Executive Function Coaching

At Cognitive & Behavioral Consultants, our clinicians utilize empirically-based approaches to address concerns regarding weaknesses in executive functioning and self-regulation skills. Executive functioning coaching is available for students in late elementary school through adulthood. Sessions can focus on acute stressors, such as preparing for finals or teaching long-term skills to be used in daily life.

Executive function skills are essential self-regulation skills that help individuals accomplish daily tasks. We use these skills to set goals, plan ways to accomplish our goals, navigate and assess our progress along the path to completing the goal, regulate our emotions, and adjust our plan if necessary. These skills are the bridge between an individual’s potential and what they are able to achieve. Variations in these skills have the capacity to interfere with a student’s capacity to show others the extent of their knowledge. Because these skills play a crucial role in most aspects of life, weaknesses in executive function skills can impact an individual’s ability to achieve across all aspects of their lives.

Executive function skills slowly begin to develop during infancy and continue into early adulthood. As children, we build these skills through interacting and engaging with our world. Some of these skills include planning, organizing, time management, thinking flexibly, using working memory, controlling impulses, filtering distractions, and focusing on tasks. While executive function skills begin to develop during early childhood, problems with executive functioning often do not become apparent until late elementary and middle school, when the demands for working independently start to increase. Weaknesses in executive functioning can impact individuals in different ways.

For students, challenges often include:

• I frequently have trouble getting started on my homework.
• I have trouble knowing how to prioritize what work to do first.
• Once I start working on homework, I am quickly distracted, and rarely end up finishing what I started.
• I am constantly getting in trouble for losing my books and assignments, and my backpack is a mess.
• I have trouble managing different assignments and handing them in to the teacher correctly.
• I have trouble keeping track of when all of my homework is due.
• My schoolwork feels easy, but I can’t seem to earn the grades I want.
• I don’t know how to study for tests.
• I am a huge procrastinator; I wait until the last minute to complete projects and essays, often needing extensions from my teachers.
• I have trouble following directions with multiple steps or sequences.
• I have a hard time regulating my emotions particularly when things don’t go my way.

For adults, common concerns include:

• I feel anxious just thinking about school.
  
• It takes me so much time to get started on simple activities, and even longer to finish them.
• I have a hard time prioritizing which tasks I need to do first.
• I always seem to lose important items and documents.
• I am frequently late for things and have trouble managing my time.
• I never seem to be able to accomplish short or long-term goals.
• I struggle to organize the steps needed in order to complete tasks.
• I frequently miss deadlines at work and struggle to know how much time I will need to complete tasks.
• I feel like I am not reaching my potential at work.
• I have trouble switching from one task to another.
• I have a hard time regulating my emotions particularly when things don’t go my way.
• I am struggling to manage my household and keep track of my children’s appointments and activities.