Educational therapy is a great way to promote executive function strategy use for students with or without learning differences. However, what exactly is an educational therapist? People often confuse educational therapists with tutors and special education teachers. While there are some similarities, it’s important to understand the differences.

Differences Between Tutoring and Educational Therapy

The biggest difference between tutoring and educational therapy is that tutors focus on what to learn while educational therapists focus on how to learn.

A tutor usually helps the student with one subject or multiple subjects. Tutoring focuses on the subject matter, and the goal is to improve the student’s grades.

An educational therapist takes a more holistic approach, with the goals of both improving a student’s academic performance and helping the student reach psycho-educational and social-emotional goals. With these goals in mind, an educational therapist evaluates the student’s strengths and weaknesses, helps the student understand these strengths and weaknesses, develops certain learning and social-emotional strategies, and teaches the student how to advocate for himself/herself. Educational therapists also communicate with parents, teachers, and tutors, working together to help a student reach his or her goals.

To support students across academic, psycho-educational, and social-emotional goals, educational therapists have extensive training in learning disabilities as well as an understanding of the psychology of learning disorders, assessment, and intervention strategies that address the social and emotional aspects that impact learning.