EXECUTIVE FUNCTION COACHING

Executive Function Coaching For Empowered Learning

Dr. Fine and her team have taught executive function skills since 2008, before the term was widely known. At Fine Educational Solutions, our focus on executive functioning is evident in all of our interactions with students and is a cornerstone of our commitment to student success.

For students who require a more intensive focus on executive functions, we are proud to offer a structured and comprehensive thirteen-unit curriculum to build self-awareness, increases engagement, and a growth mindset. Our goal is to empower students to achieve high school, college, career, and life goals.

Our students start their journey to develop executive functions by taking the MindPrint, a cognitive assessment of student reasoning, executive functioning, memory, and processing skills. Since MindPrint's cognitive screener was developed by neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and is used by NASA to test astronauts during long-duration space flights, we feel confident in its efficacy.

By helping students understand their relative cognitive strengths and weaknesses, they are able to understand how and why a particular strategy can benefit them. As facilitators of student growth, we leverage the data found in each student’s Strengths-based Learner Profiles (click HERE to see a sample) to personalize instruction.

What’s Included in the Course

Personalized 1:1 instruction delivered over Zoom.
Approximately 25 hours of personalized instruction, accountability, tracking, and follow-up.
Calendar and/or planner skills taught and woven into all meetings.
12 essential topics including homework, study skills, math, reading, focus, and test-taking
Instructional videos to introduce new vocabulary and provide real-world examples, and to promote coach-student discussion.
Personalized reports.
Student journal and learning strategies to nurture lifelong self-efficacy skills
Normed pre/post screener measures growth across core facets of student engagement.

Note: This program is prioritized for current clients, with additional spots offered to others as space allows.

Executive Function FAQs

What is Executive Function?: Executive function skills help people plan, sustain attention, work accurately and efficiently, switch gears, juggle tasks, and adapt to unfamiliar information or situations.

People with strong executive function skills complete assignments more efficiently, regardless of how well they know and understand the information. Further, they they are are better able to make and execute plans in order to reach goals.

Powerful analogies help illustrate the pivotal role executive functions play in academic and professional success—such as the “air traffic control system” of the brain (Harvard Center on the Developing Child) and the “orchestra conductor” of the brain (Barker & Morton, 2018).

To learn more about executive functions, click HERE.
How Can Executive Function Coaching Help?: Humans need executive function skills at every stage of life, but they become more vital as children progress through school. Nobody is born with executive function skills per se, however, everyone is born with the ability to develop and learn these skills.

Executive function coaching reinforces classroom-based efforts in a structured and comprehensive way. Since executive function coaches have the luxury of working 1:1 with students, they are better able to customize their teaching to each student's needs (cognitive strengths and weaknesses) and goals.
How Do I Know If My Child Is Struggling With Executive Functions?: Parents and guardians are typically the first to recognize that their student is struggling with poorly developed executive function skills. Common signs include when a student struggles to perform academically in the absence of other explanations, such as LDs and/or ADHD, underestimating the time it will take to complete assignments, appearing to always be in a rush to complete work at the last minute, and generally lagging in school.

By identifying which skills are preventing students from reaching their goals, executive function coaches teach students strategies to help them learn and develop skills such as organization, task initiation, plan execution, time management, efficiency, and self-regulation.

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION COACHING