Does the tutor have expertise in your child’s academic needs?

When seeking a tutor for your child, make sure the tutor in NYC has extensive experience working on the skills your child needs help with. For example, if your child is in early elementary school and needs reading help, ask the potential tutor or tutoring company about their experience tutoring reading to students your child’s age. If your child is older and needs help with high level math, ask about their experience tutoring algebra or geometry if that’s what your child needs help with. Tutors tend to have expertise in specific skill areas, so make sure your child works with someone who can help them with the skills they are struggling with, and has ample expertise doing so.

Does the tutor have experience working with neurodivergent students?

If your child is neurodivergent and has specific learning needs, it’s important that they work with a tutor in NYC who specializes in working with students who have similar diagnoses to your child. For example, if your child has ADHD and struggles with executive functioning skills, including planning, organization, time management, and task initiation, ask the tutor about their experience working with ADHD students and the approach they typically take. If your child has dyslexia, ask if they have experience using specific methods, like the Orton Gillingham approach, to help your child build their reading skills. Students with dysgraphia may need to work with a tutor in NYC who uses a multi-sensory approach to teaching students how to express their thoughts on paper in an organized manner. Likewise, if your child has autism, dyscalculia, language challenges, or other related difficulties, ask the tutor about their experience tutoring students in NYC who have similar neurodiverse needs.

Does the tutor give an assessment and use a structured learning plan?

When your child works with a tutor in NYC, it’s important that a structured plan is in place. Ask the tutor if they typically start with an evaluation to gauge the student’s needs. If your child has an IEP or another evaluation, see if the tutor would be willing to read it before the tutoring begins and incorporate the relevant information into the tutoring. Ideally, your child’s tutor should begin with an assessment to determine their specific needs, including what aspects of a skill they struggle with, before beginning the tutoring. If your child has difficulty with reading, the assessment should gauge whether the challenge is with decoding words, reading fluency, comprehension, or a combination of these skills. If the challenge is with decoding, the assessment should determine the type of word patterns they struggle with. At a basic level, your child may struggle with blending consonant-vowel-consonant sounds together to form words. If that’s the case, the NYC tutor may use a multi-sensory approach like Orton Gillingham to teach your child how to read these types of words, then move onto words containing blends, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, silent e patterns, multi-syllabic words, and so on. The tutor should also keep you posted about any progress noted as the tutoring progresses.

Hiring a tutor for your child in NYC can be a great step towards helping them succeed in school. Asking the right questions and choosing the ideal tutor or tutoring company can impact your child’s academic performance immensely.

If your child is struggling in school, contact us today at www.eblcoaching.com to see how we can help them with one-on-one in person and virtual tutoring.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my child needs a tutor?

If you notice your child struggling academically with reading, writing, math, executive functioning, or a combination of these skills, they will likely benefit from a tutor. A tutor in NYC can help your child develop stronger academic skills and build their self-confidence.

Should I hire a tutor with special education experience?

If your child has ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, autism, or another learning challenge, you should hire a tutor or use a tutoring company that has expertise in working with students who have special education needs.

Is online tutoring effective for helping students build their academic skills?

Online tutoring can be incredibly effective for many students in building their academic skills. It offers flexibility and access to more tutors who may specialize in the areas your child needs help with.

The post What Questions Should You Ask Before Hiring a Tutor in NYC? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

What Is the Task Timer App and How Can It Help Students With ADHD?

Task Timer – Task Management App – App Store

Task Timer is a great executive functioning tool for helping students with ADHD strengthen their time management skills. Using this app, they can set times for specific tasks using a built-in visual timer, and can break down homework assignments, projects, and other school assignments into manageable steps. Students can add new tasks, like projects or upcoming tests, then set deadlines, receive notifications, add notes to tasks, and even filter them to just show overdue tasks. There are many useful features on this app to help students with ADHD build stronger time management skills.

What is MindNode and how can it help students with executive functioning challenges?

MindNode

MindNode is a useful app for students with ADHD that helps them organize their ideas into visual maps and outlines. This tool is useful for brainstorming before writing a paragraph or essay, along with taking notes when reading or listening to a lecture. Using the app, students can connect their thoughts with branches, group them together, and create visual maps to help them present information in an organized manner. The visual maps can also be converted into outlines, helping students see their ideas in different formats. The app offers customized colors, themes, and stickers.

What is the myHomework app and how can it help students who struggle managing their homework?

myHomework Student Planner & Digital Hall Pass System

myHomework is a digital assignment book that helps students with ADHD track their homework, projects, upcoming tests, and schedules. It allows users to create customized themes and includes reminders of upcoming due dates, the ability to prioritize tasks, and calendar synchronization. It’s easy for students to enter new tasks and then organize them by specific classes or due dates. The app can be used to break tasks down into individual, more manageable steps, helping students feel less overwhelmed and more on top of their workload. This is a great app for building time management, focusing, and study skills. It is a great organization app!

Opal

Opal – The #1 Screen Time App

Opal is a great app for helping students with ADHD build their focusing skills and avoid distractions so they can stay on task when completing their schoolwork. With the app, users can set a list of websites and apps that will be blocked or limited when they are working. It helps prevent mindless scrolling and surfing online for hours on end. Instead, it tracks app usage, gives students scores and information about their habits, and even integrates rewards to help them stay focused and motivated.

What is the app Flashcards Deluxe and how can it help students improve their study skills?

Flashcards Deluxe Lite App – App Store

Flashcards Deluxe is a useful app for helping students with ADHD create digital flash cards that they can use when studying and memorizing information for quizzes and tests. They can create their own flash cards or download shared ones and then can organize their cards into different categories and themes. It allows students to create visual drawings on their cards or add pictures, and integrates repetition of cards students struggled with, helping to ensure they learn the information before they are tested. Additionally, the app offers a text-to-speech feature and includes quizzes on the information they are studying with multiple choice answers.

Students with ADHD often struggle with the rising organizational demands of school. Encourage your child to try these apps to help them build stronger time management, planning, organization, and overall executive functioning skills.

While apps can be helpful tools for students who have ADHD, most students can benefit from one-on-one executive functioning coaching to further develop these skills.

If you are looking for individualized tutoring or executive functioning coaching in NYC, contact us at www.eblcoaching.com to see how we can help your child.

Frequently asked Questions

How do I choose the right app for a student with ADHD?
When choosing an app for your child with ADHD, consider the specific difficulties your child is having. If they need help with time management, choose an app that helps them build time management skills. Likewise, if they struggle with organization, staying on task, or study skills, find apps that can help them develop those skills.

Which apps help students with ADHD build their organizational skills?

There are many apps that can help students with ADHD build their organizational skills. Some of these apps include myHomework, Task Timer, and MindNode.

Do apps really help students with ADHD focus?
Yes! There are many apps that can help your child with ADHD improve their focusing ability. The apps can help them set reminders, reduce distractions, and learn tips for improving their executive functioning skills.

Dr. Emily Levy has been helping students with ADHD build their academic and executive functioning skills for over 20 years.

The post 5 Best Apps for Students with ADHD appeared first on EBL Coaching.

What does neurodiverse mean?

A child who is neurodiverse has a brain that operates differently than the typical brain. Those who are neurodiverse, which includes diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, and learning disabilities, may learn and process information differently.

What are signs that my child may be neurodiverse?

Neurodiversity can include a learning disability such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia; ADHD; autism; dyspraxia; and other diagnoses. If your child is neurodiverse, they may require specific supports and tutoring services to help them thrive academically. What are some signs that your child may be neurodivergent? Let’s take a look at different types of neurodiversity.
Signs your child may have ADHD

Individuals with ADHD often have difficulty with their executive functioning skills. They might demonstrate challenges in the following areas:

• impulsivity
• staying focused
• organization
• talking out of turn
• losing their belongings
• struggling to pay attention for long stretches of time
• making careless mistakes
• poor time management skills
• neglecting to self-check their work.

If your child demonstrates these challenges, you may want to consider having them evaluated and try some of the executive functioning strategies below:
To develop their time management skills, teach your child the Estimated Time (ET) verses Actual Time (AT) strategy. To do so, have them select a task, like a math worksheet they need to complete for school, and estimate how long they think it will take them to complete that task (and write down the ET). Then once they have completed the worksheet, they should note the AT, or actual time it took them to complete that task. Often, those with ADHD and poor time management skills will note a big discrepancy between the ET and AT when they start using this strategy, but the more they practice it, the more these times will merge, and their time management skills will improve.

For self-checking, which is a skill many students with ADHD struggle with, your child may benefit from the COPS strategy for checking their writing, which stands for Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling. At the bottom of their page, they should write these letters vertically with a check box to the left of each letter. After they have finished writing a paragraph or essay, they should self-check their writing for each of these elements one at a time, encouraging them to slow down and carefully self-check their work before turning it in. This strategy is also often used during dysgraphia tutoring sessions.

Signs your child may have dyslexia 

Dyslexia is another type of neurodiversity. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that affects language skills, including reading, spelling, and writing. Those with dyslexia may struggle with learning individual letters and their corresponding sounds, decoding words, reading fluently, spelling accurately, and expressing their thoughts on paper when writing, amongst other related language challenges.

If your child is struggling with these skills, you may want to consider having them evaluated for dyslexia. However, Orton Gillingham tutoring can also help children with dyslexia tremendously. The Orton Gillingham method is a research-based, multi-sensory technique that helps students with and without learning disabilities develop stronger reading and spelling skills. It follows a systematic approach, integrating previously taught sounds and concepts as new ones are introduced, and is highly effective in developing these core skills. Students also tend to enjoy the multi-sensory tools that are part of Orton Gillingham tutoring lessons, including colored sand, magnetic tiles, shaving cream, mini whiteboards, and other related manipulatives.

Learn more about Orton Gillingham tutoring at
What Is Orton-Gillingham Tutoring? Multi-Sensory, Structured Help | EBL Coaching

Signs your child may have autism

Autism is part of a spectrum, so the signs can vary. Children with autism often have challenges with social skills, engage in repetitive behaviors, and have sensory differences. They may also have trouble with executive functioning skills – including planning and organization – and reading comprehension, especially when it involves abstract or inferential thinking.

If your child shows any of these difficulties, autism tutoring can also help them immensely. To develop their reading comprehension skills, an autism tutor may teach them to identify three key elements when reading: the topic, which is one, two, or three words describing the passage; the main idea, which is what the author is saying about the topic; and the important details, or salient information describing the main idea. They will learn to highlight the topic of the passage in blue, the main idea in green, and the important details in yellow, helping to make them a more active reader. Their tutor can then ask them inference questions and have them write a short summary describing the passage in their own words.

Learn more about helping your child with autism at: Tips for Helping Your Child with Autism Improve School Performance | EBL Coaching

When should you have your child evaluated?

If you notice your child struggling with any of the following skills, you may want to consider having them evaluated and seek specialized tutoring or executive functioning coaching for them:

• Demonstrates challenges with reading, writing, or math
• Struggles with organization, planning, or time management
• Shows consistent attention challenges
• Avoids doing their homework
• Demonstrates social challenges
• Shows low self-esteem or frustration related to school

Many children are neurodiverse, and with that comes numerous strengths. However, getting through school can be a challenge for these children. If you notice any of these signs of neurodiversity in your child, you may want to consider having them evaluated and consider ADHD coaching, Orton Gillingham tutoring, or autism tutoring. This instruction can help them immensely.

Learn how EBL Coaching can help your child with one-one-one dyslexia tutoring, learning disability tutoring, autism tutoring, ADHD tutoring in NYC, and executive functioning coaching by visiting www.eblcoaching.com.

Frequently asked questions

How is neurodiversity diagnosed?
Neurodiversity is diagnosed through a comprehensive evaluation, typically administered by a neuropsychologist or psychologist.

Can tutoring help neurodiverse students?
Yes, absolutely! Research-based, multi-sensory tutoring that is individualized to each student’s needs can help neurodiverse students thrive. Students with dyslexia tend to respond exceptionally well to Orton Gillingham tutoring and those with ADHD benefit from executive functioning coaching.

What does research tell us about early identification of learning disabilities?
Research tells us that identifying learning disabilities early can significantly improve academic outcomes. Don’t wait! If you see your child struggling, seek an evaluation and academic remediation as soon as you can.

The founder and director of EBL Coaching, Dr. Emily Levy, has been helping neurodiverse students in grades prek-12 excel academically with individualized tutoring for over 20 years.

The post Signs Your Child May Be Neurodivergent: ADHD, Dyslexia, And Autism appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Research tells us that when parents and teachers work together as a team, students perform much better in school. Parent-teacher conferences serve as an opportunity to build a relationship with your child’s teacher, set up a line of communication, and learn about how your child is doing in class. Why are parent-teacher conferences so important?

Learn about your child’s performance

Many parents work with their child at home, helping them study for tests, complete their school work, and work on projects. You might be able to gauge your child’s academic abilities through this work, but your child may show a completely different profile at school. In a large classroom setting, some children lose focus, struggle to process information, or display academic difficulties. Parent-teacher conferences provide you with the opportunity to learn more about how your child is doing in class. Their teacher will tell you about areas of academic strength, how your child interacts socially with peers, and areas where your child may be struggling. All of this information is helpful for you to learn, and can further guide you in working with your child at home or seeking extra support.

Setting up a line of communication

If your child is demonstrating any academic challenges or has a learning disability or ADHD, it’s important for you stay in touch with their teacher on a regular basis. Sometimes a child may start the year off strong but then quickly begin to struggle once the school year is underway, and parents may not always find out about these struggles under months later if they don’t set up a regular line of communication with the teacher. Parent-teacher conferences give you the opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher face-to-face and not only learn about how they’re doing in class, but set up a plan for communicating going forward. You might set up monthly phone calls, regular emails, or even periodic in person meetings to discuss your child’s progress. Try to come up with a communication plan that works for both of you. Don’t wait for your child to struggle; be proactive in communicating with their teacher regularly, not reactive once the struggles become more severe.

Opportunity to ask questions

Parent-teacher conferences offer an opportunity for you to ask your child’s teacher specific questions you may have. You might ask how your child has performed recently on tests, projects, and assignments. Ask if the teacher is noticing any foundational skills struggles. You may also want to ask about how your child interacts with peers and if they have many friends in school. Also find out about their ability to stay focused during lessons. Be prepared with these questions before the meeting starts so that you can be organized and systematic in asking them. The information you gauge from these questions can be very valuable.

Possibly seek an evaluation

If you are noticing that your child is struggling at home – perhaps with completing homework on time, reading words, writing sentences or paragraphs, or completing math problems – parent-teacher conferences can give you a chance to discuss these challenges with your child’s teacher. Ask the teacher if they are noticing these difficulties at school. If so, perhaps there are some accommodations that can be integrated, like seating at the front of the class or extra time on tests. If the struggles become more severe, you may want to request an evaluation for your child. If they are given a diagnosis, they will likely receive an IEP or 504 plan, which can provide them with services and accommodations that can help them thrive in school.

Parent-teacher conferences give you an opportunity to connect with your child’s teacher and learn valuable information about how your child is doing at school. Try to be organized and well-prepared for this meting, and you will learn important that can help your child thrive in school.

The post Why are Parent-Teacher Conferences so Important? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Fall is a festive time of year, filled with colorful leaves, pumpkin flavors, apple cider, and candy corn. It is also a great season for learning! Help your child develop stronger reading, writing, and math skills with the fall-themed activities detailed below.

Reading

Rhyming

Your child can develop stronger phonemic awareness skills – a precursor to reading – with a fall rhyming activity. Think of fall-themed words, like hay, apple, leaf, pumpkin, and cider, and write each word on a flash card. If your child is able to read the words, have them read each word aloud to you; if not, read the words to them and ask them to come up with words that rhyme with each word, then write those words on the back of the flash card. For example, if the word is hay, your child might come up with words that rhyme with hay, like clay, may, day, say, pay, stray, and so on. If your child can write the words on the back of the card themselves, have them do so. If not, you should write them and read the words aloud to them as you point to each word.

Match It!

Build your child’s reading and memory skills with a game of fall-themed Match It! To play this game, come up with ten fall-themed pictures. Either draw them on flash cards using colorful markers (one picture per card) or print the images and paste them onto cards. Then on ten separate cards, write the word that corresponds to each picture. For example, you might have pictures of an apple, pumpkin, ghost, leaf, pie, and so on, each on separate cards, with the corresponding words written on other cards. Then flip all twenty cards upside down and mix them around. Take turns with your child turning over two cards at a time. When your child flips over a word card, ask them to try to read the word aloud, then match it with the corresponding picture card. If they make a match, they get another turn. The player with the most matches wins!

Create a Tree

Your child can work on letter/sound recognition and word reading using an apple tree! To make one, they should use brown construction paper to cut out a long rectangle that will serve as the tree trunk and smaller brown rectangles to serve as the branches. Your child should paste the smaller brown rectangles around the tree trunk. Next, they should use colored construction paper to cut out a mix of 26 small orange, red, and yellow pieces to serve as leaves and paste them onto the branches. Your child can then write each letter of the alphabet on the leaves (or you write the letters for them if they aren’t able to). Have your child tell you the name of each letter and its corresponding sound. Older children can write fall-themed words instead of letters on the colored leaves and can even write a sentence using each word in a separate notebook.

Writing

Sentence Puzzles

Have fun working on writing skills with your child using fall-themed sentence puzzles. Come up with a series of sentences that involve fall themes, like:

I love apple picking.

Pumpkin pie is the best dessert.

My mom’s favorite drink is apple cider.

Colorful leaves are beautiful.

Then write one word from each sentence on separate flash cards. Mix the cards around face-up on a table and have your child put the words together to form a complete sentence. Then they can rewrite each sentence in a separate notebook and read them aloud to you.

Fall Writing Journals

To further develop your child’s writing skills, have them create a fall writing journal. Start by doing a fun fall activity with them, like baking pumpkin muffins, going for a nature walk and finding colorful leaves, or picking apples. Then have your child write about the experience in their fall journal. Encourage them to include as many details as possible, like sights and smells they noticed when doing the activity, who they were with, what time of day it was, and how they felt at the end of the activity. The more they can practice writing, the better!

Math

Leaf Sorting

Fall is a great time to work on math skills! Go for a walk with your child and have them collect a mix of different colored leaves. Then work on sorting them by creating a three-column chart labeled orange, red, and yellow. Have your child glue the orange leaves in the orange column, the red leaves in the red column, and the yellow leaves in the yellow column. You can then have them count up how many of each colored leaf they collected and write that number at the button of each column.  Discuss greater/less than concepts, like which colored leaf they have the most or least of, and how many more of one color they have than another.

Pumpkin Seed Math

You can further work on math concepts using pumpkin seeds. Go to a pumpkin patch with your child and pick a pumpkin, then carve it and save the seeds for a fall math activity. Alternatively, you can buy pumpkin seeds if that’s easier. Work on basic addition and subtraction concepts with your child using the pumpkin seeds. For example, you might ask them to pull out three pumpkin seeds, then four more. Have them count up all of the pumpkin seeds and tell you the total. Then use a mini white board or sheet of paper to write the corresponding math problem: 3+4=7. You can use this same process to practice subtraction, multiplication, and division problems, all using pumpkin seeds.

Baking!

Fall is a fun time for baking. Make apple pie or another fall dessert with your child while working on math skills. Have them measure out the ingredients for the recipe to work on fraction concepts. Ask them how much of each ingredient they would need if the recipe was cut in half or doubled. You can even have them write out fraction problems, like if the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of brown sugar and they are doubling the recipe, they might write out 1/4 + 1/4 and then solve that fraction problem to come up with the total amount of brown sugar needed for the doubled recipe.

Fall is a great time for festive and fun activities. Take advantage of this time to build your child’s academic skills while enjoying the season.

The post Fall Activities That Build Your Child’s Academic Skills appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Summer is a time for fun in the sun, relaxing days, and outdoor play. Yet the school year is just around the corner and many children have trouble with the transition from a laid back summer to a more structured fall. Try some of the ideas below to help your child jump start the new school year on a positive note.

Set routines

During the summer, many kids enjoy less structured free time with fewer routines. While this can serve as a well-needed break for children, once they transition back to the school year, having structured routines typically becomes the new reality. Begin setting routines before the school year starts to avoid a challenging transition. You can start by changing your child’s sleep schedule. If they’re used to going to bed and waking up late, set an earlier bedtime two weeks or so before the school year starts and have your child follow that new time so they get used to it before school begins. You may want to also discuss with your child a morning routine that they will adhere to once the school year starts. This might include getting dressed right when they wake up, eating breakfast, brushing their teeth, and making sure their backpack is filled with everything they need for the day. You can even discuss breakfast options with them before the school year starts to avoid any delays in decision making over what to eat. The more routines you can set now, the easier the transition to the new school year will be.

Homework timing

Before the school year begins, it’s helpful to discuss with your child what time they plan to work on their homework each day. Some kids prefer doing their homework right when they get home and are still in “school mode”. Others like to have a small snack or physical activity break before beginning their work, and some enjoy working at night, after dinner. Any of these options can work; the key is setting a regular homework time and sticking with it. If there are days when you know your child will have an after school activity or event and won’t be able to complete their homework at their usual time, set an alternate time for those days so a plan is in place for the week.

Set up a study space

At the start of the school year, it’s important that your child has a designated clutter-free spot in your home for completing their homework. Ideally this should be a desk in their room, but it can also be a spot at your kitchen or dining room table if a private space isn’t available. Make sure they have all the supplies they need for completing their work at this spot, including pens, pencils, paper, scissors, and so on. If their supplies run low, refill them right away to prevent your child from wandering around your home looking for supplies mid-homework session. If their designated homework spot is on a common table, create a transportable homework bin for them containing all the necessary homework supplies that they will carry to and from their bedroom. Some kids also like having a reading nook in their room, or a designated spot devoted just to reading, separate from their homework space.

Meet your child’s teachers

If your child has historically struggled in school or has an IEP or 504 plan, make sure you communicate this information to their teachers at the start of the school year. When the year begins, try setting up a meeting with your child’s teachers and any service providers to tell them about your child, along with strategies that have or have not worked for them in the past. Additionally, set up a plan for communicating with them on a regular basis to discuss how your child is doing – perhaps once per month via email, phone, or in-person meetings. Try to be proactive rather than reactive; don’t wait until later in the year to find out your child is struggling. Stay on top of communicating with their teachers to help ensure they continue to thrive.

The transition back to school can be a challenging one, but try these ideas and your child will be on their way to a successful new year.

The post Tips to Help Your Child Get a Positive Jumpstart on the School Year by Dr. Emily Levy, Founder & Director, EBL Coaching appeared first on EBL Coaching.

For some children, the transition back to school is seamless. They look forward to the excitement of reconnecting with friends, meeting their teachers, and starting new after school activities. Yet for other students, especially those who are neurodivergent, the transition back to school can be challenging. Help your neurodivergent child start the new school year strong with the ideas detailed below.

Routines

For many children, summer is filled with free play, outdoor activities, and unstructured days. When the school year begins, however, routines become paramount. Rather than springing this transition on your child, start to integrate elements of their fall routine now, before the school year begins. You can discuss wake-up times and bedtimes with your child, both for school days and weekends. If they have been waking up closer to 9am in the summer but need to wake up at 7am during the week once the school year starts, have them set an alarm progressively earlier in the summer until they reach 7am right before the school year begins. The same applies to bedtime; if they have been going to bed later in the summer, have them start to go to sleep a little earlier each night. You can also create morning and afternoon checklists for tasks they’ll need to do once the school year begins. For example, their morning checklist might include getting dressed, brushing their teeth, eating breakfast, and preparing their backpack for school. You may want to come up with a list of menu items for breakfast and have them decide what they will eat for breakfast each day at the start of a given week, so you can prepare accordingly.  Their afternoon checklist might include having a snack when they get home, completing their schoolwork, turning in or putting away their homework in their backpack, eating dinner, and going to bed. The more structure you can integrate into your child’s day now, before the school year begins, the better!

Get organized!

Having strong organizational skills is a key component to school success, especially for neurodivergent children who may struggle with executive functioning skills. Shop for school supplies with your child as early as you can so you have plenty of time to organize them. You may want to color code items by subject. For example, you may select green for science, blue for math, yellow for social studies, and so on. For each subject, there should be a folder and a notebook in the color that corresponds to that class. Encourage your child to write down their homework daily in an assignment book when they are at school, and perhaps highlight the assignment for each subject in its corresponding color. You may want to designate one day per week as a “clean out my backpack and folders day” where your child cleans out any items or papers from their backpack that they no longer need to be carrying with them.

Distraction-free workspace

Neurodivergent students often become easily distracted when trying to complete their homework. Before the school year starts, set up a distraction-free work zone where your child will do their homework every day. This could be a desk in their room or a spot in a communal area, like a kitchen or dining room table. Make sure they have all the supplies they need for completing their homework, like pens, pencils, paper, a calculator, scissors, and highlighters. When the supplies run low, refill them right away to avoid having your child wander around in the middle of a homework session looking for more supplies. If they plan to work in a communal area, they can carry a portable supplies bin from their bedroom to their homework spot and back when they’re done, containing all the supplies they will need to complete their homework.

Connect with your child’s teachers

Most neurodivergent children have very unique needs. Before the school year begins or right after it starts, set up a meeting with your child’s teacher and their other service providers if relevant. Tell them about your child, including which techniques have and haven’t worked for them in the past, and set up a line of communication going forward. Perhaps you will check in with them once per month via email or set up regular phone calls to discuss your child’s progress. Additionally, you should consistently advocate for your child; while they may be doing well in school at one point in time, that could change quickly and their academic performance could take a downturn. Don’t wait for your child to struggle. Be proactive in helping them succeed and seeking additional support for them if needed. If the school year progresses and your child continues to struggle academically despite these interventions, you may want to consider private tutoring, which can be custom-tailored to your child’s needs and help them thrive in school.

The transition to the new school year can be challenging, especially for neurodivergent children. These strategies can help your child get excited for the new year and start school on a positive note.

The post Help Your Neurodivergent Child Prepare for the New School Year appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Summer is a great time to work on helping your child with ADHD build stronger study skills. There are fewer school and extracurricular obligations and there’s usually more time to work on setting up systems and strategies.  Help your child with ADHD develop their time management, organization, planning, prioritizing, and other key study skills over the summer with the ideas detailed below.

Set up a summer homework schedule

Most students receive some schoolwork to do over the summer, including reading books, writing reports, and completing math packets. Make sure your child with ADHD doesn’t wait until the very end of summer to start this work, as many kids may have the tendency to do. Help your child find a consistent schedule for working on their school assignments; this could be after camp one weekday, on Sunday mornings after they wake up, or just about any consistent time that suits them best. If you set a time after camp for schoolwork but your child ends up being too tired after camp to work on their assignments, change it to a day/time that suits them better. The key is finding a consistent schedule that works for your child and sticking with it.

Designated homework space

Summer is a great time to set up a designated homework space for your child, both for working on their summer assignments and for completing their schoolwork once the new school year begins. Discuss with your child what kind of space would work best for them. For most children with ADHD, working at a desk in their room, in an area free of noise and distractions, works best. However, if your child shares a room or a private desk isn’t available, carve out space on your kitchen or dining room table for your child to work consistently and try to minimize distractions when they work. Also make sure they have all the necessary supplies for completing their assignments in their designated homework space. At their desk, they should have supplies such as sharpened pencils, pens, paper, scissors, highlighters, and any other tools they may need for completing their schoolwork. If their spot is in a communal space, create a homework supplies bin that contains all the necessary supplies and have them transport this bin to their designated space for work time, then back to their room when they are done.

Time management

Time management is a key skill for school success and summer is a great time to work on it. Try the Pomodoro Method with your ADHD child. Tell them to set a timer for 25 minutes and spend those 25 minutes working straight, without taking any breaks or focusing on anything but their work. Once the 25 minutes are up, they can take a five-minute break, then work for another 25 minutes followed by another five-minute break, and so on. After four of these Pomodoro cycles of 30 minutes total, they can take a longer break of 15-30 minutes or so, where they can move around, make a call, play a quick game, or just relax until it’s time to work again. Creating these structured work increments will help your child build their focusing and time management skills, and the Pomodoro Method is a great approach to practice during the summer, before the school year begins.

Active reading strategies

Since your child will likely have summer reading to do, take advantage of this time to teach them active reading strategies. Before they begin their book, encourage them to look at the front and back covers, read any headings or chapter titles, and think of questions they may have before starting the book. As they read, have them use sticky notes to write 1-2 line summaries of what they read after every 3-4 pages and stick the notes inside their book. At the end of each chapter, they can write a short chapter summary summarizing the plot in a separate notebook. Encourage them to predict what they think may happen next at the end of each chapter and even create character maps describing the qualities of each new character as they are introduced.

Color code

Towards the end of the summer, you may begin shopping for supplies with your child for the new school year. When doing so, aim to color-code items by subject to help your child develop stronger organizational skills. For instance, you may designate blue for math, green for science, yellow for social studies, and so on. Then purchase blue folders and binders for math and corresponding colors for each class. When your child writes down their assignments in an assignment book (which you should encourage them to do!), have them to highlight the assignments in the subject’s designated color. Try setting up these color-coded supplies before the school year begins to help your child with ADHD start the year well-organized. If your child still struggles with their organizational skills, ADHD tutoring can help them tremendously.

Summer is a great time to help your child with ADHD build their study skills. Try these strategies, and they will be well on their way to academic success!

The post Help Your Child With ADHD Build Stronger Study Skills Over the Summer appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Many students with ADHD struggle with their executive functioning skills. They may have difficulty with time management, organization, task initiation or staying focused in class, amongst other related skills. Summer is a great time to help students with ADHD develop stronger executive functioning skills and jump-start the school year on a positive note. Try some of the ideas detailed below.

Work on Organization

Summer is a fantastic time to help your child with ADHD set up organizational systems to help kick start the new school year. Having strong organizational skills is a key component to success in school. Help your child set up a color-coded system, where each class is given a specific color. For example, math might be green, science might be blue, English might be purple, and so on. Your child should select a folder and notebook for each class using its given color. Once they begin school and start writing down their assignments in their planner, they can highlight the homework assignment for a subject using its chosen color. If your child takes home papers on a regular basis, help them set up an organizational system where they designate one day per week to be their “clean out my notebooks day.” On this day, your child should clean out all the papers they do not need to be carrying with them on a regular basis and file them into a well-organized accordion file. This accordion file might consist of three sections for each class: one section for notes, one for homework, and one for tests and quizzes. On their designated clean-out day, they should file any papers they don’t need to be carrying with them into the appropriate section of their accordion file. At the end of the school year, if they completed a great project or assignment that they want to save, they can file it into an organized file drawer to keep for the long run.

Close Learning Gaps

During the school year, many children with ADHD miss out on key concepts. They might be daydreaming in class, come to school late, miss excessive days of school, or forget certain skills that they should have learned in class. Summer is an opportune time to review content that was taught the previous school year, fill in content gaps, and preview material that may be introduced in the new school year. You may want to reach out to your child’s teacher from the previous school year to discuss concepts they may need to work on during the summer. Maybe your child didn’t grasp multi-digit subtraction or multiplication; they might need to work on the organization of their writing; or perhaps they need extra practice with reading comprehension. Summer is a great time to work on these skills, with less academic constraints from school.
The shift from summer to school can be a difficult one for children who have ADHD. Help increase your child’s self-confidence and improve their executive functioning skills over the summer with these strategies and they will likely feel well-prepared to start the school year on a strong note.

Build Stronger Focusing Skills

Many students with ADHD struggle to stay focused for extended periods of time. You can take advantage of the summer and build your child’s focusing skills using a systematic method like the Pomodoro Technique. To use this approach, select a task and ask your child to work on it for 25 minutes. This might involve completing a math worksheet, writing in a journal, or cleaning out a file cabinet. After your child works on the task for 25 minutes, they can take a 5-minute break to do anything that’s relaxing for them. Then they work for another 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break. Once they have completed three segments of 25 minutes plus subsequent 5-minute breaks, they take a longer break of around 30 minutes before starting the cycle again. Work on this strategy with your child during the summer and then show them how to apply it to their relevant homework assignments once the school year starts.

Develop Better Time Management Skills

Children with ADHD often struggle with time management. They may consistently show up late, think a task will take more or less time than it actually does, or plan too many activities for a given day. Summer is a great time to work on developing stronger time management skills. Try teaching your child the ET/AT, or Estimated Time/Actual Time Strategy. To use this strategy, ask your child to complete a task, such as writing an essay or reading a chapter in a book.
Then have your child estimate how long they think it will take to complete the task and ask them to write down the ET, or estimated time.

Then have your child complete the task, eyeing the time it actually takes them to complete it, and write down the AT, or actual time it takes. When your child begins using this strategy, they will likely notice a large difference between the ET and the AT, but the more they practice this technique, the more these times will begin to merge and the more their time management skills will improve.

Set Up a Workspace

Students with ADHD benefit from a quiet, distraction-free workspace that they can use each day for completing their homework. Help your child set up this space during the summer so they will be ready and organized for the new school year. This space could be a desk in their room or even a designated area on a communal table, like in a kitchen or dining room. Make sure your child has all the supplies they will need to complete their schoolwork, such as pencils, lined paper, highlighters, scissors, a ruler, and so on. When their supplies run low, help them refill the items before they begin their homework to make sure they don’t wander around your home in the middle of a homework session searching for more supplies. Also help them set up a consistent homework time, which could be right after school or after a snack or athletic break. The key is consistency.

The post Summer Strategies for Helping Students with ADHD Build Stronger Executive Functioning Skills appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Going on vacation with a child who has ADHD can be overwhelming. There’s planning, packing, organizing, changing routines, and so many other factors that go into this process. Try some of the ideas below to help your child enjoy their time away and have a great vacation.

Before the trip

Visual calendars

Children with ADHD may be thrown off by a change in their daily routine and unclear expectations of the plans for the trip. Once you have settled on the details for your trip, create a visual schedule to help your child anticipate what is to come. Use a poster board to draw a large calendar and indicate on each date what you plan to do. You might include the departure date; specific activities like going to the beach, zoo, or a museum; and return dates. Tell your child where you’ll be staying (like a hotel or apartment-style unit) and where you will likely eat each meal. Perhaps you’ll have breakfast at the hotel, lunch at a theme park, and dinner at an outdoor cafe. Go over the plan for each day and make sure your child is fully aware of what to expect – though explain that there may be some unplanned deviations along the way.

Make lists!

Your child with ADHD may not know where to start when packing. What kind of clothing should they bring? What types of accessories? How many of each item? Help your child create a list before they begin packing. Will there be access to a laundry machine? If so, they may need fewer items, but if not, they need to plan the quantities accordingly. The list should include items like t-shirts, shorts, pants, sweatshirts, socks, sunglasses, goggles – whatever is appropriate for the trip you are going on. Write out each item along with the quantity needed and put a check box next to each one, then have your child check off the items as they put them in their suitcase.

Set expectations

Before leaving, discuss with your child the expectations for the trip. Will you be meeting up with family or friends? If so, make sure they know how to properly greet relatives and friends, engage in conversations, and be thankful for hospitality or gifts. You may even want to role play scenarios they may encounter, like greeting aunts and uncles, playing with cousins, or eating a meal with a large group.

During the trip

Maintain routines

While this may not always be possible, try to maintain your child’s routine as much as you can, since children with ADHD thrive on structure and routine. For example, while the daily activities may vary, for meals, if your child eats breakfast at 8am, lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 6pm, try to stick to that schedule. Of course, if they take medication, make sure you bring it with you on the trip and give it to them at their usual time. You can also try to have them wake up and go to bed around the same time to avoid disrupting their schedule and routine.

Integrate downtime

Children with ADHD can become easily overstimulated and sometimes need downtime. Anticipate that your trip will likely involve a lot of activity and movement, so try to build in some downtime. This could be an afternoon nap, reading time, or a window of time dedicated to listening to music. You can even bring fidgets for your child to help them relax and decompress.

Minimize decisions

Children with ADHD can sometimes become overwhelmed with making decisions, especially when they have too many choices. For example, if you go to a breakfast buffet at your hotel, your child may see so many items that look enticing, but they don’t know where to start or what to choose. You can avoid this scenario by pre-purchasing items you know your child likes to have for breakfast and eat breakfast in the room – or order from a restaurant menu with more limited items. You can also help your child choose the activities they will participate in, and if you plan to buy them something from a gift shop, minimize the number of items they can choose from to help make the decision easier and less overwhelming.

After the trip

When you get home from your trip, build in a day or two for your child to relax and decompress before going back to a structured activity, like school or camp. It can be stressful for them to rush back to their usual routine after a vacation. Also reflect on the trip with your child. What went well? Was it an enjoyable experience for your child and your entire family? Was there anything that could be changed or done differently for future trips? This reflection can help make your next trip be even better.

Vacationing with your child with ADHD doesn’t have to be stressful! Try these ideas to help ensure that you have an enjoyable, relaxing, and all-around great vacation.

The post Vacation Strategies for Children with ADHD by Dr. Emily Levy Founder & Director EBL Coaching appeared first on EBL Coaching.