Ep18: What’s the Best Way to Support a Struggling Learner? with Emily Fogg

Alternatively, listen on Spotify or Apple.

Supporting a child with learning differences - such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, or autism - can feel daunting. In this episode, I sit down with Emily Fogg, founder of Wise Owl Tuition, who specialises in helping children who learn differently.

She shares her insights on what works, what doesn’t, and how parents can support a struggling learner in ways that build confidence and connection.

From practical literacy activities to confidence-building strategies, this conversation will leave you feeling equipped and encouraged to support your child in ways that actually fit into family life.

You’ll Learn:

• What it means for a child to have learning differences and why understanding their needs matters.

• How the Science of Reading can help you support a struggling learner at home.

• Simple, fun ways to weave learning into everyday routines.

• How to boost your child’s confidence and independence.

• Ways to collaborate with your child’s school for better outcomes.

Why This Episode Matters

When a child has learning differences, it’s easy for both parent and child to feel defeated.

But with the right tools and mindset, you can support a struggling learner in a way that’s empowering and sustainable - that becomes part of family life - not a daily battle.

This episode gives you practical strategies you can start using today, grounded in evidence-based practice and delivered with compassion.

Take Home Action

This week, choose one everyday activity - like cooking dinner, grocery shopping, or bedtime stories - and turn it into a low-pressure learning moment. Keep it playful, keep it short, and focus on connection as much as the skill itself.

Take the Next Step

If you’d like more ideas and resources for supporting your child’s learning differences, explore Wise Owl Tuition’s tools and materials designed for both parents and teachers.

Links and Resources Mentioned (and not mentioned)

• Explore the Wise Owl Tuition website

• Sign up for Ready Set Read course (note, this is an affiliate link)

• Listen to Episode 7. Parenting ADHD Kids with Susan Hughes

• Listen to Episode 9.Can Mindful Parenting Really Make a Difference?? with Emily Fogg

Let’s Connect

• Follow Nina on Instagram

• Website: mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au

• Email: nina@mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au

About the Hosts

Nina Visic is a mindful parenting coach, mum of three boys, and the creator of Your Calm Parenting Path. She helps parents move from feeling overwhelmed and reactive to calm, confident, and connected - through mindful, practical strategies that work in the real world.

Nina is passionate about helping parents create supportive home environments that allow children to thrive - academically, emotionally, and socially. She believes that every child’s learning journey is unique, and that small, intentional changes at home can make a big difference in a child’s confidence and wellbeing.

Episodes like this one resonate with her mission to give parents practical, evidence-based tools they can use every day. Her approach is all about making parenting feel calmer, more connected, and more sustainable for the whole family.

Emily Fogg is an educator, mum of two, and the founder of Wise Owl Tuition. With a strong background in supporting children who learn differently, Emily is dedicated to helping students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, autism, and other learning differences develop both their skills and their confidence.

At Wise Owl Tuition, Emily combines personalised tutoring with a growing range of high-quality, practical resources based on the Science of Reading. Her mission is to make learning accessible and achievable for every child, while also equipping parents and teachers with the tools they need to feel confident in supporting children’s learning.

As both a professional and a parent, Emily understands the challenges families face when a child struggles at school. She is passionate about showing parents that learning doesn’t have to be overwhelming - it can be woven into everyday routines in fun, simple, and meaningful ways that help children thrive.

Transcript

This transcript was created using Headliner. It has been copied and pasted but not proofread or edited, so it may contain errors or inaccuracies.

Nina: You're listening to your calm parenting path. I'm your host, Nina, a mindful parenting coach and mum m here to help you go from overwhelmed and reactive to calm, confident and connected with your kids. This show is for parents who want to raise their children with more patience, less stress and a whole lot more joy. Pick because small shifts make a big impact and you can build the parenting life you've always wanted. If you want to see what I'm up to, follow me on Instagram Mindful Parenting Lifestyle. And don't forget to hit, follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Let's get started.

Nina: Welcome back to your calm, um, parenting path. Today I'm joined once again by the wonderful Emily Fogg. If you've been listening for a while, you might remember Emily from a previous episode where she shared her personal experience of going through the mindful parenting coaching programme. But today, Emily is back in a very different role this time as the founder of Wise Our Tuition. Emily is incredibly passionate about supporting children who learn differently through Wise our Tuition. She works with students who have learning difficulties like dyslexia, dyscalcul, dysgraphia, ADHD and autism. And she's doing some amazing work to make learning accessible, engaging and confidence building for every child. Right now her focus is on creating high quality practical resources based on the science of reading. And what I love is that these aren't just for teachers, they're for parents too. And I have some myself. So if you've ever wondered how to support your child's learning at home or how to help build their confidence when school feels hard, this conversation is full of insight, encouragement and simple, actionable ideas. Emily, I am so happy to have you back. Thanks again for joining me.

Emily: Thank you so much for having me.

Nina: Can you start just by telling us what inspired you to start Wise Our Tuition?

Emily: Yes. So I started w our tuition after I returned from maternity leave and I just, I was teaching older grade at that time. I usually taught like you two and I saw some of the students that had been filtering through that I've seen because I've been working out at school for a long time and the kids that were, you know, had issues with reading and literacy in the younger years. I was now seeing them really struggling and really disengaged in school and there wasn't any support for them anymore. So we had intervention for, you know, pre primary want you two and then that support just fanished. But the problems didn't go away and there was nothing really available in our community that they could go to that was quality intervention and the places that were closest to us through like over an hour's drive, um, which meant parents usually couldn't access them because either it was far away, they had to take time off work or the kids might need to miss school. So I really wanted to create a service that uh, people could access that was in our community. I knew that was a real need that we needed these services available because the research shows that kids who if they struggle with reading in grade one that uh, if it doesn't get fix they will struggle with reading their entire life and they're more likely to drop out of high school to end up in jail to have mental health issues. So it was really important I think to make sure that we, that there was something available. There just wasn't anything.

Nina: So what kind of support do you offer and how has your focus evolved over time?

Emily: So offer tuition either in person or online and one to one in small groups. So and offer English uh and our tuition. So uh, they use evidence based programmes and tools that uh to really target their gaps in their learning and to, to catch them up. So the goal is they just upgrade uh to tutoring Foreverver is to fill in the gaps that they have and then catch them up to their peers and then them those tools for success so that they can go and go off and you know do it on their own.

Nina: And now you've made a shift towards creating practical resources as well.

Emily: Yeah. So over my time as a teacher and particularly with tuition I was looking for science of reading resources that were uh, interesting. So one tool that we really did need is decotable readers. So these are books that are based on a phonics progression. So the idea is that we teach a series of letters at a time and the slowly gets harder and harder and more complex. But the kids learn you know four to six letters at a time so then they can read those words uh rather than learning the whole Alphabet, getting overwhelmed and then starting to read. So there just wasn't many books and the books that

00:05:00

Emily: were available were just not very interesting and if you have older readers that are struggling they were just felt, you know make them feel bad because they're like baby books. Ye and they already have low self esteem and uh, they already feel bad about themselves. So just it just made the problem me less and they weren't engaged well they'd be laughing at the pictures and stuff and not focusing on. They're like well yeah, I really wanted to create a series of books that appeald to kids and had old these stories in them. So that not only could I teach the phonies and the decoding, I could also talk about the grandma and the punctuation and things. So you'notice in the books it's got lots of different grammar in there, those speech marks, marks, exclamation marks, comments, all these things. So we can talk about all of that as well. So the accessing the curriculum at the grade level, but also working on those foundation skills missing.

Nina: So what I like about the books, the ones that we have, is that they have themes. So you can choose books that are appropriate to the time of year. So at Easter time we had Easter readers to read, and at Halloween we had Halloween readers to read. And so I think that's really great that they have that variety that is really appropriate for the time that they're reading it, which is very cool.

Emily: Thank you.

Nina: Um, okay, so for parents who might be listening and thinking, you know, why is my child finding learning to read hard or just learning in general?

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: What are some early signs that their child might have a learning difficulty like dyslexia or adhd?

Emily: Yeah. So some really common them. And it with dyslexia, um, in particular, it starts with hearing their sound. So if they're making mistakes when they hear words. So for example, if you said word bus and they say fuss, they're mixing up that burn the sound. So that's a little indication if they forget the names of words regularly. Like if I say a family member, a cousin or something, and they're like, hey, what's that kid's name again? Those kinds of things are a bit of a, uh, clue. Anything to do with language that you think, hmm, that's a bit, bit strange. So, yeah, forgetting words, forgetting names of things that, you know, they should know when they get to school, when they're spelling, if they're spelling phonetically. So say it's wrong, but it's the right sound. Because we've got letters that, uh, represent like more than one sound. M in our language.

Nina: Oh my God, don't get me started.

Emily: We could make it easier by just changing that English language.

Nina: I think exactly would be piece of cake.

Emily: So if you see them spelling the same word wrong but using different spellings.

Nina: Yeah.

Emily: So for example, say they wrote the word play and um, they spelled it like PL L A and then Pl, L, E, I or just different spellings, but it's still wrong. That's another. That's a really. That they might have dyslexia because Then kids who don't have dyslexia will spell it word wrong but spell it wrong the same way all the time.

Nina: Interesting. Okay.

Emily: Yeah, that's one of the biggest signs. And yeah, just funny language like saying hey, what's that thing? You know that, that thinging, that stuff. Um, often, um, about really common things so you that they other kids or your other children might remember. It's also really common, it runs in families. So okay, if you're a parent and you have dyslexer or adhd, then it's common that your children might okay have it as so that'something to watch out for. And then with ADHD there's so many different signs because it presents differently in girls and boys. Boys, uh, usually the hyperactive type with adhd so they find it really hard to sit still. For both boys, girls trouble regulating their emotions. Y andul control are uh, two big signs. So if they get really upset very easily, that's a big sign. Like big tag termss over small things. And then also if they're impulsive so you know, if you say to do something you could say it five times. So they'll still just go do it like without. You can tell that it's not a deliberate action to be naughty. They just can't help themselves. Yeah, the devil made you do it. Kind of thought mom would say, you know, like. Yeah, because I am ADHD and I remember constantly being told by my mum, don't touches, don't do that when we're out the shops because once I broke a crystal glass and mum had to pay for it. So no, uh, even noweah, even now if we go shopping, she's like emily, don't touch that. I'm like mom, I'm nearly 40.

Nina: So it's just being aware of those types of things that can happen.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: So if a parent suspects that their child does learn differently, what would you recommend as a first step?

Emily: So this school age, talk to the teacher, ask a teacher what they think. Some teachers, we all have different training. So if you are concerned and your teacher not, I would go either way. I would go and see your gp.

Nina: Okay.

Emily: Your GP can refer you to different services. So generally for all of any learning you put it, you need to see a paediatrician and an educational psychologist. So first step is your GP and then they'll do your referral. And it's really important to do it as early as possible because waitl lists are really long in particular in Perth. So if you have suspicions that There might be something going on. I would get that referral, get on the waitl list because you can always cancel your appointment if you don't need it.

Nina: Yeah. What mindset shifts can help parents better support their child who has a learning difficulty.

Emily: So, you know, so I think the biggest one is that it's not the end of the world. Right. If your child has a learned difficulty, they will learn, they will be successful. It is absolutely not. Like I've, uh, had the conversations with parents who think it's like a death sentence, you know, like there's something terribly wrong with their child and life is just ended as they know it. And um, parents, you know, you do go through that grieving process, but it's really not that bad. People with different types of learning difficulties. So I might only talk about dyslexs and Andhd today. They have incredible talent that, uh, that different brain type gives them. So you usually incredibly creative, caring, particularly people with adhd. They're great in a crisis. They thrive in chaos. Find lots of people like that in emergency centreers or, you know, emergency room at the hospital. They will find their paths and then we will find their way. And there's so many tools that they can use to be successful in school.

Nina: M. Oh, that's beautiful. Emily. It's not the end of the world. And the gifts that your child is going to bring the world are going to be amazing regardless of any kind of challenge or learning difficulty that they might have. I think that's wonderful.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: Yeah, thank you for that. I think that'll be really reassuring for parents out there that are feeling a little bit, um, worried or concerned about their kids.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: So kids sometimes will resist learning at home.

Emily: Yes.

Nina: Especially after school. Do you have any tips for how to keep it positive and stress free for our families?

Emily: Yeah. So I know it's really common and it's own daughter just today we'doing like playing with some letters and she was telling me that I'm not a teacher and I don't know what I'm talking about.

Nina: Obviously.

Emily: Yeah. So'really hard. It is the challenge. So there's no point pushing it after school when they're tired and had a long day and going back to mindful parenting. You're probably bit stressed. You know, if you've had a bad day, you know, you got to cook dinner, uh, clean up the house, get baths and, and get the kids to bed. It's not a great time to be doing, trying to do extra stuff. So I would suggest doing it in the Morning. So no, mornings are busy as well. But just five or ten minutes cann make a huge difference. And that five or ten minutes where everyone's fresh and calm is so much better than trying to um, hour after school when everybody's in a bad mood and you just are hugg. You can do a lot in that time. That can have really help short little sessions. If you did five, ten minutes five times a week, that's great. Like that's all you need to do.

Nina: Yeah.

Emily: At home.

Nina: That's really interesting. We were in our first year of homework for my son, he's in year three and I'm always trying to where have you done your homework? Have you done your homework today? And um, so I do find that if I ask him in the morning, he's more likely to want to do it as opposed to in the afternoon. So that's really cool.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: So on top of that, can you share some simple fun ways that parents can support literacy at home even if they're short off time? Yeah.

Emily: So, um, there'ss also great games you can play. So with younger kids who are just starting school play I Spy. So like I spied in starting the sound app, you know, app for Apple or if they even don't know that yet, you can dooo colorss.

Nina: Yeah.

Emily: Because that's just, even just getting oral language and naming things and so if I Spy, that's a really fun one. During nurseing rounds for kids who are younger is good as if they get older, uh, playing like silly sound games and making up like silly rhymes or you know. Yeah, kids love that.

Nina: I think I did your webinar about how to learning into the day without it being like noticeable. I forget what the name was. And um, I remember sending you a video of my boys playing the rhyming game in the back of the car and they just were taking it in turns to think of words that rhyme with cat and then sat and then matt and then we'd choose a different word like ball and call and, and halul.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: And they love those games. Like they really get into them. And it does make car trips a lot quicker too.

Emily: Yeah, yeah, it does. And um, um, it's a bit more fun than I Spy when there's nothing around. You know, like in Australia, it's just like a boring straight road phrase.

Nina: There's a tree.

Emily: I've done tree, I've done sky Cr.

Nina: That's right. What else can I do?

Emily: Yeah. So those

00:15:00

Emily: games are really fun. And then you know, they're probably kids you know they start making noobssense um S words and that's great like because we used on some words in Science of Reading. If a kid can read like cats but they couldn't read a made up word of similar letters then that means that they memorise that word rather than they actually reading it.

Nina: Um, interesting.

Emily: M. I'm getting silly. Yeah. Doing all those fun, fun games. I've got lots if you are uh, interested. I've got a course all about the science of reading. So you learn about you know what's happening at school, what are the things that they're learning at school because it is different from when we went to school.

Nina: Yepah.

Emily: You learn very different. Everything you need to know and it covers everything you need to know from like Kindney up to about year three. So you can help support their learning at home. It's got lots of good tools to use, lots of games and it out uh all the different parts of reading. So reading is really complex and people tend to think everybody should just be able to learn to read like it shouldn't be an issue. But language is a human skill that we all have but reading isn't. So reading needs to be really taught well so we talk about like what is the science of reading? And then we break it down into all its different parts. So phonics and phonological awareness which is kind of what we talked about like hearing the sounds, talking about rhyming words and there other stuff as well. And then we talk about dakoding comprehension and mem. So it really covers that beginning part of reading and I think it's really helpful for parents because one of the most common things that parents was enemy when they brought their kids to tutoring, like I don't know how to help like I do. So if you feel like that this will give you all those answers.

Nina: And I've done the programme myself and I really liked how it really explained. You've got an image which is like a rope twisted around each other and it's saying that there's you know all these different parts of, of English or of reading and once you combine them all and you twist them all together it makes the final product of being able to read. I don't know if I explain that right.

Emily: No, that's good.

Nina: Um, it's a really, it's a really great image to really understand that there's different parts to reading and they're not complicated if you learn them one at a time. And it's our kids are just trying to do that and put them all together. Ye Because I imagine for most of us it's a long time since we learn to read.

Emily: It is.

Nina: And so we forget some of the simple things. Like we just know sometimes that, uh, a word is spelled this way.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: Or you say a word this way. But it just. That's because we've had you 30, 40 years of being able to do it.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: So I really like how you created the programme and you stepped each. Each part on top of each other to make it really easy for us to understand, to then be able to share with them. And then there's a whole section on activities and games and stuff which is also really fun too. So it's a really, really great course if anyone wants to do it. Um, I'll put the link in the show notes. So apart from Word Games and I Spy, are there any other activities that might actually help support learning with our kids?

Emily: Yeah, I think lots of different activities. So when we kids start reading books, we start reading things. Makes it easier for them to comprehend what they're reading if they've experienced that themselves. So m and we especially finding with kids that uh, have grown up during COVID that they've missed down some experiences because we were re all stuck at home. M so just catching the bus. Some kids might have never caught the bus before, you know.

Nina: Wow.

Emily: So if they're reading a story about catching the bus and they ask questions about, you know, the bus driver and the boards and, you know, what you do when you're on a bus, it makes it really hard when they've never had that experience themselves.

Nina: Yeah. Interesting.

Emily: Yeah. So even just doing simple things like going caing the bath, catch in the.

Nina: Train, imagine things like cooking and measuring and mixing and eating, things like that.

Emily: Helping with the grocery shopping. So many just. It doesn't have to be, you know, a really expensive experience, just everyday stuff that maybe they've never done before. So I know my daughter we've never caught the bus together and she's been asking me, so that's something that will probably do this co holidays.

Nina: Yeah. I kind of like the idea of if you're reading a book and you notice that there's something that is really interesting to them. My kids are reading Cat Kid Comic Club at the moment and all they want to do is draw comics. And so it's kind of like you want to lean into stuff that they're interested in. So she really wants to catch the bus. So let's go catch the bus.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: They really Want to draw comics. So let them draw comics and then read the comics and talk about them. That kind of thing.

Emily: Yeah.

Nina: Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So many parents worry that they're not doing enough or that they're getting it wrong. And what would you say to those parents?

Emily: I would say I don't think you should get it wrong. Anything you do is going to be helping. And if you're worriry that you're not doing enough work, you are getting it wrong. Just reading a picture book together and asking questions about, you know, things in the book, that's great. That's you know,

00:20:00

Emily: 100%. Yeah. And then, you know, you don't need to be doing a whole lot at home M Unless your child has really serious learning difficulties. And even then I'd probably recommend outsourcing to professional and then they can show you what to do that is aligned with your child. But for kind of just the everyday, just playing word games, reading some books, having those experiences and having conversations about those. That's. That's great. That's all you need to do.

Nina: Yeah. That's awesome. Okay, final question. If there's one thing that you want parents of neurodiverse learners to remember, what would it be?

Emily: I really want you to remember that again, it's not the end of the world. They will be successful, they will learn, they will find their way and that they will be amazing people and have an amazing life. I just really want you to know that because the number of parents I've spoke to on the phone calling about bitering who've been in tears, I just breaks my heart because yeah, I think there's a bit of a perception in our society that there's something wrong but it's just that your brain is white differently and you know, they need a little bit of help at the beginning but for have that intervention they will do really well. So it's really not the end of the world.

Nina: Ah, great note to end on Emily. I think that's such a great reminder. Thank you for your wisdom and your knowledge today.

Emily: Thank you.

Nina: Uh, it's been really nice to talk to about these things. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about wise our tuition or if they want to jump on your course or get some decotable readings.

Emily: So just head to my website which is waleition.com and everything's there. So in the shop you can find the paus and M you can find out decodable readers and any other. Also got a blog with'lots of different articles. If you want to dive in there and have that out. Um, and I'm also on social media, so you can find me on Instagram TikTok for all that good stuff.

Nina: Cool. Excellent. I'll pop the links in the show note.

Emily: Thank you.

Nina: And Emily, I'll thank you again ``ks for having. We'll see you again next time on your Calm Parenting path.

Nina: Thanks for listening to your Calm Parenting Path. I am so glad you're here, and I hope this episode gave you something useful to take into your parenting journey. If you'd like to dive deeper, sign up to my mailing list@mindfulparentinglifestyle.com.au for more tips and insights, or book a free chat to learn how we can work together. And don't forget to hit, follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. I look forward to speaking with you next time on your Calm Parenting Path.

00:22:40