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Several years ago, I began tutoring developmentally disabled adults through the Buncombe County Literacy Council. I have found it to be an extremely rewarding experience.

I have worked with 10-12 adult students in one-on-one situations. Each person is unique with different needs and desires.

The first thing I do is to spend the first hour together getting to know one another. I find out the likes, dislikes and goals of each student and then tailor a teaching program around those. I have had much success with these, and my students are making progress and preparing for GED exams.

My students range from a 72-year-old woman who runs a day-care center out of her home and wants to close it and get an office job to a 58-year-old man who has always worked as a machine operator, never learned to read or write and now wants to learn so that he can become a minister!

Using a combination of sources from phonics to books to the Internet, my students have improved their skills to the point where they are making great strides.

To me, learning works best when it is fun for both teacher and student. Many times, I find that I learn as much if not more than the people I teach than they learn from me. What a miracle!

Patience is an integral part of tutoring anyone - especially adults. They tend to believe that they are unable to learn or that they are just not smart.

It is a slow process for someone who never learned to read or write to go from learning the basic alphabet to reading and writing words, sentences and paragraphs - but, they can and DO make progress. Love, compassion and patience, along with the correct teaching materials, are indespensible in this process.

The rewards are pricesless for student and tutor.

Learn more about this author, Esther Mantel.
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