What does a remedial teacher actually do in a session?

In a remedial session, the teacher rebuilds specific skills the child has not yet mastered: reviewing known letter-sound links, teaching one new concept explicitly, then practising it through reading, spelling and writing until it holds. Every activity is short, chosen from what the previous session showed, and aimed at mastery, not at covering the school syllabus.

How is the session planned?

The planning happens before the child ever sits down. A remedial programme starts with an informal assessment that maps exactly where the child’s skills sit, and every session after that is built on the evidence of the one before. If Tuesday’s dictation showed that sh words are still shaky, Thursday’s session opens with sh. Nothing in a session is generic, which is the deepest difference from tuition: the plan follows the child, not a textbook.

What happens in the first ten minutes?

Warm-up drills, quick and game-like. The teacher shows letter and letter-pattern cards and the child gives each sound from memory; then it reverses, with the teacher saying a sound and the child writing the letters that spell it, saying them aloud as she writes. A few minutes of blending follows, pushing single sounds together into words.

These drills look small and they carry the session. They wake up every pathway the new learning will need, they give the child five minutes of guaranteed success at the start, and they show the teacher, in real time, what has stuck since last session and what needs another pass.

How is something new taught?

One concept at a time, concretely, with as many senses as possible. Say the new teaching point is the ck spelling. The child hears it in words, sees it in print, says it, and writes it large while sounding it, sometimes tracing it in sand or on a rough surface, because sight, sound and movement together build memory that print alone does not. Then the concept goes straight to work in real words the child can already handle, so it lands as something useful rather than an abstract rule.

What the child never gets is a worksheet and a “try these twenty”. Practice happens with the teacher inside the loop, catching and correcting errors before they can settle in.

Nothing in a remedial session is random. Every card, word and sentence is there because the last session showed it should be.

How does a session end?

With the skills put back together. The child reads words, sentences and a short passage built only from patterns she has been taught, so the reading is genuinely achievable. Then dictation runs the same material in the other direction: the teacher says sounds, words, and finally a full sentence or two, and the child writes them. Spelling and reading are two sides of the same code, and a remedial session always works both sides.

The last few minutes go to connected reading, and the session deliberately ends on success. For a child who has spent years failing at print, ending every session on “I read that whole page” is not a nicety. It is half the treatment.

What does the parent see?

Between sessions, very light practice, a few minutes of review rather than homework stacks; the heavy lifting stays in the session. Over the weeks, a predictable order of change: attitude first, then accuracy on taught patterns, then skills showing up in schoolwork, with spelling settling last. I have written more about that sequence in the Orton-Gillingham guide, which is the approach my own reading and spelling sessions follow.

What is a remedial session not?

It is not homework help; the school syllabus is not the target. It is not a slower repeat of the class lesson. And it is never a punishment, though children sometimes arrive believing it is. A well-run session is the opposite: the one place in the week where the work is exactly at their level and success is built in. Most children figure that out within the first fortnight, and start to like coming.

Frequently asked questions

How long is a session, and how many does a child need per week?

Typically 45 to 60 minutes, two to three times a week. Frequency matters more than length: skills under construction need short gaps between practice, not one long weekly session.

Does a parent sit in?

For young children, being nearby helps settle the start of the session. Beyond that, most children work better one-to-one with the teacher, with parents getting a summary of what was covered and what the light practice for the week is.

Is a remedial session the same as an Orton-Gillingham session?

For reading and spelling difficulties, a good remedial session is usually built on Orton-Gillingham principles: explicit, systematic, multisensory, diagnostic. Remedial teaching is the broader term; it can also cover skills such as number work.

Dr. V.S. Gayathri is a Certified Dyslexia Therapist, an Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist, and the founder of Flourishing Kids. She has delivered over 4,000 hours of one-to-one reading and spelling intervention, helping children across multiple countries build stronger literacy skills. If you want to know what sessions would look like for your child, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.