“I Don’t Know Who Gets More Out of It, the Children or Us Tutors”: The Online Intergenerational Tutoring Program

ABSTRACT

The Online Intergenerational Tutoring Program addresses a service delivery gap in schools because older adult volunteers expand schools’ capacity to implement evidence-based instruction with students in need of individual support. Tutoring includes dialogic reading with digital books and Tutoring Buddy, a web-based program used to improve children’s letter sound fluency. Developed during the school closures resulting from COVID-19, the program uses online technology to deliver individual instruction to students after school. Our preliminary research found online intergenerational tutoring is a promising, socially valid model for addressing students’ learning loss resulting from the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Older adults
• children
• tutoring
• early literacy

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Dean’s Office Faculty Fund for Advancing Research and Northeastern University’s Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research.

Disclosure statement

Dr. Robert Volpe is the author of Tutoring Buddy and CEO of Twin Lights Education, LLC. There are no other conflicts of interest to report.

Contribution to the field

1. The Online Intergenerational Tutoring Program is a low cost, feasible, and acceptable model of intergenerational tutoring.

2. Online intergenerational tutoring can support children’s skills in early literacy development.

3. Online intergenerational tutoring can help meet a service delivery gap in schools by having older adults provide individualized instruction to students in need of additional academic support over Zoom.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.