Personalized Support for Classroom Success
The foreign language requirement in high school can be particularly challenging for neurodivergent students. Our fluent Spanish tutor, who understands how neurodivergent brains learn, personalizes instruction to meet the individual learning needs and goals of students.
What makes high school second language instruction particularly challenging for neurodivergent students?
Dyslexia
Second Language is taught in the US schools on the basis of reading and writing in the foreign language. For students with dyslexia, this can be a challenge. In our sessions, we focus on learning their course material through speaking and listening first, then leveraging that knowledge to master reading and writing.
ADHD
Learning a second language in a classroom setting can be challenging for ADHD because it involves tracking many minute details. To help students focus and engage, we include personalized lessons of interest with a video, song, text, or vocabulary topic that aligns with their lives.
Language Disorder
For students with language disorder, expressing themselves in their native language can be difficult. They know the concept, but they can’t get the words out. This difficulty can be compounded by the added challenge of learning words in a new language. In these lessons, exposure to language, writing together, connecting the new word to the concept, and building strong speaking skills as a support can make a world of difference.
Why Learn Spanish?
- Similar alphabet to English with many similar words
- Spelling is easier in Spanish than English
- Need for bilingual professionals in the US due to changing demographics
- 20 countries list Spanish as an official language
Benefits of a Second Language
The cognitive benefits of learning a second language include:
- Improved executive function, memory, and creativity
- Delayed onset of dementia
Myth busting:
- It’s not harmful for neurodivergent brains
- It doesn’t reroute energy from necessary processes in their first language
- It doesn’t contribute to brain-based disabilities
Accommodations:
- Advocating for a pass/fail accommodation at school can allow students to benefit from the mental workout without impacting their GPA
Our Neurodivergent Spanish Tutor
Hannah Brooks completed a second bachelor’s in Spanish with honors and a Spanish/English translation certificate. That degree included a 3 month immersion in Mexico, where she took C1 level coursework. She has interned in a dual language school, providing bilingual speech therapy in Spanish. Hannah also has experience helping high school students who have dyslexia, ADHD, or a language disorder improve their conversational Spanish, be successful in their Spanish high school classes, and study for the Spanish IB exam.
Hannah is a Certified Cognitive Coach, trained to support students with ADHD, Autism, and Dyslexia.
Learn Spanish with Us!
Whether learning Spanish is painful or just not your thing, neurodivergent Spanish tutoring with Mindfish will help you succeed!