Does your child lose papers, forget to turn in their homework, or wait until the last minute to start a project? If so, they may have weak executive functioning skills. Many students are bright and capable but struggle with organization, time management, planning, and following through on tasks. As academic demands increase, these skills become just as important as subject knowledge for success in school. By teaching your child strategies for building these skills now, you can help set them up for long-term success.

What Are Executive Functioning Skills?

Executive functioning skills enable students to plan, organize, regulate their behavior, and achieve goals. They help students learn and recall information, solve problems, and self-monitor their actions.

As schoolwork becomes more demanding, developing these skills can help your child become more confident, independent, and successful both in and out of the classroom.

What are Some Executive Functioning Strategies You Can Teach Your Child?

Time Management

Many students struggle with predicting how long they think an assignment will take to complete, often underestimating the required time commitment. They might think a book report can be completed the night before it’s due or assume a math sheet will only take ten minutes to finish when it actually requires an hour.

One technique you can teach your child is the ET vs. AT, or Estimated Time versus Actual Time strategy. To use this strategy, your child should select an assignment they need to complete and predict how much time they think it will take to finish that assignment. They should write down the ET, or estimated time. Then they should track how long the assignment actually takes to complete and write down the AT, or actual time. When students first use this strategy, there is often a significant discrepancy between the ET and AT. However, the more they practice the strategy, the more realistic they become about estimating their time, and the more their time management skills improve.

Organization

Many students struggle with their organizational skills and have difficulty managing their belongings, including their papers, digital files, and homework assignments. Teach your child this 3-tier organizational system to help them improve their organizational skills:

Tier 1 is the binder or folders/notebooks they take to school on a regular basis. They should designate one day per week to clean out their folders, notebooks, and backpack (perhaps every Friday or another day during the week), removing the papers and materials they no longer need to be carrying with them on a regular basis. They can either toss what they don’t need or file the papers they want to keep into Tier 2, which is an accordion file they keep at home. This accordion file should have three sections for each class: homework, notes, and test/quizzes. For example, they might have sections for math homework, math notes, math quizzes; social studies homework, social studies notes, and social studies tests/quizzes; and so on. When they clean out their backpack and notebooks, they should file the papers into the appropriate section of the accordion file and refer to them when it’s time for midterms or finals, or when they need to reference them for a project or assignment. Tier 3 is a filing drawer where they can put projects or assignments they are proud of and want to keep for the long run.

Planning and Prioritization

As students move through school, assignments typically become longer and more complex. Instead of having one homework sheet to complete per night, for example, they may need to juggle several long-term projects, homework assignments, and exams.

Help your child with planning and prioritizing these tasks by asking questions like:

• Which assignment do you need to complete first?
• Which task will likely take the longest?
• Which deadlines are coming up first?
• How can I break down this project into smaller steps?

Encourage your child to create simple checklists and come up with 1-2 priorities each day to help them feel less overwhelmed with their workload and more on top of what they need to get done.

Attention and Focus

In our current tech-filled world, it’s easy for students to become distracted, especially when working on their school assignments. One strategy they can use at home to help maintain focus and avoid distractions is called the Pomodoro Technique. To use this strategy, rather than trying to complete all their homework in one sitting, students can break down their work into timed segments, as follows:

They should start by setting a timer for 20 minutes and should work on their assignments for this time period, without taking any breaks and trying to avoid all distractions. Then, when the timer goes off, they should take a 5-minute break. This 25-minute window is called one Pomodoro Cycle. They should then set their timer again for 20 minutes, work for that time period, then take another 5-minute break. Once they have completed four Pomodoro Cycles, they should take a longer, 30-minute or so break.

If 20 minutes of work time is too long for your child initially, have them start with a shorter work period followed by a slightly longer break, with the goal being to ultimately reach the 20 minutes on, 5 minutes off work cycle. This will help them complete their schoolwork more efficiently and effectively.

Self-Monitoring

Many students rush to complete assignments and then submit them without taking time to review their work. Self-checking is an important executive functioning skill that helps students identify careless mistakes, correct their errors, and make sure they have completed all parts of their assignments.

Teach your child to self-monitor by asking questions like:

• Did I follow the instructions correctly?
• Did I answer all the questions?
• Did I make any careless errors?
• Do I need to revise my work?

Teaching your child to pause, review, and reflect on their work can help them minimize careless mistakes and become stronger, more independent students.

Closing Thoughts

Executive functioning skills play a role in essentially every subject. As students move through school, they are expected to organize their materials, manage their time, plan ahead, solve increasingly complex problems, and balance the demands of multiple classes and activities.

By teaching your child strategies to build their executive functioning skills, you can help them become more organized, confident, and independent students.

EBL Coaching specializes in one-on-one in person and virtual tutoring for students in grades pre-K-12 with specialized learning needs. They use research-based, multi-sensory techniques, including the Orton Gillingham method, to develop students’ reading, writing, math, note taking, test taking, and executive functioning skills. Each student is evaluated and then receives an individualized learning plan to address their specific academic needs. Learn more at http://www.eblcoaching.com/. Dr. Emily Levy, Founder & Director, is happy to hear from anyone who is in need for their child. You may reach her thru her website, and mention you heard of her thru MotherhoodLater.

The post Executive Functioning Skills Every Student Needs This School Year appeared first on EBL Coaching.

A tutoring expert explains the best tips to help your child ace their next test.

Your child may have cruised through the early years of elementary school. Tests and quizzes were rare, homework was a a breeze, ‎and projects involved simply cutting out images from magazines. Yet as students move through school, the testing demands increase rapidly. With these rising demands often comes stress, anxiety, and that how-am-I-ever-going-to-get-through-this feeling. Help your child build confidence and ace exams with the ideas detailed below.

Create a ‘big picture’ plan

Your child may feel overwhelmed by the quantity of material she needs to learn for a test. With terms to memorize, notes to process, and articles to read, the task of studying can seem downright insurmountable. To combat this feeling, help your child come up with a ‘big picture’ plan, with each topic she needs to learn for an exam detailed on a single sheet of paper. She can start by drawing a large bubble in the center of a page and writing the class name and date of the exam inside the bubble. Then, surrounding the center bubble, she can branch out with a series of smaller bubbles, each containing a topic she needs to learn for the test. Once she has effectively learned a given topic, she should cross out that bubble. The more bubbles she crosses out, the more accomplished she will feel, and the closer she will be to learning all of the material for the exam.

Break down studying into steps

Many of us know students who feel they can squeeze all of their studying into the night before the exam. Yet that “strategy” rarely works, especially as the quantity of material to learn increases.‎ Instead of this no-win plan, help your child learn to break his studying into steps, then put each step in his assignment book. For instance, if he has a science test to study for that covers five text book chapters, have him create a five day plan that includes studying one chapter per day (reading the chapter, taking notes, and perhaps creating flash cards on the material), and designate the fifth day as a review day to review all of the material from each chapter. Creating an organized, daily plan can help him feel fully prepared come test day.

Integrate memory strategies

Your child may feel overwhelmed by the quantity of vocabulary terms, names, dates, and facts she needs to memorize. Encourage her to use memory tactics to learn and retain this information. For instance, she can learn the acronym PEMDAS (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) to remember the steps involved in solving math equations; the letters of the acronym stand for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, attraction. You can also try encouraging her to draw visual diagrams to visualize and remember information (like a diagram of a heart with its individual parts) or retell material aloud to tap into the auditory modality. Additionally, try having her teach the material to someone else (even a parent) for another layer of memory and understanding.

Integrate technology

Students can now choose from a plethora of online resources to help them study. ‎Quizlet, for instance, is an online option that helps students create virtual flash cards, then test themselves and play games using the material. They can also create study guides using Power Point, where they create a virtual presentation on material they need to learn for a test. This interactive tool taps into the kinesthetic learning modality and can help engage students in the process of studying. Students can even have the computer read the material aloud to them as they listen and (hopefully) retain the information.

Limit distractions

Almost all students—not just those who have ADHD—can have difficulty at times staying focused and on-task. Let’s face it—distractions are everywhere. Many students have not just computers, but often also tablets, phones, video games, and access social media and chatting apps. Let’s also not forget “old fashioned” distractions, like hunger, boredom, and sounds of nature. Help your child learn to anticipate these distractions and come up with solutions for each possible one.‎ She can create a list on a sheet of paper before she begins studying with two columns—distractions and solutions. On this sheet, have her list each potential distraction in the distractions column and a corresponding solution in the solutions column. For instance, if her phone is a potential distraction, a solution might be setting it to silent mode or turning it off entirely. If she thinks she may become hungry when studying, she might want to eat a small snack before she begins. The more she anticipates and solves these potential distractions, the more on-task she will remain.

As students progress through school, they will inevitably encounter increasingly complex tests. Encourage your child to try these strategies to effectively prepare for exams and ultimately achieve academic success.

The post 5 Strategies To Help Your Child Study For Tests appeared first on EBL Coaching.

As technology advances, tools for studying and staying organized are moving from old fashioned pen-and-paper to electronic and high tech. Creating hand written flash cards, jotting notes on loose leaf paper, and hand writing essays are becoming tasks of the past. Help your child update his study and organizational habits by using the tech-based options below.

Writing

For many students, writing an essay can be a dreaded ordeal.  They may have poor handwriting, weak fine motor skills, or simply find the task of writing tedious. With voice recognition programs such as Dragon Dictate, students can dictate their ideas as the computer types them. In doing so, students avoid the physical limitations of writing and tend to elaborate and add more details and than they would with handwriting. Once their writing is complete, the program can read the it out loud to them, allowing the student to catch more mistakes and‎ self-check them.

Study Guides

Power Point can serve as a helpful tool for creating study guides. Students can create a Power Point presentation using material they need to learn for an exam – a task many students enjoy more than hand writing flash cards or study guides. The computer can then read the material out loud as the student listens and absorbs it.

Reading

Instead of reading a print-only version of a book for school, students can listen to books on CD (or digital versions) and read along with the written copy. They can also use sites such as Learning Ally, which offers thousands of digital novels, textbooks, reference materials, and newspapers that can all be downloaded.

Interactive Study Tools

Interactive text-to-speech programs, such as Kurzweil 3000, combine the reading of text with engaging study tools. With these programs, users can scan and import text or transfer in web pages and learn how to actively interact with the material. They can use multi-colored highlighters to identify key information, take digital margin notes, and even write electronic “sticky notes.” Students can take read or listen to text, organize information, and learn important vocabulary words, all in one place.

 As technology advances, encourage your child to update her approach to studying using these tech-based tools. She will enjoy the interactive process and will ultimately feel more confident and successful in school.

The post Tech Tools That Make Studying Easier for Students   appeared first on EBL Coaching.

With school back in session, structured days of listening, writing, and studying have replaced summer days of play and fun. The transition back to completing and turning in assignments can create unsettling anxiety for both students and their families. ‎ Many children neglect to write down their homework, leave required books or handouts at school, or simply break down from the stress of their seemingly endless workload.  You can help your child overcome potential homework challenges with the ideas detailed below:

My child forgets his homework!

Many students think they can remember all of their assignments. Some write down their assignments, but on random sheets of papers or folders that are easily lost. Others jot down certain assignments, but not all, often neglecting critical ones. Any of these scenarios can lead to forgotten homework and missed assignments.

To help combat this homework chaos, ‎encourage your child to maintain and consistently use an assignment book. Even if she is convinced that she can remember all of her assignments, remind her that this task becomes increasingly challenging as she moves through school, and jotting them down will help make sure she doesn’t forget any. If she has trouble consistently doing so, create a “sign off” system where you, as the parent, sign off on each assignment in her assignment book that is done, and her teacher signs off once it’s turned in.

My Child Lacks Intrinsic Motivation to Complete Assignments

Some students are intrinsically motivated to write down their assignments compete them, then turn them in on time. Others are able to do so with some simple reminders. Yet for certain students, even a structured daily sign off system is just not enough. For these students, a rewards-based incentive program often does the trick.

Implementing a reward-based incentive program can help students build stronger homework and time management skills. To set up this type of system, sit down with your child and come up with a list of rewards that he would like to earn. Such rewards might include video games, apps, Lego sets, a trip to the movies or his favorite ice cream store, or the like. In order to receive the reward, for a pre-selected number of consecutive days (5 or 10 often works), he must write down all of his assignments daily, check them off when done, and turn them in on their due date.

As an alternative, you can try using a “homework punch card.” Once your child completes and p‎ut away all of his assignments on a given day, he receives a hole punch in his card. Ten punches (or another pre-determined number) earns a reward. This type of reward system can help students develop consistency and automaticity with completing and turning in their assignments in a timely fashion.

My Child‎ Lacks Accountability

Establishing a homework buddy can help your child feel accountable not just to herself, but also to a friend. At the start of the year, talk to her (and ideally loop in her teacher) about selecting a homework buddy. During the school day, the students each write down the assignments given to them by their teacher. Then, at the end of each day‎, they check each other’s assingment books to make sure all assignments were correctly written down. If they were not, the buddies help each other correct them, or ask their teacher for clarification if need be. Next, they perform a book check to make sure that they both have in their backpacks all books and materials needed to complete the assignments. The next morning, they check to make sure each buddy turned in all due assignments. The buddies can even use a daily sticker chart and give each other a sticker when everything is done correctly.

My Child Has No Consistent Homework Time

To develop consistency, it is important for students to develop a routine of completing their homework at roughly the same time each day. Some students prefer starting their homework right when they get home and are still in “school mode.” Others need a rest and a quick snack right after school, before getting started. Certain students thrive on the post-dinner energy rush. While it’s generally better to work on longer, more taxing assignments earlier in the day, there is no general “ideal” time for completing homework. Each child is different and works best at different times of day. They key is consistency. Once a child selects a time for completing homework, he should stick with that time, so that it becomes a built-in part of his day.

 As students move through school, the homework demands increase quickly. Rather than watching your child struggle with these rising demands, encourage him to use these strategies to help ease stress, build confidence, and improve overall academic performance.

The post Tips for Overcoming Common Homework Struggles appeared first on EBL Coaching.

ADHD tutoring typically involves creating an individualized instructional plan that is catered to the needs of each student. Students often respond well to ADHD tutoring that is multi-sensory, meaning the auditory, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic modalities are integrated, with tools such as colored highlighters, white boards, manipulatives, and even YouTube videos to engage the student. ADHD tutoring should also be structured and broken down into well-organized chunks. Students with ADHD typically respond well to incentives as part of the ADHD tutoring, such as games, computer time, or small prizes. Read more about these ideas at Study Strategies for your ADHD Child – EBL Coaching.

ADHD tutoring should always be individualized based on the needs of each student and should constantly be tweaked as students progress. This type of diagnostic and prescriptive teaching will help maximize the benefits of a child’s ADHD tutoring. Read more at Wondering if Your Child Has ADHD? – EBL Coaching.

Other Blogs About ADHD:
Differentiating Between ADHD and Autism in Children

The post The Importance of ADHD Tutoring for Struggling Students appeared first on EBL Coaching.