Beyond Tutoring: Understanding Clinical Instruction
Does your child struggle to keep up with reading, writing, or math? Have you tried tutoring but still feel like something is missing? Tutoring can be helpful for reviewing curriculum concepts, completing homework, or preparing for tests, but for many students with Learning Disabilities or ADHD, tutoring alone often doesn’t address the underlying learning challenges.
At Foothills Academy’s Read/Write & Math Intervention department, we provide something very different: clinical instruction. Clinical instruction goes beyond helping students keep up in school — it focuses on building foundational skills and cognitive processes that support real understanding. It equips students with the tools they need to become confident, independent learners.
What Makes Clinical Instruction Different from Tutoring?
Tutoring focuses on what students are learning — reviewing and reinforcing material taught in school.
Clinical instruction focuses on how students learn.
At Read/Write & Math Intervention, our clinical instruction targets the root causes of academic difficulty, such as weaknesses in phonemic awareness, working memory, processing speed, language comprehension, and number sense. It also emphasizes the neurodevelopmental foundations of learning using structured, research-based interventions designed to remediate learning at its core.
Our goal isn’t to help a child get through this week’s spelling list or math test. It’s to bridge research and learning, equipping students with skills and strategies that will move them forward.
Why Clinical Instruction Matters
Students with ADHD or Learning Disabilities often work harder than their peers — not because they aren’t trying, but because their brains process information differently.
Our clinical instructors are highly qualified interventionists specializing in evidence-based literacy and numeracy programs. They continuously refine their practice, learning from research, colleagues, and students, to ensure that each program meets the unique needs of the learners we serve.
Clinical instruction can change the trajectory of learning. By building the core systems of literacy and numeracy, rather than just focusing on the next assignment or test, we help students develop the skills, confidence, and independence needed for lifelong learning.
Families often describe our work as life-changing. Once a child begins to experience success through their own effort and ability, everything else including motivation, confidence, and engagement begins to change too.
Our Commitment
Our mission is to ensure that every learner in our care has the opportunity to experience success through effective, explicit, and evidence-based instruction. We are proud to serve the Calgary community and beyond, continually learning, growing, and refining our practice to provide the very best in literacy and numeracy intervention.
To discover the impact a skilled clinical instructor can have for your child, explore our programs and learn more at https://www.foothillsacademy.org/community/read-write.