How can parents best support their child’s Executive Functions tutoring sessions? By following these 8 strategies that promote success.
At Engage the Brain (EtB), we offer a suite of services that includes Orton-Gillingham instruction (the gold-standard for teaching children with dyslexia to read), Speech-Language therapy, multi-sensory math instruction, and Executive Functions coaching. It is the last specialty area that is popular, but also often misunderstood. A child may struggle with multiple challenges all at the same time. For example, they may have ADHD and struggle in math. Or they are diagnosed with dyslexia and are completely disorganized, with a sprinkle of anxiety mixed in, too.
Is it an Executive Functions (EF) weakness? An academic issue? Often it is a combination of factors.
This is where academic testing, which EtB also offers, could help determine a road map for help: a starting point, check-ins, and an ideal destination. If your child is fine academically – their teachers report that they get the concepts in class – yet still earns relatively low grades, perhaps there is an EF weakness.
Executive functions are the cognitive skills, managed by the brain’s prefrontal cortex, that allow us to plan, focus, prioritize, and accomplish tasks. A few popular analogies are the air-traffic controller or conductor of an orchestra. While there is no universally agreed upon set of skills, they typically include: planning and prioritizing, organization, goal setting and completion, task initiation, flexibility, and self-regulation.
An exploratory and information-sharing phone call with Engage the Brain is often the first step to determine the best course of action for your child.
How parents can support the EF coaching sessions
Once the decision has been made to begin EF coaching sessions, there are a number of suggestions Engage the Brain likes to offer to parents to help them – and especially their child – get the most out of the sessions.
Yes, you hired us to teach your child a set of skills. However, like any other class, you need to continue to offer support. How?
Question and compliment your child. For example, Are you using the planner you agreed to use? Or I love that you are writing down events on your wall calendar.
Know the skill(s) being taught during the session. If the focus is currently on organization, ask a follow-up question on the way home. “What did you talk about in your session today?” This helps gauge what your child is truly taking away from the sessions. If your child does not relate something about organization (or whatever the focus skill of the session was), please share that with the Specialist so that they can follow up. (More on that below)
Use the same language as the Specialist at home. Engage the Brain is fortunate to have a team of EF coaches, and two of them emphasized the importance of speaking the same language at home that your child will hear in their sessions. For example, both Specialists shared the importance of reflexive questioning and using the questions such as, “Where is your attention right now? and “Where should it be?”
Share information with the EF coach. Whether you send an email, text, or prefer face-to-face, let the Specialist know about big projects or tests that are coming up. Also inform us about the on-going challenges at home and or at school.
Can’t vs Won’t. Shout out to Seth Perler, well known EF Coach, for sharing this important nugget. You may think your child is being stubborn and has the ability to keep themselves organized, planned, focused, etc, if they just try harder. However, in reality many kids simply cannot organize and plan and focus due to lack of a skillset. It is during our sessions that we are teaching the EF skills that will allow your child to eventually perform these necessary skills.
Understand scaffolding. In a perfect world your child would come into our office, meet with a Specialist two or three times, and suddenly become an EF guru themselves and be able to teach these skills to all of their closest friends and relatives. But that is not reality! Each child is on their own timeline and journey. Those with learning differences and challenges – like ADHD and EF weaknesses – may take longer than their neurotypical peers. So, we start where your child is and begin the scaffolding process from that point, providing tools and strategies to launch them into the EF orbit and begin their journey towards independence.
Consistent attendance is key. Like any other skill someone is trying to learn, consistent practice is critical. If your child is scheduled for once a week sessions, please do your best to get them to the appointment. Disruptions, frequent cancellations, and stop-start inconsistencies will undermine the effectiveness of the process. Bonus: you could be modeling planning and time management by placing the sessions on a family calendar, either a physical one you keep in a handy spot in the house or a shared digital one such as Google calendar.
Foster a Growth Mindset. How many children does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but the bulb must really must want to change! (I hear the groans!) In all seriousness, a child must show up to our sessions with an open mind that they can and want to improve. Developing a growth mindset, which is the belief that we can improve a skill through hard work and targeted practice, is critical to the success of the sessions.
Final thoughts
Executive Functions coaching is tricky, in that like most other skills being taught, the journey to proficiency is not linear. Parents can nudge the process along and make the sessions more effective by actively questioning and complimenting their child on the EF skills being taught and using the same language. Remember to share pertinent information with the Specialist – ongoing challenges, big projects coming up, etc – so everyone is on the same page. And try to be as consistent as possible with attendance.
Imagine a picture of your child smiling proudly because they are doing well in school and managing all of their extra curricular activities. Just out of frame of this photograph is the EF coach, who is your child’s most enthusiastic cheerleader, providing them with tools and strategies for success. That’s our goal as an EF Coach: to be just out of frame but close enough for your child to know we are there with anything they need.
If you child struggles with EF skills such as organization, time management, planning and or prioritizing, contact Jennifer Disch at Engage the Brain to discover how an Executive Functions coach could help your child better manage their academic and personal responsibilities.