Does My Student Need an Executive Function Coach?

As an educational consultant, you are sought out by families who need your expertise in education transitions and rely on you to help their students achieve their goals. You help identify those goals, lay out a plan, set benchmarks, and meet regularly with the student. But sometimes, it's challenging to keep a student on track. If you are working with a student who is frequently late, unprepared for meetings, and struggling to stay organized even with your help, your student may have some executive function (EF) deficits that would benefit from EF coaching. A student’s EF skills can often be intertwined with their personality, homelife, learning differences and even unique motivations, as Jed outlined in this blog article. Improving those underlying skills can help a student improve their grades along with their relationships and self-belief. If you find that one of your students would benefit from developing their executive function skills, Applerouth would be honored to partner with you in that effort.

The end of the academic year, like its beginning, is a time of transition. You, as the IEC, may be in a unique position to help a family start planning for the upcoming academic year.

So how and where should an IEC start? Here are a few questions we pose in our quiz for IECs. Intervening before a student transitions to the next stage in their education can help ensure the student gets the most from the opportunities their school has to offer.

1. Does my student leave tasks until the last minute?
2. When interrupted, is it easy for them to get back on track?
3. Are they on time for appointments and activities?
4. Are their bag/notebook/papers/electronic devices organized? (And can they find what they need, including the correct website and password? A relevant one for many of us adults!)
5. Do they plan their work effectively, prioritizing the most important tasks?
6. Do they need an unusual number of reminders in order to complete tasks and meet deadlines?
7. Do their emotions interfere with their ability to do their best?

If your working knowledge, or this quiz, indicates potentially weak executive functioning skills, how do you talk to a family about the potential vulnerability? You, as the Educational Consultant, know your client and their needs best, though you may want to start by sending them the family-facing version of the quiz at How strong are my student’s EF skills?

Please know that the Applerouth IEC Team is always happy to speak with you privately about particular circumstances as we know that for those with weaker EF skills, getting started can often be the hardest part!