Is there a magic number? How many sessions should we plan for?

When deciding on a schedule with a family, there are always many factors to consider. Families are busy; students often have various activities after school and on the weekends, the budget might play a role, etc.

However, before investing in your child’s education, you should know that every student has a unique learning rhythm that we need to respect. While some students might need three months of consistent work to progress to a certain level, other students might take nine months. 

Research has shown that students make better progress when they are taught explicitly, regularly and with consistency during or outside of school hours. 

Repetition, repetition, repetition 

Repetition is essential for learning to read. In addition to helping us memorize a concept, repetition also increases automaticity, essential for reading fluency and comprehension.

Struggling learners need more repetition than you might think. Depending on context and the quality of the interventions, gifted students need, on average, 1-4 repetitions, average students will need 1-10, and our struggling learners will need over 100 repetitions to learn certain concepts, sounds, rules, etc. 

Space it out

Repetition spaced over time is more effective than repetition performed back to back. Teaching a concept and then reviewing it several times over the course of a few weeks will greatly improve your students' ability to recall it. 

For the program to be effective, students must spend a substantial amount of time working on their skills in a supportive environment where they are provided explicit instruction and spaced repetitions. 

While the amount of time per session needed for effectiveness depends on the student's age and ability, they should receive at least 3 sessions per week.

The magic number is somewhere between 3 and 5 sessions per week, depending on the student’s schedule, ability to concentrate, and the family budget. 

For younger learners, we recommend 3-4 sessions of 30 minutes per week. Students will benefit from the repetition and consistency without feeling overwhelmed.

For older students in grades 4 and up, we meet with them 3 to 4 times a week for 45 to 60 minutes.

For the intervention to be successful, consistency and frequency are crucial.