Private tutoring · Redmond, Bellevue & the Eastside
Private Tutor in Redmond, WA for Students Who Need More Than Homework Help
One student, one expert, one plan. Dr. Deborah Custer designs private tutoring around the specific reason your child is struggling — then teaches until the skill holds without support.
The service
What private tutoring looks like here
Private tutoring begins with diagnosis, not a worksheet. Before the first lesson, Dr. Custer reviews report cards, teacher comments, prior testing, and recent work samples, then probes the underlying skills directly. A fourth grader who "hates reading" may be struggling with multisyllabic decoding; a ninth grader failing algebra may never have automatized fractions. Those are different problems requiring different instruction, and guessing wastes months.
From there, sessions follow a written plan: a small number of targeted skills, taught explicitly and sequentially, with enough practice for accuracy to become automatic. Each hour typically blends direct instruction, guided practice, and application to your child's actual coursework, so what happens in tutoring shows up on Thursday's quiz. Because Dr. Custer is also a psychoeducational evaluator, she recognizes patterns that suggest dyslexia, attention difficulties, or processing weaknesses and will tell you when formal assessment would clarify the picture.
Parents receive concrete updates and, just as importantly, coaching. Homework battles, perfectionism, avoidance at bedtime, the Sunday-night dread — those patterns respond to structure at home as much as instruction in session, and you get specific strategies rather than platitudes.
Common situations
Problems private tutoring solves
- A capable student whose grades keep sliding despite long hours of homework
- Reading that is slow, choppy, or avoided entirely by upper elementary
- Writing assignments that stall at the blank page for an hour or more
- Math facts and fractions that never became automatic, now blocking algebra
- Missing assignments and lost papers that no planner app has fixed
- Confidence erosion — a child who has decided they are 'just not smart'
- Post-pandemic skill gaps that classroom pacing never circled back to fill
- Bright students bored into disengagement who need appropriate challenge
Outcomes
What families gain
Measurable academic gains
Skills are tracked against baselines, so improvement is visible: faster and more accurate reading, essays that get organized before they get written, math computation that no longer consumes all of a student's working memory. Gains transfer to classwork because instruction is tied to the curriculum your child is actually facing.
A calmer household
When an expert owns the academic plan, parents can step out of the nightly enforcement role. Families across the Eastside often describe the relief of shorter homework sessions and fewer arguments before they mention the grade change — and both usually arrive together.
Independence, not dependence
The goal is to end tutoring. Strategies are taught explicitly and then handed over: self-checking routines, planning templates, revision habits. Students learn to run the system themselves, which is what carries into high school and college.
Clarity about what comes next
If tutoring reveals a deeper learning difference, you will hear it early. Many families move into a psychoeducational evaluation or bring Dr. Custer in as an educational consultant for school meetings.
Local fit
Private tutoring across Redmond and the Eastside
Dr. Custer sees families in person in Redmond, Bellevue, Bothell, Kirkland, and nearby Eastside communities. Sessions are held in person, because direct interaction provides stronger teaching and learning outcomes. Online sessions may be considered on a case-by-case basis depending on student needs and circumstances.
Broad national experience shapes the work: Dr. Custer has seen how widely reading curricula, accommodation practices, and documentation expectations vary from one school to the next, which makes it easier to write a plan your child's specific school can carry out. Support is provided to parents who send their child to public or private schools, as well as those who homeschool.
Answers for local families
Private tutoring questions
Related support
Other ways Dr. Custer helps Washington families
Start with one honest conversation about your child
A 30 minute consultation is free, unhurried, and free of pressure. Call (847) 651-7892 or send a message and Dr. Custer will follow up personally with honest next steps for your family in Redmond, Bellevue, Bothell, Kirkland, or anywhere on the Eastside.