We are proud to present this guest post by Holly Glasgow, co-founder of Elite Mentors San Antonio, about executive function skills and how a coach can help your students succeed in school.
If you have helped your student clean out the black hole of a backpack, lost sleep over a mound of missing assignments, or are tired of nagging your child to get started on their chores, you have encountered the struggle many kids have with executive function skills.
What Are Executive Function Skills?
Executive function skills are a set of mental self-regulation skills that allow people to plan, organize, and prioritize tasks. It involves the areas of working memory, mental agility, flexibility, and self-control. Simply put, these are the skills children need to learn and develop to become confident, successful, productive adults. People are not born with these skills; they learn them as they grow and play. Children reach physical growth and large motor development milestones at varied points. Likewise, their brains develop at different rates. The period of time from middle school through early high school is particularly crucial for executive function development. Adolescent bodies and brains are growing fast! The only other time such rapid development occurs is from birth to three years old.
Most parents and teachers understand the need to help students with these skills at the middle and high school grades, but aren’t quite sure how. They think the teachers are teaching them, and they try as they find time to squeeze them in as part of their regular curriculum, but the demands of the day to day operations of classroom instruction does not allow teachers to devote as much time as some students need. Teachers hope that parents are addressing the skills, but oftentimes parents feel ill equipped and get frustrated in what feels like a battle with their child. Parents want to build positive relationships, but this struggle to get kids organized or started on projects or to help with missing assignments feels very far away from positive.
Getting Help From a Coach
This is where an executive function coach can step in. People like myself (Holly) and my partner, Andrew, can be that liaison between teachers, students, and parents. EF coaches have teaching and mentoring experiences with middle school and high school students and understand how to engage with students who struggle with these skills. Maybe a student has ADHD or other neurodivergent issues and needs help finding the right strategies that help them stay on target for success. Maybe a student is an athlete or is in fine arts with a busy schedule full of practice or rehearsals and games or performances who needs help staying on top of all the things that are required of them. EF coaching can help find and develop strategies that are tailored to your child’s needs.
When left unaddressed, children and, most specifically, adolescents, who struggle with executive function skills can have issues with interpersonal relationships, poor grades, and low self esteem. Many students learn these skills through everyday circumstances with no issues whatsoever, but, as mentioned earlier, adolescents develop, physically and mentally, at very different paces and may need a good coach and mentor to help them along the way,
A quality Executive Function coach and mentor can evaluate a child and create a plan specific to their needs. While a group of students might have similar issues with getting work turned in on time, or keeping a backpack organized, the root causes and the strategies to help will be vastly different from kid to kid.
What EF Coaching Looks Like
As you consider if executive function coaching is a path you would like to take to help your child, it is important to know what executive function coaching ISN’T. It is not tutoring. While many EF coaches are current or former teachers or administrators, coaching sessions are designed to help with skills that will boost success in all academic areas. A coaching session might involve helping a student complete some assignments or plan out a long term project, but usually meetings are focused on the specific executive function skill the student is working on.
Likewise, EF coaching is not psychotherapy. Many students may come to us struggling with executive function skills because they are dealing with other issues such as major depression, deep seated anxiety, or other mental illnesses that a licensed therapist would be better suited for. We want to help as many children and adolescents as possible, and that may mean directing families to other professionals that can provide the help and healing a child truly needs.
EF coaching can consist of one meeting, particularly if there is a pressing need to blast a long list of missing assignments and the parent-child struggle is too tense. Students who utilize EF coaching for a longer period of time see greater improvement in executive functioning skill development. It takes time for the coach and the student to get to know each other. The coach needs time to uncover the root cause of the issue and finding the right combination strategies takes trial and error. Working with a coach for a grading period of 6–9 weeks or a full semester is a more realistic timeframe for establishing the best plan of action.
Bottom line? You and your student do not have to do this alone. There are people like Andrew and me who are ready to walk with you as you lead your student towards success in all areas of life. Visit elitementors-sa.com for more information. We would love to meet you!
Charter Moms Chats
Watch Holly Glasgow and Andrew Pandolfi, co-founders of Elite Mentors San Antonio, speak with Inga Cotton on Charter Moms Chats on August 29, 2024 at 4:00 PM Central live on Facebook and YouTube.
Holly Glasgow is a co-founder of Elite Mentors San Antonio. She has a BS in History and English from Texas Tech University and an MS in Kinesiology from Texas A&M University; in addition, she has earned her Principal Certification from Lamar University. Holly is a seasoned educator with over 25 years in public and private education as a teacher, athletic coach, and administrator. Through her experience, she has gained a deep understanding of what makes adolescents in the middle and high school grades tick. She has extensive knowledge of brain and body development and best classroom practices for students in grades 6–12 and is passionate about working with students to gain the proper skills to reach their highest level of success.
Andrew Pandolfi is a co-founder of Elite Mentors San Antonio. He has a BA from Dallas Christian College. Andrew is a professional youth pastor and coach with over 24 years experience. Between the fast-paced learning environments that teens are living in, classroom expectations, and social media exposure, students are overwhelmed with questions like, “Where do I fit in?” Andrew is adept at helping teens manage these issues and walks with them to help them reach their potential.
Read More About Executive Function Skills
- “What are executive functioning skills and why do they matter?” Sean McCormick, EF Specialists, August 26, 2024
- “Understanding the Executive Functioning Ripple Effect,” Chris Hanson, Life Skills Advocate, October 18, 2023
- “What You Need to Know About School Counseling Services,” Emily Daniels and Lindsay Durham, San Antonio Charter Moms, February 9, 2023
- “Tips from Fusion Academy About Things You Can Do with Your Teen this Summer,” Haley Segovia, San Antonio Charter Moms, March 31, 2022
