Starting in grade 7, Executive Skill (Academic Strategy) Support can help a student stay on track with school while providing specific tools and strategies recommended by leading learning specialists.
With this age group, we are primarily supporting the executive skills involved in planning, organization, time and materials management as well as “metacognition” (thinking about how we think and operate). Since many of our students learn differently, support is also offered for IEP planning, dealing with school Learning Resource Departments and understanding educational psychological assessment results. Executive Skill (Academic Strategy) Support works best on a weekly basis.
Executive Skills are a collection of brain functions that help regulate the completion of tasks, the ability to shift from one thing to another, the ability to maintain focus both on school tasks and social relationships. Here is a list of 11 recognized Executive Skills.
Weekly, one-hour sessions are recommended. This allows us to help your son or daughter plan week-by-week and deal with assignments, tests and school situations as they arise.
This very much depends on the individual student, their learning/cognitive profile, their willingness to try new things, their initial level of emotional reactivity and the nature/severity of their Executive Skill difficulties. Most students need roughly one school year of weekly sessions to improve although some students only require one term and some need support into the following year. We “fade out” support when the student is feeling more confident by dropping the frequency of sessions and will let you know when it is time to do this.
While we are not trained counselors or therapists and cannot provide services for students who have significant mental health issues, we can certainly teach ways to manage anxiety, perfectionism (including procrastination) and negative feelings surrounding schoolwork. To do this, we take a positive approach, focusing on strengths and embracing “failure” (which is absolutely necessary in order to learn!) We also strongly encourage a flexible mindset, incorporate elements of mindfulness training, work to alter distorted thought patterns (i.e. “I will never be able to do this”) and teach about brain functioning during our sessions with students.
Yes. Students with Asperger’s Syndrome or who are high functioning on the Autism Spectrum can benefit from Executive Skill Support. Please note that every student is different. We will help you set realistic goals for you son within the first month of sessions when we have seen how he responds to working with us.
Medication for ADHD is always a touchy subject and every parent needs to make this decision in collaboration with their physicians and other professionals. Generally, medication is only recommended by health care professionals when the symptoms of ADHD (Inattentive, Hyperactive or Combined) significantly limit a student’s ability to function at school and in social situations. These symptoms can sometimes be enough to slow the progress of all learning, including the learning that should happen in our Executive Skill (Academic Strategy) Support sessions. Executive Skill Support can be an excellent addition to the use of medication but should not be considered a replacement for this (or other therapies) if your daughter’s symptoms are significant.
Please call or email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!