Debra Gawrys 
Beyond Tutoring: 
A guide for parents who want REAL answers to their child’s academic struggles

This book was written as a guide to parents or guardians of students who might be struggling with academics. Struggling with academics can lead to much frustration for both the students and parents. It can also lead to school anxiety and generalized anxiety. This book should serve as a guide for understanding these students and knowing what kind of help to seek. Hopefully, this book will answer questions for those struggling to get help for their children. Questions such as, why is my child struggling, what kind of help is best, what can I expect from the school, how does this affect my child, what can I expect for the future?

About the author

About the author: Debra Gawrys has her B.A. in Education and her master’s degree from St. Xavier University in Learning Disabilities. She has taught 2nd, 5th, and 6th grades in the classroom and was also a learning disabilities resource teacher in the suburban public school system. After teaching, she decided to go into private practice where she worked from home for nine years, before moving to the current Beverly location.

Debra began her practice in her home in 1997. She had just learned that her own daughter was dyslexic. After finding the Wilson Reading System and going for the initial training Debra began teaching her daughter to finally read. It worked so well that Debra told a couple of other mothers about the program, and then began tutoring from her home. Their children also did great, and they began telling other parents about Debra. Debra became so busy that she hired another teacher and trained her. Then another and another, until there were four other teachers working for her from the basement of her home. This work continued for 9 years and then she outgrew her home. This was all from word of mouth. At that point, Debra found her present location and Connections Learning Center was founded. That was almost ten years ago. She feels blessed to have been able to help so many children over the years. And it all started with her own daughter being dyslexic.

Since then, Debra has learned so much and has become solution oriented. Debra knows, first hand, how difficult it is when parents are looking for answers regarding their children. So much time and money is wasted on things that don’t work. At Connections Learning Center, Debra strives to have a solution for every parent who walks through her doors, and she look forward to helping many more students in the future.