Executive Skills Support

Planning, Organizing, Academic Strategy.

Parent Version

Executive skills are the cognitive processes of doing.  Planning, organizing, emotional regulation, prioritizing, and so on.  We assist with:

• Organizing binders, bags.

• Breaking down assignments into manageable steps by identifying the components of assignments, estimating how long each one will take, and make timelines for completion.  

• Prioritizing: look at all assignments, identify which ones should be done first and why by looking at a) due dates, b) how long they will take, and c) how many marks they are worth.

• Encouraging Agenda usage (often there is great resistance to this, so achieving buy-in can be a long process).

• Task Initiation: fighting procrastination often starts by doing all of the above.  If the preparation for the work is unmanaged, it is overwhelming and avoided.  If it is made more manageable, it s less overwhelming and there is less avoidance.

• Explanations that are straightforward for most students are not always clear to our friends with Executive Skills weaknesses.  If instructions are not accurately interpreted or followed, grades suffer. We clarify criteria and teach students how to clarify for themselves, both by knowing what to look for in the instructions and how to ask the teacher for clarification.

• Goals: help students identify their goals and help them make make plans to meet them, encourage them to work with them until completion.  Achieve goal directed persistence on an area of high interest, which is easier to encourage, can be generalized to other, lower interest activities.

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How often do we meet for Executive Skills?

One hour a week is usually sufficient, however, many parents we work with are more interested in other services as well.