing differences. Patient, evidence-based, with real classroom and clinical experience.
Your instructors
Learning Disability Support tutors for private lessons & classes
Strommen has been tutoring in LA since 2006. Learning-disability support has been part of our work from the beginning because so many of the families we serve have a kid with a diagnosis or a suspected difference. Every tutor below was met and vetted by us in person. No marketplace. Real teachers with real backgrounds, which you can read about in their bios.
Filter by location, age, or price. Then book a 30-minute free trial.
Below are the Strommen tutors who specialize in learning-disability support. Photos, ratings, and rates are real. Click any card to read their bio and book a free 30-minute trial.
What good LD tutoring looks like
5 things our LD-support tutors actually do
These are the practical moves that separate a generalist tutor from one trained in learning differences. Worth knowing before you book anyone for this kind of work.
-
01
Multi-modality instruction
Teaching the same concept through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic channels simultaneously. A student with a processing difference may catch a concept through one channel that they missed through another. This is the foundation of most evidence-based LD instruction, including Orton-Gillingham reading work.
e.g. Reading a phoneme aloud, tracing it in sand, and seeing it on a card all in the same minute.
-
02
Reading the IEP and 504
If the student has an Individualized Education Program or a 504 plan, the LD tutor reads it before the first session and aligns goals to it. The plan was written by the school team after testing; ignoring it means starting from scratch and missing useful context.
e.g. The IEP says "extended time on multi-step problems." The tutor builds that into every session, even though the school isn't watching.
-
03
The parent-tutor-school triangle
Good LD tutoring runs on three-way communication: parent updates the tutor on what happened at school, tutor updates the parent on what's working, the school IEP team gets looped in when meaningful. Without that triangle, the tutor is working blind.
e.g. Brief weekly email to the parent, plus an offer to attend the annual IEP meeting if useful.
-
04
Accommodations vs. modifications
Accommodations remove a barrier without changing what the student learns (text-to-speech, oral testing, extended time). Modifications change what the student is expected to learn (shorter assignment, lower-grade-level text). Both have a place. Confusing them shortchanges the student.
e.g. A dyslexic 6th grader gets the same novel as the class with audio access (accommodation), not a 4th-grade replacement (modification).
-
05
Evidence-based intervention pyramids
Reputable LD work uses methods that have actual research behind them, not the latest brain-training app. For reading: Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, Lindamood-Bell. For math: CRA progression, explicit instruction. For writing: graphic organizers, sentence-combining drills. Our tutors can explain what they're using and why.
e.g. "We're using a structured-literacy approach because the research base for it is the strongest."
About Learning Disability Support
Specialized tutoring that meets the student where they are
About one in five students learns differently. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, language processing disorders, slow processing speed, working-memory limitations. These are real, measurable differences in how the brain handles input and output. They are not a measure of intelligence, effort, or capacity. They are a wiring difference that asks for a different teaching approach.
Most classroom instruction is built for the average learner. When a student doesn't fit that average, the gap shows up early: in reading fluency, in math facts, in written output, in following multi-step directions. Without targeted support, the gap widens. With targeted support, students with learning disabilities can and do thrive academically. The research on this is settled.
What "targeted support" actually means in practice: multi-modality instruction that combines visual, auditory, and kinesthetic input. Explicit teaching of strategies that neurotypical students often pick up by osmosis. Accommodations (extended time, text-to-speech, oral testing) where they remove barriers, and modifications (adjusted content) where they're warranted. Structured-literacy approaches like Orton-Gillingham for reading. Concrete-representational-abstract progressions for math. Graphic organizers, mind maps, and externalized memory aids for writing.
Strommen's LD-support tutors come from a mix of backgrounds. Some are credentialed special-education teachers. Some are reading specialists trained in Orton-Gillingham or Wilson. Some are educational therapists with backgrounds in learning differences. All of them have the temperament the work requires: patient, observant, willing to scrap a lesson plan when it isn't landing, willing to celebrate progress measured in inches rather than miles.
If your child has an IEP or 504 plan, our tutors read it carefully and align with the goals the school has set. If you don't yet have a formal evaluation but you suspect a learning difference, our tutors can flag patterns and point you toward a qualified diagnostician. We don't diagnose, but we know what we're seeing after enough years in the work.
A few things that come up often. Parents sometimes ask whether tutoring will "cure" the disability. It won't, because a learning disability isn't an illness. What targeted tutoring does is build the specific skills the student is behind in, teach compensatory strategies, and rebuild academic confidence that years of struggle have eroded. Adult students who are returning to school or pursuing a credential after a late diagnosis ask similar questions. The answer is similar: you can absolutely close gaps and develop the strategies you were never taught.
Progress in LD work is rarely linear. A student might plateau for weeks then jump three grade levels in fluency over a month. A different student might inch forward consistently every session. Both are normal. What matters is whether the trajectory over a semester is up, and whether the student is rebuilding the belief that academic work is doable for them. Good LD tutors track both.
Most of our LD work happens online, which actually suits a lot of these students well: fewer sensory distractions, the option to mute the camera during writing tasks, screen-sharing for collaborative reading. We also have several tutors who work in person around Los Angeles, and we can match in-person if that's a better fit for the student. Book a free 30-minute trial and we'll calibrate from there.
What you'll cover
Lessons & classes tailored to Learning Disability Support
Reading and decoding support
For students with reading-based learning disabilities, the work is structured literacy: explicit phonics, decoding drills, fluency-building through repeated reading, vocabulary tied to morphology. Our reading-focused tutors are trained in Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, or Lindamood-Bell. Sessions are short, focused, and high-repetition because that's what the research says works.
Math and dyscalculia work
Students with math-based learning differences benefit from the concrete-representational-abstract progression: manipulate physical objects first, then represent them with drawings, then move to symbols. We also teach compensatory strategies like number-line reasoning, decomposition, and the multiplication patterns that ease the working-memory load. Calculators are tools, not crutches, and our tutors know when to use them.
Writing and executive-function scaffolds
Many LD students can think a paragraph but can't get it onto the page. Our writing-focused tutors use graphic organizers, mind maps, and dictation tools to externalize the planning step before the drafting step. We also work on the executive-function side: breaking assignments into chunks, building checklists, using timers, planning multi-week projects. See our dedicated executive-function coaching page if that's the primary need.
English-language adaptations for LD students
For students who are both learning English as an additional language and working with a learning difference, the standard ESL playbook needs adjusting. Slower pace, more visual scaffolding, more repetition, deliberate vocabulary-building tied to morphology. Our English for special-needs students tutors specialize in this overlap and can pull in LD-trained strategies alongside ESL methodology.
FAQ
About Learning Disability Support lessons & classes
Do your tutors diagnose learning disabilities?
No. Diagnosis is the work of a qualified educational psychologist or neuropsychologist, and it involves standardized testing we're not licensed to administer. What our tutors can do is recognize patterns after a few sessions and point you toward a diagnostician if a formal evaluation looks warranted. Many students come to us with a diagnosis already in hand; others get evaluated partway through our work together.
My child has an IEP. Will the tutor read it?
Yes, and they should. The IEP captures what the school team has tested, what goals they've set, and what accommodations the student qualifies for. A tutor who skips it is working without important context. Send the most recent IEP (or 504 plan) when you book, and the tutor will review it before the trial lesson.
What does an LD-focused lesson actually look like?
Short, focused, high-repetition. A typical hour might include a brief warm-up reviewing the previous week's target skill, 25 to 30 minutes of explicit instruction on the current skill using multi-sensory methods, a low-pressure practice round, and a clear take-home task. We don't pile on. The goal is mastery of one thing, not exposure to many things.
How long until we see progress?
Honest answer: depends on the student, the skill, and the consistency. Some students see fluency gains in 8 to 12 weeks. Some need a semester before the curve turns. We track concrete metrics from the start (words per minute, math facts mastered, sentences per paragraph) so progress is visible even when it's slow. Big jumps tend to come after plateaus, not before them.
Can adults get tutoring for a learning disability?
Yes, and a meaningful share of our LD students are adults. Common reasons: a late diagnosis after struggling through school, returning to college or a credential program, preparing for a professional exam, or simply wanting to read more comfortably. The methods are similar to what we use with kids. The pace and the conversation around it are different.
Do you work with students who have an autism diagnosis alongside an LD?
Yes, and the overlap is common. Several of our tutors specialize in teaching autistic students and can blend autism-informed pacing and sensory awareness with LD-specific strategies. Tell us about both diagnoses when you book and we'll match accordingly.
Online or in person?
Both work. Online via Zoom or Jitsi is often a good fit for LD students because the environment has fewer distractions and the screen-share makes collaborative reading and writing easy. We also have tutors who work in person around Los Angeles. Each tutor's profile shows their available formats; pick what fits the student.
Ready for Learning Disability Support lessons or classes?
Book a free 30-minute trial with one of our personally vetted tutors. Private lessons or small-group classes — your choice.