Can Executive Functioning Coaching Help My Child?
Many children struggle with executive functioning skills. They may have difficulty planning their time, completing their homework, staying organized, or initiating tasks. These executive functioning skills play a role in essentially all skills and subjects at school. Executive functioning coaching can help your child build these critical skills in the following ways:
Organizational System
Many students with executive functioning challenges, including those with ADHD, struggle to stay organized. An executive functioning coach can help your child set up organizational tools and systems. For example, if your child’s backpack is filled with papers and their desk at home is a mess, the coach can help your child set up a 3-tier organizational system. With this system, your child selects a working notebook (tier 1), which can be either a binder or notebook/folder for each class that they take with them to school on a regular basis. They should designate one day per week to be the “clean out my working notebook day” where they remove any papers they don’t need to be carrying with them on a regular basis and file them into an accordion file that they keep at home (tier 2). This accordion file should contain three sections for each class: homework, notes, and tests/quizzes. At the end of the semester, if your child created a great project or assignment that they want to keep for the long run, they should put it in an organized filing drawer (tier 3). An executive functioning coach can also help your child organize their electronic computer files if their school integrates more digital assignments.
Develop Time Management Skills
Children with executive functioning difficulties often struggle with time management. They may think a task will take more or less time than it actually does and may consistently turn in their homework assignments late. An executive functioning coach can help your child develop stronger time management skills. One strategy they may use is the Estimated Time (ET) verses Actual Time (AT) technique. With this strategy, the student predicts how long they think a task may take to complete. For example, they may think it will take 20 minutes to complete a math worksheet. They should write down that predicted time (ET). Then they should compare it to how long it actually took to complete the task (AT). When students with executive functioning challenges start using this strategy, there is usually a big discrepancy between the ET and AT. However, the more they use this strategy, the more realistic they become with their time, and the more those times typically start to merge.
Chunk Tasks
Students with executive functioning difficulties often become overwhelmed with long, multi-step assignments or projects. Executive functioning coaching can help them chunk tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. For example, if as student is asked to create a report about tornados, including what they are, how they are formed, how they are measured, and unique facts about tornadoes, their inclination may be to wait until the night before this project is due to work on it. However, an executive functioning coach can help them break this project into steps and put each step into their physical or electronic planner with specific deadlines for completing each step. In doing so, the project will become less overwhelming and more manageable, and the student will improve their homework completion, time management, and planning skills.
Note taking
Executive functioning coaching can also help your child learn how to take effective notes. For example, they may learn the column-style note taking method. With this technique, students learn to divide their page into two columns and write the topic of what they are reading at the top, the main ideas in the left column, and the important details that correspond to each main idea in the right column. They can even use highlighters to color-code the topic in one color, main ideas in a second color, and important details in a third color. This style of note taking can also be applied to in-class lectures.
Many students, both with and without ADHD, struggle with executive functioning skills. Executive functioning coaching can help your child build these important skills and thrive in school.