Executive Function Skills Grade 4-12, College, Adults

Challenges Parents and Teachers Might Notice

Parents and teachers may notice the following challenges in elementary, middle, and high school students:

• Behavior or emotion management challenges

The student seems to lack the same degree of self-control as peers, is easily frustrated, anxious, and/or has difficulty settling down to do work. The student is impulsive or easily frustrated, cannot resist online distractions, has difficulty settling down to do work, and persisting with tasks.  The student leaves work until the last minute, causing panic and stress at home. The student may have poor relationships with teachers, be unable to resist distractions, have difficulty settling down to do work, or give up easily on challenging or tedious tasks

• Academic challenges

Some students may lack persistence or often not start or complete even small assignments or have trouble locating materials for schoolwork. They might do poorly on tests due to ineffective study habits, may lose credit for late assignments or may not know how to take notes in class

• Social challenges

The student may have trouble cooperating with peers or participating in group activities, leading to challenges in making and maintaining friendships

• Organizational challenges

Some of the students have difficulty organizing: whether a backpack, a desk, or multi-step directions for class assignments. The student may lose or forget to turn in homework, has difficulties organizing class materials, keeping track of and turning in homework, or approaching writing assignments and long-term projects

• Time management challenges

The student leaves work until the last minute, causing panic and stress at home, and maybe overscheduled and stressed.

Parents of Elementary school children who are struggling may wonder:

• Why does my child take so much time to do homework?
• How can I help my child calm down?
• How can I reduce my child’s temper tantrums?
• How can I help my child become more organized?
• Why does my child often forget to do homework?
• How can I motivate my child to do well in high school?
• Why does my child stay up so late doing homework?
• Why does my child wait until the last minute to do projects?
• Why does my child do poorly on tests, despite studying?
• Will my child be prepared to succeed in college?
• How can I get my child to start their homework earlier without constant reminders?
• How can I help my child manage frustration?
• How can I help my child increase self-confidence?
• My child is smart, but why does he/she keep receiving low grades?

Themba Tutors helps individuals to maximize their learning potential from a collaborative approach working with parents, teachers, and other professionals.

How Can Themba Help? 1:1 Executive Function Coaching

Our coaches and tutors can help your child

• Learn and practice methods to cope with strong emotions and stress
• Learn and apply strategies to stay on task and maintain attention
• Learn how to get work started and persist with challenging work
• Develop personalized systems to organize materials and work areas
• Develop systems to start and complete writing assignments
• Learn how to break assignments into smaller parts and plan when to do work
• Develop self-reflection skills to help students take ownership of new habits
• Identify and use technology that improves their productivity
• Learn how to study and take tests effectively
• Gain insight about what motivates them, and use that knowledge to be productive
• Learn how to advocate for themselves with teacher

At Themba Tutors, we will help elementary, middle, and high school students to find out the difficulties they are facing. We will provide them with tools and help them learn the necessary skills to overcome all the challenges they are facing in order to learn effectively. Our executive function coaching can be customized for all grade and skill level.