Learning Support Tutoring in St. Albert & Edmonton

Learning Support Tutoring at Ruby Therapy Services is clinician-designed academic support for children from Pre-K through Grade 6 who have learning disabilities, ADHD, or other challenges that affect their ability to learn in a traditional classroom setting. Unlike regular tutoring, which focuses on re-teaching classroom content, Learning Support Tutoring is designed by registered speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists who identify and address the root causes of your child's academic struggles.

Sessions are primarily delivered by experienced therapy assistants who help your child practise clinician-designed strategies during real academic tasks in reading, writing, math, and science. This means your child is not just reviewing content — they are building the underlying language processing, sensory regulation, fine motor, and executive functioning skills that make learning possible.

Regular tutoring centres focus on re-teaching classroom content — reviewing what the teacher already covered and providing extra practice through worksheets and repetition. This works well for children who simply need more practice time. However, for children with learning disabilities, ADHD, or speech and language challenges, the issue is rarely that they did not hear the lesson — something in how their brain processes, organizes, or outputs information is creating a barrier that content repetition alone cannot fix.

Learning Support Tutoring at Ruby Therapy Services is designed and supervised by registered speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists who identify and treat the root causes of your child's academic struggles. For example, if your child cannot understand math word problems, the challenge may be language processing — not math ability. If your child avoids writing, the barrier may be fine motor fatigue or difficulty organizing thoughts into sentences. Our clinicians assess these underlying challenges, build a targeted plan, and our therapy assistants help your child practise those strategies during real academic tasks.

Research from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association confirms that speech-language pathologists play a critical role in supporting literacy and academic achievement — a role that general tutoring centres are not equipped to fill.

Learning Support Tutoring is designed for children from Pre-K through Grade 6 who experience academic challenges related to an underlying developmental, communication, or neurological condition. This service may be right for your child if:

• Your child has a learning disability such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia
• Your child has ADHD and struggles with focus, organization, or task completion during schoolwork
• Your child has a psychological or developmental diagnosis that affects learning
• Your child has an Individualized Program Plan (IPP) at school
• Your child is currently working with a speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist
• You have concerns about your child's learning — even without a formal diagnosis
• Regular tutoring has not produced lasting improvement

If you are unsure whether this service is the right fit, submit a referral and our team will help determine the best path forward.

No, a formal diagnosis is not required. If you have concerns about your child's learning, we welcome you to submit a referral. Your child will begin with an initial assessment with a registered speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist, who will evaluate what is going on and determine the most appropriate path forward.

That said, if your child's concerns suggest an underlying condition such as ADHD, a learning disability, or autism, a psychoeducational assessment can provide a formal diagnosis, detailed recommendations, and documentation that supports school accommodations, FSCD funding applications, and Disability Tax Credit claims. Our team can guide you on whether an assessment would be beneficial.

Learning Support Tutoring at Ruby Therapy Services is available for children from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 6. This age range covers the foundational academic years when early intervention can have the greatest impact on a child's learning trajectory. During these years, children are developing critical skills in reading, writing, math, and executive functioning — and addressing challenges early leads to significantly better long-term outcomes.

For children and teens beyond Grade 6 who need support, Ruby Therapy Services offers speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, literacy support, and counselling that continue to address communication, executive functioning, and emotional regulation needs through adolescence and beyond.

Speech-language pathologists are experts in how language works — and language is the foundation of almost every academic task. Reading requires language comprehension. Writing requires language organization. Math word problems require the ability to decode complex sentence structures. Even following classroom instructions depends on listening comprehension and working memory.

When a child struggles academically, the root cause is often a language processing challenge that looks like an academic problem on the surface. As research from Reading Rockets explains, SLPs are uniquely qualified to address the language foundation that reading and writing depend on. By Grade 3, a child's language skills account for approximately 60% of the variance in reading comprehension — which is why an SLP's involvement in academic support can make such a significant difference.

Occupational therapists address the physical, sensory, and self-regulation skills that make learning possible. Many children struggle academically not because they cannot understand the material, but because their body and sensory system are getting in the way. A child who cannot hold a pencil comfortably will avoid writing. A child who cannot sit still will miss the lesson. A child who reverses letters or loses their place on the page is dealing with a visual-perceptual challenge, not a lack of effort.

For children with ADHD, OTs are particularly valuable because they teach executive functioning strategies — starting tasks, staying organized, managing time, and sustaining attention — and then the therapy assistant helps the child practise those strategies during actual homework and academic tasks. According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, occupational therapy interventions in school-related tasks lead to measurable improvements in academic participation and independence.

Reading is fundamentally a language-based skill. To read successfully, a child must be able to connect sounds to letters (phonological awareness), decode words accurately, understand vocabulary, process sentence structures, and extract meaning from text. All of these are language skills — and all are within the scope of speech-language pathology.

An SLP at Ruby Therapy Services can help your child with phonological awareness and decoding (the building blocks of reading), reading fluency, vocabulary development, reading comprehension strategies, and understanding the language structures used in academic texts. For children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, SLPs use evidence-based structured literacy approaches to address the underlying language deficits that cause reading difficulty.

For more intensive reading intervention, Ruby Therapy Services also offers a dedicated literacy support program delivered by SLPs with specialized training in structured literacy methods.

Math is deeply language-based. Word problems require reading comprehension. Mathematical instructions require the ability to follow multi-step directions. And math-specific vocabulary — terms like "greater than," "difference," "product," "sum," "fewer," and "how many more" — must be explicitly understood for a child to succeed.

Many children struggle with math not because of mathematical ability, but because of the language surrounding it. As research from LD@School explains, SLPs can help students with learning disabilities by explicitly teaching math vocabulary — providing what researchers describe as "the biggest bang for your buck" — since students with learning disabilities often need five times more exposure to new vocabulary terms than their peers. An SLP helps your child decode what word problems are actually asking, build math-specific vocabulary, and develop working memory strategies for holding information during multi-step calculations.

Handwriting difficulties are one of the most common reasons children avoid written homework. An occupational therapist addresses the underlying fine motor, visual-motor, and sensory challenges that make writing difficult:

• Pencil grip and hand strength: Teaching an efficient grip and building the hand muscles needed to write comfortably for extended periods
• Letter formation and sizing: Addressing reversed letters, inconsistent sizing, and poor spacing between words
• Writing endurance: Gradually building the stamina needed to complete longer writing tasks without fatigue or frustration
• Visual-motor integration: Helping the eyes and hands work together for copying from the board, aligning numbers in columns, and staying on the line

Once the OT establishes goals and teaches strategies, the therapy assistant helps your child practise these skills during actual homework assignments — building real-world fluency, not just clinical skill.

For children with ADHD, homework is often the most stressful part of the day — for the child and the entire family. The challenge is rarely a lack of intelligence or motivation. It is that executive functioning, attention regulation, and sensory processing differences make sustained focus on academic tasks genuinely harder.

At Ruby Therapy Services, the occupational therapist first identifies your child's specific sensory and attention needs, then teaches targeted strategies — sensory breaks, fidget tools, movement activities, environmental modifications, task-breaking techniques, and visual timers. The therapy assistant then helps your child practise these strategies during real homework, so they become habits that your child can use independently. This is not re-teaching content — it is teaching your child how to learn.

For comprehensive ADHD support beyond academics, visit our ADHD support page.

Our Literacy Support program is a specialized, SLP-delivered reading and writing intervention focused specifically on phonological awareness, decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and written expression. It uses structured literacy methods and is ideal for children with dyslexia or significant reading and writing difficulties.

Learning Support Tutoring is broader in scope. It covers reading, writing, math, and science, and is primarily delivered by therapy assistants under SLP and OT supervision. It focuses on applying therapy strategies to academic tasks across subjects — not just literacy. If your child's primary challenge is reading and writing, Literacy Support may be the better fit. If your child struggles across multiple subjects due to attention, language processing, fine motor, or executive functioning challenges, Learning Support Tutoring provides the wider academic support they need.

Our team can help you determine which service — or combination of services — is right for your child.

Learning Support Tutoring covers four core academic areas: reading, writing, math, and science. Within each subject, the focus is not just on content — it is on building the underlying skills your child needs to engage with that content successfully. For example, in math, the therapy assistant may work on understanding word problem language. In writing, they may practise organizing thoughts before putting them on paper. In reading, they may build comprehension strategies.

Other subjects may be supported on a case-by-case basis. If your child has specific academic challenges not listed here, please mention them when you submit your referral and our team will discuss what is possible.

The ongoing Learning Support Tutoring sessions are primarily delivered by experienced therapy assistants who work under the direct supervision of a registered speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist. The supervising clinician designs the learning support plan, sets the goals, and monitors progress through regular check-ins.

We strongly recommend the therapy assistant model for this service because it provides the regular, repeated practice that is essential for skill development — at a more accessible rate than direct clinician sessions. However, in some cases the supervising SLP or OT may determine that direct clinician-delivered sessions are more appropriate, depending on the complexity of your child's needs. This decision is made collaboratively during the initial assessment.

All therapy assistants at Ruby Therapy Services have proven experience working with children with learning disabilities, speech and language challenges, or occupational therapy needs. Each therapy assistant is carefully vetted to ensure they are qualified to support children with complex learning profiles. Our hiring process requires demonstrated, hands-on experience with the populations we serve — not everyone can become a therapy assistant at our clinic.

Our therapy assistants are experienced in collaborating with school teachers, SLPs, and OTs to ensure consistency between therapy goals and classroom expectations. They work under the direct supervision of a registered speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist, following treatment plans and goals established by the supervising clinician. According to the Therapy Assistant Association of Alberta, therapy assistants play a vital role in delivering quality care under clinical supervision.

Learning Support Tutoring begins with one to two initial sessions with a registered speech-language pathologist and/or occupational therapist — not with a therapy assistant. During these sessions, the clinician conducts a comprehensive assessment to identify the specific challenges underlying your child's academic struggles. This may include evaluating language processing, fine motor skills, sensory regulation, executive functioning, attention, and working memory.

Based on the assessment findings, the clinician designs a targeted learning support plan with clear goals and strategies tailored to your child. The clinician then coordinates with the therapy assistant — transferring the plan, explaining the goals and strategies, and ensuring the assistant is fully prepared to support your child effectively. Only after this clinical foundation is established do the ongoing therapy assistant sessions begin.

We generally recommend one to two sessions per week for most children. Consistent, regular practice is essential for building and strengthening the skills your child is working on. Just like learning a musical instrument, the skills targeted in Learning Support Tutoring — language processing, fine motor control, executive functioning, self-regulation — require repeated practice to become automatic.

If your child's clinician determines that a higher frequency would be beneficial, this can be discussed and adjusted. The supervising SLP or OT reviews progress every 8 to 10 sessions to ensure the frequency and approach remain appropriate for your child's needs.

Yes, absolutely. If your child has homework that aligns with their SLP or OT goals, the therapy assistant can use it as a practice vehicle during the session. This is one of the most powerful aspects of Learning Support Tutoring — your child practises therapy strategies on real school tasks, making the skills immediately relevant and transferable to the classroom.

Ruby Therapy Services also has its own clinical activity worksheets in reading, writing, math, and science that are specifically designed to target therapy goals. These materials are used when homework is not available, during school breaks, or when the clinician determines that targeted clinical materials would be more effective for a particular skill area. The first preference is always to use materials that directly support both therapy goals and school expectations.

Yes, this service is available year-round. During school breaks and summer months, sessions shift to using our clinic's targeted activity worksheets and materials rather than school homework. Many families find that maintaining sessions through the summer helps prevent the regression that is common in children with learning disabilities and ADHD — research consistently shows that extended breaks from structured practice can set children back significantly.

Summer sessions also provide an opportunity to work on skills in a lower-pressure environment, without the added stress of keeping up with daily school demands. Your child's supervising clinician will adjust the focus of sessions to ensure they remain productive and goal-directed throughout the year.

No. You do not need to be an existing client to access Learning Support Tutoring. Families can come to Ruby Therapy Services specifically for this service. The process begins with an initial assessment with a registered SLP or OT (one to two sessions), which establishes the foundation for the learning support plan. From there, your child begins ongoing sessions with a therapy assistant.

That said, if your child is already receiving speech-language therapy or occupational therapy at our clinic, adding Learning Support Tutoring creates a particularly powerful combination — the same clinicians who are treating your child's core challenges also design their academic support plan, ensuring complete alignment between therapy goals and school performance.

The supervising SLP or OT remains actively involved throughout your child's Learning Support Tutoring journey. After the initial assessment and plan design, the clinician conducts formal check-ins every 8 to 10 sessions to review your child's progress, update goals and strategies as needed, and communicate with you about how your child is doing.

Between formal check-ins, the therapy assistant communicates regularly with the supervising clinician to report progress, flag concerns, and make adjustments. Because the therapy assistant and clinician work under the same roof at Ruby Therapy Services, this communication happens naturally and frequently — not through occasional emails between separate providers. This clinical oversight is what distinguishes this service from regular tutoring.

Yes. With your consent, our clinicians can communicate directly with your child's school — including classroom teachers, learning support specialists, school SLPs, and school OTs. This collaboration ensures that the strategies your child is learning in Learning Support Tutoring are reinforced in the classroom, and that school staff understand your child's strengths and challenges from a clinical perspective.

Our team can also help craft or contribute to your child's Individualized Program Plan (IPP) and attend school meetings when clinician availability permits. This level of school collaboration is something that regular tutoring centres typically do not offer, and it can make a meaningful difference in how effectively your child is supported across all learning environments.

An Individualized Program Plan (IPP) is Alberta's version of what many other provinces and countries call an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). It is a written plan developed by the school, in collaboration with parents, that outlines specific accommodations, goals, and supports for a student who needs individualized programming. Children with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, or other conditions that affect learning may qualify for an IPP.

Ruby Therapy Services can support the IPP process in several ways. Our psychoeducational assessment reports provide the clinical documentation schools need to justify accommodations. Our clinicians can communicate directly with school teams to share assessment findings, therapy goals, and recommended strategies. And our team can help parents understand their rights and advocate effectively at IPP meetings.

Sessions delivered directly by a registered SLP or OT — including the initial assessment sessions — are typically covered under the Speech-Language Pathology or Occupational Therapy benefits of extended health insurance plans.

For therapy assistant sessions, coverage varies by insurance provider. Many of our families successfully submit invoices for reimbursement because the supervising SLP or OT registration number is included on the receipt. We recommend checking with your insurance provider to confirm whether SLP-supervised or OT-supervised therapy assistant services are covered under your specific plan. Ruby Therapy Services provides official receipts for all sessions.

Learning Support Tutoring may be covered through Alberta's Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program as SLP or OT hours under your family's Specialized Services agreement. Because this service is designed and supervised by registered SLPs and OTs, it falls under the clinical services that FSCD's Specialized Services can fund.

Ruby Therapy Services is an approved FSCD service provider. We recommend speaking with your FSCD caseworker to determine whether Learning Support Tutoring can be included in your child's funding plan. For more information about FSCD at our clinic, visit our FSCD services page.

Flourishing Futures is a program through the Otipemisiwak Métis Government (Métis Nation of Alberta) that provides funding of up to $5,000 per child for services and supports that address developmental, social, emotional, or behavioural barriers to learning. Eligible services include speech therapy, occupational therapy, child mental health therapy, and assessments.

The program supports Métis children aged 0–11 in Alberta who have developmental, social, emotional, or behavioural needs. Funding is paid directly to the service provider. Families can learn more and apply through the Métis Nation of Alberta's Children and Family Services department.

No, you do not need a doctor's referral. You can access Learning Support Tutoring by submitting a referral directly through our website at rubytherapy.ca/contact. Our team will contact you to schedule the initial assessment with an SLP or OT.

However, some insurance plans may require a physician's referral for coverage of SLP or OT services. We recommend checking with your insurance provider if you plan to submit claims for reimbursement. Your family doctor, paediatrician, or school can also refer your child to us if that is more convenient.

Yes. Learning Support Tutoring is available both in-clinic at our St. Albert location and virtually for families across Alberta. Virtual sessions work well for many children, particularly those in Grades 1 through 6 who are comfortable with screen-based learning. For younger children in Pre-K and Kindergarten, in-clinic sessions are generally recommended so the therapy assistant can provide hands-on support with fine motor tasks and sensory strategies.

Your child's supervising clinician will help you determine whether in-person or virtual sessions are the better fit based on your child's age, attention profile, and the specific goals being addressed.

If your child has tried tutoring at a franchise centre or with a private tutor and the results have been disappointing, it is likely because the tutoring was addressing the symptoms of your child's learning struggles rather than the cause. Regular tutoring re-teaches content — it explains the math lesson again, reviews the reading passage again, practises spelling words again. For a child whose brain processes information differently, more of the same instruction is unlikely to produce different results.

Children with learning disabilities, ADHD, or speech and language challenges need support that addresses why they are struggling — not just what they are struggling with. As Understood.org's tutoring guide explains, children who learn and think differently often benefit most from an educational therapist or clinician who can identify and treat the underlying processing challenges. That is exactly what Learning Support Tutoring at Ruby Therapy Services is designed to do.

Executive functioning refers to the brain's management system — the set of mental skills that allow a person to plan, organize, start tasks, stay focused, manage time, control impulses, and shift between activities. Think of it as the brain's air traffic controller, coordinating all the different processes needed to complete a task successfully.

For school-age children, strong executive functioning is essential for virtually every academic task: following multi-step instructions, organizing a backpack, starting and finishing homework, studying for tests, managing long-term projects, and even raising a hand before speaking. According to the Child Mind Institute, children with ADHD often have executive functioning skills that lag 3 years behind their peers — meaning a 7-year-old may have the organizational skills of a 4-year-old.

Both occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists address executive functioning from complementary angles — OTs through practical systems and self-regulation strategies, and SLPs through language-based planning, sequencing, and working memory skills.

A learning disability is a neurological difference in how the brain processes information. It is not a reflection of intelligence — many children with learning disabilities are bright, creative, and capable. The challenge is that their brain processes specific types of information differently, which creates a gap between their potential and their academic performance.

Common learning disabilities include dyslexia (difficulty with reading and decoding), dysgraphia (difficulty with writing and fine motor aspects of written expression), and dyscalculia (difficulty with math concepts and number processing). According to the Learning Disabilities Association of Alberta, learning disabilities affect approximately 10% of Canadians and are lifelong conditions — but with the right support, children with learning disabilities can and do succeed academically.

A psychoeducational assessment is the gold standard for identifying specific learning disabilities and determining exactly what kind of support your child needs.

Yes. Children with dyslexia benefit from the SLP-designed reading strategies used in Learning Support Tutoring, including phonological awareness training, decoding strategies, and reading comprehension support. The therapy assistant helps your child practise these strategies during academic reading and writing tasks.

For children whose primary challenge is reading and writing, Ruby Therapy Services also offers a dedicated Literacy Support program with intensive, SLP-delivered structured literacy intervention. Depending on the severity of your child's dyslexia and whether they have challenges in other subject areas, your clinician may recommend Literacy Support, Learning Support Tutoring, or a combination of both.

Yes. Many children on the autism spectrum experience academic challenges related to language processing, sensory regulation, executive functioning, and social communication — all areas that Learning Support Tutoring directly addresses. An autistic child may struggle to understand figurative language in reading passages, have difficulty with the sensory environment during homework, or find it hard to organize multi-step projects.

The initial SLP or OT assessment will identify your child's specific profile and design strategies that account for their neurodevelopmental needs. If your child has not yet been assessed for autism, Ruby Therapy Services also offers autism assessments that can provide diagnostic clarity and guide the support plan.

A general rule of thumb: if your child is struggling because they missed content or need more practice — for example, they were absent for a week and fell behind, or they need extra repetition to master multiplication tables — a regular tutor may be sufficient. The content is the issue, and re-teaching is the solution.

However, if your child struggles despite good instruction and practice — if they study hard but still cannot retain information, if they understand concepts verbally but cannot put them on paper, if homework takes three times longer than it should, or if they have been diagnosed with or are suspected to have ADHD, a learning disability, or a developmental condition — then the issue is likely how their brain processes information, not what they were taught. In that case, clinician-led support like Learning Support Tutoring is the more effective path. As ADDitude Magazine explains, for children with ADHD and learning differences, the type of support matters as much as the amount.

Sensory processing is how the brain receives, organizes, and responds to information from the senses — touch, sound, sight, smell, taste, movement, and body position. When sensory processing works well, a child can filter out background noise, sit comfortably in a chair, and focus on a worksheet. When it does not, everyday classroom and homework environments can feel overwhelming, distracting, or physically uncomfortable.

A child with sensory processing differences may be unable to concentrate because the classroom is too noisy, may fidget constantly because sitting still feels intolerable, may avoid writing because the texture of the pencil is uncomfortable, or may become dysregulated after recess and be unable to transition back to schoolwork. An occupational therapist assesses your child's sensory profile and designs strategies — sensory diets, fidget tools, movement breaks, environmental modifications — that help your child regulate their nervous system so they can engage with academic tasks.

When a child is clearly intelligent but their academic performance does not match their ability, there is almost always an underlying processing challenge at play. Common causes include undiagnosed learning disabilities (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia), ADHD (particularly the inattentive presentation, which is often missed), language processing difficulties, executive functioning challenges, sensory processing differences, or anxiety related to academic performance.

The gap between a child's potential and their performance is one of the most important signals that something deeper is going on — and it is not laziness, lack of motivation, or poor effort. A psychoeducational assessment can identify exactly what is creating the barrier, and services like Learning Support Tutoring, speech-language therapy, or occupational therapy can then target the root cause.

The duration varies significantly depending on your child's specific needs, the severity of their challenges, and how quickly they respond to intervention. Some children make meaningful progress within a few months, while others benefit from longer-term support — particularly if they have multiple co-occurring challenges.

Your child's supervising SLP or OT reviews progress every 8 to 10 sessions and will discuss the trajectory with you. The goal is always to build independence — to help your child develop strategies and skills they can use on their own. As skills become stronger and more automatic, the frequency of sessions may decrease, and ultimately the service will no longer be needed. We do not believe in creating dependency — we believe in building capability.

Yes — this is one of the most common reasons families seek this service. Homework battles typically escalate when a child does not have the underlying skills to complete academic tasks independently. The frustration, avoidance, and meltdowns are not about the homework itself — they are about the child encountering barriers (attention, language processing, fine motor fatigue, executive functioning) that make the task feel impossible.

Learning Support Tutoring directly addresses these barriers. As your child develops strategies for focusing, organizing their work, understanding instructions, and managing frustration — and as they practise those strategies with a supportive therapy assistant — homework at home becomes significantly less stressful. Many parents report that the homework dynamic at home improves meaningfully once their child has the tools to approach academic tasks with more confidence and independence.

Working memory is the brain's ability to hold information in mind while using it. It is the mental workspace where your child keeps the teacher's instructions while following them, holds the beginning of a sentence in mind while writing the end, or remembers the first step of a math problem while completing the second. Working memory is limited in everyone, but it is significantly more limited in children with ADHD and many learning disabilities.

When working memory is weak, a child may seem to "forget" instructions they just heard, lose track of what they were doing mid-task, or struggle with multi-step problems — not because they are not paying attention, but because their mental workspace overflows. Both SLPs and OTs address working memory through strategies like chunking information, using visual supports, and building compensatory systems that reduce the load on working memory during academic tasks.

No. Our therapy assistants and clinicians understand that many children — especially those with ADHD or sensory processing differences — learn best when they are allowed to move. Sessions are designed with your child's sensory and attention profile in mind. This may include movement breaks, fidget tools, standing options, sensory activities between academic tasks, or working in different positions.

The goal is not to make your child sit still — it is to help them find the regulation strategies that allow them to focus and engage with academic tasks in a way that works for their brain and body. This approach is informed by your child's OT assessment and is one of the key differences between our service and a traditional tutoring setting where children are expected to sit at a desk for the entire session.

Many children who benefit from Learning Support Tutoring also benefit from direct speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, or counselling. Because all of these services are available at Ruby Therapy Services under one roof, your child's care is fully coordinated. The SLP working on your child's language processing also designs the academic support plan. The OT working on self-regulation also informs the homework strategies. The counsellor working on anxiety or self-esteem understands the academic context.

This integrated approach means your child does not receive fragmented care from separate providers who do not communicate with each other. Instead, every service works toward aligned goals, and progress in one area accelerates progress in others.

Progress is monitored through multiple channels. The supervising SLP or OT conducts formal reviews every 8 to 10 sessions, evaluating your child's progress against their goals and sharing updates with you. The therapy assistant also tracks session-by-session progress and communicates regularly with the supervising clinician.

You will notice progress in real-world indicators: homework becomes less of a battle, your child reads with more confidence, writing tasks are completed with less frustration, and your child begins using strategies independently. Teachers may also report improvements in classroom participation, task completion, and academic performance. We believe progress should be visible in daily life — not just on clinical measures.

Test anxiety often has its roots in underlying learning or processing challenges — a child who consistently struggles to retrieve information, manage time during tests, or understand what questions are asking will naturally develop anxiety around test-taking. Learning Support Tutoring addresses the processing and executive functioning challenges that contribute to test anxiety by building the skills and strategies your child needs to approach academic tasks with confidence.

For children whose anxiety extends beyond test situations and affects daily life, Ruby Therapy Services also offers counselling that specifically addresses anxiety through evidence-based approaches including cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and emotional regulation strategies.

Schools provide valuable support through learning assistants, resource rooms, and IPP accommodations. However, school-based support typically focuses on helping your child access the curriculum — modifying assignments, providing extra time, or offering one-on-one re-teaching of classroom material. These are important accommodations, but they do not address the underlying processing challenges that create the need for those accommodations in the first place.

Learning Support Tutoring at Ruby Therapy Services is clinical intervention applied to academics. The SLP or OT identifies the root cause of your child's learning struggles — language processing, sensory regulation, fine motor challenges, executive functioning — and designs targeted strategies to treat those challenges. The therapy assistant then provides the intensive, repeated practice needed to build those skills. The goal is not just to help your child get through today's homework, but to build the skills they need to become a more independent, capable learner over time.

Ruby Therapy Services provides in-person Learning Support Tutoring at our St. Albert clinic, conveniently located for families in St. Albert neighbourhoods including Akinsdale, Braeside, Deer Ridge, Erin Ridge, Erin Ridge North, Forest Lawn, Grandin, Heritage Lakes, Jensen Lakes, Kingswood, Lacombe Park, Mission, North Ridge, Oakmont, Pineview, Riverside, Sturgeon Heights, and Woodlands.

We also serve families throughout Edmonton, including northwest neighbourhoods such as Baranow, Baturyn, Beaumaris, Caernarvon, Carlton, Chambery, Cumberland, Dunluce, Elsinore, Griesbach, and Rapperswill, as well as north Edmonton communities including Belle Rive, Eaux Claires, Hawks Ridge, Hollick-Kenyon, Klarvatten, Lago Lindo, Ozerna, and Schonsee. Families from all areas of Edmonton and surrounding communities including Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, and Morinville are welcome at our clinic.

Virtual Learning Support Tutoring is available for families across Alberta, making our clinician-designed academic support accessible regardless of location.