When a student makes a mistake it is important to ask them if they can explain what has happened and if they understand or explain why it might have gone wrong. This gives them an opportunity to self reflect and picture their understanding of the situation rather than the instructor telling the pupil directly that they are wrong. If mistakes continue to be made and the pupil is failing to make sufficient progress and the usual techniques and processes do not seem to be working,  then it is important to discuss the matter with your pupil. Your discussion should explore other avenues of trying to fix the problem.  You may want to question your student and find out if there are any gray areas that they feel are holding them back and why they think that might be. You should try and relate topics and subjects to other such subjects and topics so that processes can be explained with similarities and cross references. It allows for transferable learning. For example to explain when it is safe