If you’ve always wondered how an Executive Function coaching session with a student is, this is your chance!
When you hear about a 1:1 coaching session about planning and time management, you are probably picturing somebody sitting in front of your child going through their list of homework. Well, that is not the way we do it at Wright Academics.
First, we go right into what they’re doing and how they are doing it. We hear them out to understand their thought process, we meet them right where they are and then we proceed to help them. Each child is different so we help them specifically with their struggle.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve gone through several subsets that fall under the umbrella of Executive Function Skills, such as Planning and Time Management. Students frequently struggle with one or both, limiting their ability to complete tasks.
Even though this is a common occurrence among young students, all hope is not lost. At Wright Academics, we have different tools available for tutors to use and help students develop their needed skills.
In today’s blog, I would like to walk you through how our tutors and students work together on a one-hour session to develop their student’s Executive Functioning Skills.
In the last few weeks, we have been working with a middle school girl on developing her planning and time management skills. During her session with the tutor, she makes a list of assignments, like homework, tests, and projects, with their respective due date.
Once the list is done, it’s time to plan!
To ensure that she completes each project on time, she must have a clear idea of how long each assignment will take. This is a very important step because most people struggle with the idea of time itself. We usually think something will take a short amount of time to complete when in reality it takes longer. And let’s be honest, most of the assignments students get are more or less the same (math problems, science projects, tests, essays, etc). So a student that struggles with planning and time management, even if they have done the task several times before, will not allocate the correct amount of time for each task. Back to our girl, it’s only after her study plan was done, and there was a concrete schedule for her to follow each day, that she confessed to feeling like she was able to do it all.
Now, she is excited that she got into the school of her choice and asked for help to go over the placement test essay to make sure she is ready for it. She comments on assignments that are due a few weeks from now, and she wants to have enough time to prepare.
Not only she is aware of the progress she has made, but also her teachers at school are noticing changes. It’s because of the work she is doing alongside her tutor that her progress has been a 180-degree change from where she was at the beginning of her journey.
Oftentimes, executive functioning coaching can be seen as very elusive. We all do planning and time management daily, both professionally and personally, so I understand is hard to imagine many people struggling with it. But we’ve had students that do and we’ve helped them with strategies and tools that they can use throughout their entire life.
If your student struggles with his/her executive function skills, they are not alone, so don’t be afraid to reach out! We can help. If you want to learn more about our process or about Executive Functioning Skills, you can contact us here: Contact us.
Love,
Ev.