Tutoring is More than Just Instruction

For this blog, our Executive Director, John Claes, shares a post from his weekly Facebook feature that he calls “New Friend Friday”, where he introduces a GiGi’s Participant to his personal network.

For today’s New Friend Friday, I introduce you to seven-year-old Nick. This photo is of him and his friend Tammy that was taken at GiGi’s Playhouse a while back. (I tried to pose for a photo with him when he was by the Playhouse this past week, but he wasn’t interested. He was having too much fun in the fitness class that he was taking with his little sister and his GiGi’s friends.)

I have seen Nick at GiGi’s several times but haven’t had much personal interaction with him. I am more acquainted with him through his mother, Mary, who does not seem as preoccupied by the playground equipment and recreational activities available at our facility.

It was the same day as that fitness class that I realized that I should introduce you to Nick. You see, Mary was kind enough to join me in a morning Zoom meeting with the United Way of Central Iowa that day to share a tutoring success story about her son. I loved the story so much I asked her if I could share it with you.

Nick has been coming to GiGi’s since he was two and he started one-on-one tutoring for both math and literacy in 2021. After a few years, Nick was paired up with a new literacy tutor who was a Des Moines University student named Tyler. (DMU is a great source of volunteers of all kinds for us!) Tyler had no experience as a tutor and approached working with Nick as all tutors are trained to – review an assessment provided by the parents with set small, measurable goals that are reviewed after each session. Tyler noticed at their first meeting that Nick could not making the “K” sound, and that it was very frustrating that he couldn’t even pronounce his own name. That detail was not included in Nick’s assessment, but Tyler determined that it would be the initial goal of their work together. Tyler did some research on his own and, in time, Nick was finally able to say his own name and have people understand him. Mary said that it was a small thing that meant so much to him and his whole family. And to Tyler, too.

That story speaks to everything we do at GiGi’s. We don’t base any programming goals on standard benchmarks because we don’t all learn the same. No two people are alike, and no two people with Down syndrome are alike either. In the GiGi’s dictionary, “best of all” is a noun that means, “continual, measurable, celebrated and it never ends. It is a daily challenge to do a little better than you did the day before and it’s always celebrated. Standing just one second longer, reading just one more word, learning just one new number, taking just one more step, never a competition, never completed.”

And there’s a great postscript to this story that Mary shared with me and the United Way Education Cabinet. When Tyler started tutoring Nick a year ago, he was undecided about the kind of medicine that he would pursue. Mary took a call from Tyler last month with some bad news and some good news. The bad news? Tyler said that he wouldn’t be able to tutor Nick any longer because he would be moving to Wisconsin to start his first residency. Mary was sad to learn that, but she was delighted to hear Tyler’s good news: he had decided that he would pursue pediatric neurology, and that had a lot to do with his working with Nick.

And now here’s a second P.S. to this New Friend Friday post: GiGi’s needs life changers like Tyler to serve as tutors for participants like Nick in math and literacy! Could you be that life changer? If so, go here: https://tinyurl.com/ws3fzuyt