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🧩 Special Needs Teacher Training
Most tutors teach a student with additional needs without being told in advance. These 5 lessons cover ADHD, autism, dyslexia, sensory needs and IEPs — written for one-to-one online teaching rather than adapted from classroom advice.
The SEND lessons in the course
Five lessons inside the Tutor & Teacher Training course. Take them in any order — each stands on its own, and each has written notes, a lesson checklist and a training video.
Understanding ADHD
What ADHD looks like in a one-to-one online lesson, and which adjustments actually help rather than simply slowing the lesson down.
Open the lesson → Lesson 02Understanding Autism
Communication, routine and sensory load, and how to plan a lesson that does not depend on reading social cues over video.
Open the lesson → Lesson 03Understanding Dyslexia
Separating a reading difficulty from a subject difficulty, and how to assess what a student knows when writing is the obstacle.
Open the lesson → Lesson 04Supporting Students’ Sensory Needs in Learning
Sensory load is easy to miss on a screen. What to look for, and what to change about your setup rather than theirs.
Open the lesson → Lesson 05Supporting Students with Individualized Education Plans
How to read an IEP, which parts apply to a tutor, and how to work alongside a plan the school already has in place.
Open the lesson →The course also covers IGCSE, International A Level, IB and the Singapore curriculum, running a trial lesson, and engaging students and parents online.
How the training works
Try it free, then subscribe
Start for free and see whether it suits you — there is no cohort to wait for. One subscription unlocks every training course — IGCSE, International A Level, IB, the Singapore curriculum and SEND — along with the Learning Portal's resources and tools for those curricula across a wide range of subjects, which you can use with your own students.
Notes, checklist and video
Each lesson gives you all three, so you can read it, watch it, or use the checklist while you plan — whichever suits how you work.
Quizzes, progress and a certificate
Each lesson has a Test Yourself section to check you have taken it in. Your progress and completion are tracked as you go, and Tutopiya issues a certificate once you finish the course.
Who it is for
Tutors with no SEND background
You will teach students with additional needs whether or not anyone tells you in advance. This is the practical minimum: what to notice, and what to change about the lesson.
Experienced classroom teachers
You have done this in a room with a TA and a SENCO down the corridor. One-to-one online removes both, and changes which strategies are available to you.
Anyone asked about it by a parent
Families ask directly whether a tutor can support their child's needs. Being able to answer specifically, rather than reassuringly, is what wins the trial lesson.
What this training is not
It is not a SEND qualification, and completing it does not make you a specialist practitioner. It will not help you diagnose anything, and it is not a substitute for the assessment a school or clinician carries out.
What it does is help you teach well when a student in front of you has additional needs — which, for most tutors, is a situation that arrives without warning. Where a student has an IEP, your job is usually to work alongside it rather than to deliver it.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a SEND qualification?
No, and it is important to be clear about that. It is professional training that helps you teach a student with additional needs more effectively online. Tutopiya issues a certificate for completing the course, but it is not a formal SEND qualification and does not make you a specialist practitioner.
Do I have to pay for this training?
You can start for free and see whether the course suits you. The rest of the Tutor & Teacher Training course unlocks with a Tutopiya subscription. It is self-paced either way, progress is tracked, and there is a Test Yourself quiz on each lesson.
I am not a SEND specialist — is this still for me?
Yes, and that is who it is written for. Most tutors will teach a student with ADHD, autism or dyslexia without ever being told in advance. The training is about recognising what you are seeing and adjusting the lesson, not about diagnosis.
Does teaching online make additional needs harder to support?
It changes what you can see. You lose body language, the room, and the corridor conversation with a colleague — but you gain control over pace, sensory load and how material is presented. The lessons are written for that setting specifically rather than adapted from classroom advice.
What is an IEP and do I need to follow one?
An Individualised Education Plan is the document a school uses to set out a student's support. As a tutor you are usually working alongside it rather than delivering it, and the lesson covers which parts are relevant to you and how to ask for the rest.
Do families actually ask about this?
Increasingly, yes. Inclusive practice is something international school families raise directly when choosing a tutor, so it is a genuine differentiator as well as the right thing to know.
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