Study skill/executive functioning coach- hands on?

[Anonymous]

We are looking for any recommendations for an active, hands on study skill coach/ EF coach to support our teenage son. We have had experience with many well intentioned EF coaches who support verbally, in a virtual capacity with suggestions only. This keeps falling short of what we need. We are looking for a practice/ person who will concretely teach our son study strategies, support him (hold him accountable?) to use them and teach/support him how to monitor, map out his time and then complete assignments.

I realize that this may be a unicorn. Are their coaches that do home visits, look at a kids study area set up, make recommendations, and meet with them in person 1:1 weekly ( or even 2x a week).

Or- any recommendations about outstanding summer study skill programs?

Please do NOT recommend the Chesapeake Center.

[Anonymous]

Recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

You need to ask your friends. Your child's HS counselor. Your school and neighborhood list servs. Our child has one who comes regularly, once a week, and dies all the things you are asking about. Found her through a friend (that I had no idea had an ADHD kid).

No way would I share their name in this board, and have them trashed, or overwhelmed and then unable to see our child

[Anonymous]

Selfish.

[Anonymous]

Years ago we asked for a few recommendations from DC's psychologist. We ended up with a teacher earning some extra money by tutoring. We weren't sure what difference it would make but it really helped. Note, DC was really open to suggestions and being held accountable. Without that, it probably wouldn't have been as good.

[Anonymous]

I would look for someone who works at your child’s school. They will have access to see their assignments and be familiar with the system used for assignments and grades. Perhaps you can have someone come on Sunday and with your child, look over what is coming up that week in each class and make a day by day plan for what will need to be done each day to stay on track. Then maybe another meeting to check in on Wednesday to see how the plan is going and if anything new needs to be added as a result of class sessions M-W. So, 2 sessions a week. But your student still has to do what is on the plan in between, or meet with an academic tutor to do the actual work if needed.

[Anonymous]

Some school systems offer MS and HS classes specifically for this. The tradeoff is giving up an elective but it may be worth it if your child isn’t coming home overwhelmed with unfinished work.

[Anonymous]

I'm attending a free webinar for parents that give tips for building Exec Functioning skills. Both to help me and DH but also to sort of vet the company running the webinar to see if it might be a good fit for coaching - maybe it would help?

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_v268cPS8T1yV_IDPe8kL3Q#/registration

[Anonymous]

You may want to look into Stephanie Gerstenblith of Enhancing Your Strengths.

www.enhancingyourstrengths.com

She can do executive functioning coaching and OG work at school and outside of school.

Highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for any recommendations for an active, hands on study skill coach/ EF coach to support our teenage son. We have had experience with many well intentioned EF coaches who support verbally, in a virtual capacity with suggestions only. This keeps falling short of what we need. We are looking for a practice/ person who will concretely teach our son study strategies, support him (hold him accountable?) to use them and teach/support him how to monitor, map out his time and then complete assignments.

I realize that this may be a unicorn. Are their coaches that do home visits, look at a kids study area set up, make recommendations, and meet with them in person 1:1 weekly ( or even 2x a week).

Or- any recommendations about outstanding summer study skill programs?

Please do NOT recommend the Chesapeake Center.

TBH, I am a subject matter tutor and a parent of an ADHD kid and I find that, while my kid had atrocious study and time management skills, what was really hurting his grade is that his ADHD was affecting his subject matter performance. No amount of executive functioning coaching helping him organize his notes and use a calendar was going to help him see that in math he made certain kinds of attentional errors repeatedly (mixing up signs, impulsively combining numbers, etc.), failed to firmly memorize formulas, sometimes stopped with partial answers, and sometimes missed or misunderstood concepts taught in class (or sometimes, TBH, they were taught badly in class). IME, a subject matter tutor is better at helping a kid with executive function, than an executive function coach is at helping a kid who is doing badly in math. But, it has to be a subject matter tutor who is not just explaining errors, but looking at the big picture and has access to all the students materials - classwork, homework, tests, electronic grade book, etc. and that tutor has to have a lot of experience with neurotypical and neurodivergent kids to understand how the ND student is different.

[Anonymous]

PP- this is my kid! Any names/recommendations for a math tutor who understands neuroatypical learners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You may want to look into Stephanie Gerstenblith of Enhancing Your Strengths.

www.enhancingyourstrengths.com

She can do executive functioning coaching and OG work at school and outside of school.

Highly recommend.

+1

[Anonymous]

You should consider Career & Academic Training, Inc. Their website -- CollegeCats.com or SpecialEducationForCollege.com -- details their services. They are web-based, but do provide 1:1 services via phone and videoconference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for any recommendations for an active, hands on study skill coach/ EF coach to support our teenage son. We have had experience with many well intentioned EF coaches who support verbally, in a virtual capacity with suggestions only. This keeps falling short of what we need. We are looking for a practice/ person who will concretely teach our son study strategies, support him (hold him accountable?) to use them and teach/support him how to monitor, map out his time and then complete assignments.

I realize that this may be a unicorn. Are their coaches that do home visits, look at a kids study area set up, make recommendations, and meet with them in person 1:1 weekly ( or even 2x a week).

Or- any recommendations about outstanding summer study skill programs?

Please do NOT recommend the Chesapeake Center.

TBH, I am a subject matter tutor and a parent of an ADHD kid and I find that, while my kid had atrocious study and time management skills, what was really hurting his grade is that his ADHD was affecting his subject matter performance. No amount of executive functioning coaching helping him organize his notes and use a calendar was going to help him see that in math he made certain kinds of attentional errors repeatedly (mixing up signs, impulsively combining numbers, etc.), failed to firmly memorize formulas, sometimes stopped with partial answers, and sometimes missed or misunderstood concepts taught in class (or sometimes, TBH, they were taught badly in class). IME, a subject matter tutor is better at helping a kid with executive function, than an executive function coach is at helping a kid who is doing badly in math. But, it has to be a subject matter tutor who is not just explaining errors, but looking at the big picture and has access to all the students materials - classwork, homework, tests, electronic grade book, etc. and that tutor has to have a lot of experience with neurotypical and neurodivergent kids to understand how the ND student is different.

NP here. This was very useful to read, thank you.

I’m a parent of a 20 year old with inattentive adhd and poor executive function. He had academic struggles in HS due to these issues, but could get by due to the lax policies in mcps. However, he’s now at an academically rigorous college and it’s a disaster - all of these issues are rearing, and he isn’t able to compensate for the first time in his life. His self confidence is taking a big hit, too. I feel terrible and am at a loss what supports to give him, especially from afar.

Do you have any suggestions or tips? I hear your points, but obviously in a college setting there won’t be any subject matter specific tutors who also have a big picture sense of DS’s defecits.