Using color to follow a math problem.

My young student that calls when she does not understand her math is working on square root problems. She called Thursday and needed help. She wrote down everything the teacher wrote but did not understand what he was trying to teach. The problems were lengthy and hard to follow. When Ted was showing her and asking if she could follow what he had done, she looked confused. I said no she did not get it. He tried twice and then I told him to use color. We have gel pens. When he took them and put a color on each part of the problem and used to same color to show where it went in the problem, then she could follow the problem. After they used color on 3 or 4 problems, she could follow the problem. The next thing we knew she could do the problem without the color. I had Ted work the last 5 problems for her to follow. I told her to work the problems on her own and then compare them the answer. She got them right and will call when there is another concept she does not understand.