Tutors play a crucial role in guiding students through challenges experienced by executive functioning skills deficits. Let’s look at Sarah, a high school junior balancing AP classes, a part-time job, and soccer practice. She often forgets deadlines and feels overwhelmed. Her grades are suffering and her level of stress is increasing which is making it very difficult for Sarah to focus.
Here are strategies that can help students like Sarah:
1. Organization Skills
- Teach strategies: Use tools like planners, calendars, and checklists. Allow time for Sarah to utilize these tools and find the one that works best for her.
- Model and practice: Show students how to break down tasks into manageable steps. Tutors model strategies that can support students and with consistent practice, students will master these strategies independently.
- Create routines: Establish consistent homework or study schedules. It’s important to be consistent with your routines, the impact of consistent practices that work will have a positive impact on a student’s academic performance.
2. Time Management
- Introduce time-blocking: Teach students to allocate specific times for tasks. Using a timer is extremely effective. There is power in focusing on one task at a time for a set amount of time.
- Practice estimating time: Help students predict how long tasks will take. The art of estimating time will help students manage their time better and plan for things more efficiently.
- Use timers: Encourage focused work sessions followed by short breaks (e.g., Pomodoro Technique). Being able to focus on one area of focus at a time will establish a level of discipline, over time this discipline will help establish a foundation for success.
3. Emotional Regulation
- Build mindfulness: Incorporate breathing exercises or mindfulness apps. The power of mindfulness will aid students in increasing their focus on academics and beyond.
- Reframe mistakes: Teach students to view challenges as learning opportunities. Every challenge we face is an opportunity to learn and grow from that experience. This growth mindset will serve students well in the classroom and life.
- Provide positive reinforcement: Recognize and reward effort and progress, even small verbal praise can help increase motivation and confidence.
4. Task Initiation and Prioritization
- Use visual aids: Create “to-do” lists ranked by priority. These tools will help students learn to prioritize work based on importance and due dates.
- Start small: Encourage beginning with simple, achievable tasks. Breaking things down into smaller goals makes things seem more manageable and helps build confidence and stamina for bigger tasks.
- Set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound objectives. Establishing SMART goals not only allows students to understand the importance of each goal but also gives each goal purpose when measured through the SMART approach.
5. Self-Monitoring and Reflection
- Regular check-ins: Ask students to evaluate their progress and adjust plans. Establishing regular check-ins also makes students accountable for their work.
- Encourage journaling: Reflect on successes and areas for improvement. Taking the time to reflect and document a student’s successes and challenges allows students to take pride in their accomplishments and the journey becomes more meaningful.
- Teach self-questioning: Promote questions like “What’s my goal?” or “What’s the next step?” Self-questioning techniques allow students to have a deeper understanding and learn how to process the information more effectively.
Our executive function skills tutoring program focuses on supporting students with implementing many of these above strategies. Students not only experience increased grades but they also have shown improvement in self-confidence, and motivation and develop overall stronger executive functioning skills that will have positive impacts in the classroom and beyond.
Contact our team today to learn more about our tutoring programs, 215-657-1981.