Executive Functioning Coach

[Anonymous]

Hi all -- our counselor recommended finding an executive function coach for an ADHD child struggling to turn in assignments (I'm not the OP on this thread, but boy did it sound familiar). We're in Silver Spring, and are hoping for in person. Any recommendations or experience?

The school recommended:

- The Chesapeake Center
- Varsity Tutors (Strikes me as very Kumon-y or Kaplan-y.
- Julie Bulitt Clinical Social Work/Therapist, LCSW-C
- In Other Words (Kensington)
- Schneck Educational Center
- Adam Curtis - Coach
- Plus all the ones listed here

Anyone have any experience with the above, or others?

[Anonymous]

Adam Curtis is excellent. Highly recommend.

Would avoid Varsity Tutors. They pay their tutors a small fraction of what you pay which is not going to get you the most enthusiastic tutor.

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t the school offer that service for students with disabilities? They help with organization, keeping track of assignment, whatever weakness the student has in relation to his ADHD .

[Anonymous]

No, public schools do not offer this service. And it's expensive! And worth it. OP, it's more important to find someone who works well with your child- it's not rocket science

[Anonymous]

What age do you think it is important to start this? My child has ADHD and I think this is something he could benefit from. He is in 3rd grade and does reading tutor twice a week already and I am not sure we can fit in another tutor (time wise and financial wise!). I was thinking of starting this before middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What age do you think it is important to start this? My child has ADHD and I think this is something he could benefit from. He is in 3rd grade and does reading tutor twice a week already and I am not sure we can fit in another tutor (time wise and financial wise!). I was thinking of starting this before middle school.

5th grade is when we began and it’s been a huge help. At our school, 5th grade is the first year of middle school.

[Anonymous]

What does an EF coach do exactly?

[Anonymous]

OP,

I know several teens with ADHD, including my son, who is now in college, and I've seen that outsourcing the EF management only works for mild ADHD, because:

1. The more severe cases need EF help morning and evening, outside of business hours, every single day, for life tasks that are not just forgetting to hand in homework. This was the case for my son. There is no coach (unless it's a live-in nanny!) that can address that. Since my husband and I were doing the monitoring/nagging/directing, we just did it all.

2. EF coaches are extremely expensive for what they do. I have paid $200/hr for excellent AP Calc or ACT tutors for my son, over a month to review for AP or ACT exams, but I will not pay an EF coach that much every week for the foreseeable future!

So everything will depend on your child's needs.

For middle and part of high school, my son had a resource class in his MCPS public, that went with his IEP, and every day he benefited from a teacher who checked he'd written down his homework, handed in assignments, and gave him extra time to finish tests and schoolwork (extended time accommodation). This was a very useful accompaniment to the functioning help we gave him at home.

[Anonymous]

Do they ever have group classes or EF classes that are lower in cost?

[Anonymous]

^^ not that I've seen. Our child's EF coach meets with them once a week, started in HS, freshman year. Child is in college, they still meet once a week.

First visit, EF coach asked child to dump out their backpack, which was full of so many crumpled assignments on the bottom. And garbage. She taught our child an organization system (different color folders for every class, work to do on one side, work to turn in on the other, along with a folder at home to put finished work in to use for studying later. When they met, they would look at the current weeks work, and the next few weeks work, and make a calendar for time management (paper due next Wed, you have practice every day and games xx days, and carving out when to do the actual work).

In college now, so I have no idea what they actually do, but I don't care. Child wants the support, we have the $$ to support, so that's what we will do.

[Anonymous]

Schneck works at Chesapeake. We tried a few times but it didn’t work for our DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ not that I've seen. Our child's EF coach meets with them once a week, started in HS, freshman year. Child is in college, they still meet once a week.

First visit, EF coach asked child to dump out their backpack, which was full of so many crumpled assignments on the bottom. And garbage. She taught our child an organization system (different color folders for every class, work to do on one side, work to turn in on the other, along with a folder at home to put finished work in to use for studying later. When they met, they would look at the current weeks work, and the next few weeks work, and make a calendar for time management (paper due next Wed, you have practice every day and games xx days, and carving out when to do the actual work).

In college now, so I have no idea what they actually do, but I don't care. Child wants the support, we have the $$ to support, so that's what we will do.

what’s the name of your coach? This sounds good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ not that I've seen. Our child's EF coach meets with them once a week, started in HS, freshman year. Child is in college, they still meet once a week.

First visit, EF coach asked child to dump out their backpack, which was full of so many crumpled assignments on the bottom. And garbage. She taught our child an organization system (different color folders for every class, work to do on one side, work to turn in on the other, along with a folder at home to put finished work in to use for studying later. When they met, they would look at the current weeks work, and the next few weeks work, and make a calendar for time management (paper due next Wed, you have practice every day and games xx days, and carving out when to do the actual work).

In college now, so I have no idea what they actually do, but I don't care. Child wants the support, we have the $$ to support, so that's what we will do.

what’s the name of your coach? This sounds good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP,

I know several teens with ADHD, including my son, who is now in college, and I've seen that outsourcing the EF management only works for mild ADHD, because:

1. The more severe cases need EF help morning and evening, outside of business hours, every single day, for life tasks that are not just forgetting to hand in homework. This was the case for my son. There is no coach (unless it's a live-in nanny!) that can address that. Since my husband and I were doing the monitoring/nagging/directing, we just did it all.

2. EF coaches are extremely expensive for what they do. I have paid $200/hr for excellent AP Calc or ACT tutors for my son, over a month to review for AP or ACT exams, but I will not pay an EF coach that much every week for the foreseeable future!

So everything will depend on your child's needs.

For middle and part of high school, my son had a resource class in his MCPS public, that went with his IEP, and every day he benefited from a teacher who checked he'd written down his homework, handed in assignments, and gave him extra time to finish tests and schoolwork (extended time accommodation). This was a very useful accompaniment to the functioning help we gave him at home.

I love learning about a resource class. Do you or others happen to know if this is something APS offers in HS?

[Anonymous]

Anybody try to learn how to do EF on your own to help your child?

I know this is not ideal, but if anyone tried this, had some success, and used any resources (books, courses, etc.), along the way, please share.

Thank you!