With private coaching we work with students intensively, at least a few hours a week at first, to analyze what their current strategies are and how we can improve on them. Each student goes step-by-step through the following aspects of our program:
Evaluate Executive Skills
Executive skills are what allows any individual, student or adult, to envision, plan, and execute tasks, as well as evaluate their performance and learn from mistakes. Many children have weaknesses in certain areas, and children with ADD/ADHD are strongly deficient in multiple areas. As stated by Dr. Guare, “Executive skills have recently been identifies as the foundation that all children need to negotiate the demands of childhood, and these brain-based skills become more and more critical as children venture into the world with decreasing supervision and guidance. Ultimately, they are essential to successful management of adult life.” Executive Skills are broken down as follows:
- Response inhibition: The capacity to think before you act—this ability to resist the urge to say or do something allows your child the time to evaluate a situation and how his or her behaviour might impact it. For example, a young child can wait for a short period without being disruptive. An adolescent can accept a referee’s call without an argument.
- Working Memory: The ability to hold information in memory while performing complex tasks. It incorporates the ability to draw on past learning or experience to apply to the situation at hand or project into the future. For example, a middle school child can remember the carrying expectations of multiple teachers.
- Emotional Control: The ability to manage emotions to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behaviour.
- Sustained Attention: The capacity to keep paying attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom. For example, a teenage child can pay attention to homework, with short breaks, for 1-2 hours.
- Task initiation: The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion.
- Planning/Prioritization: The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make decisions about what’s important to focus on and what’s not important.
- Organization: The ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information and materials.
- Time Management: The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines. It also involves a sense that time is important.
- Goal-Directed Persistence: The capacity to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, and not be put off by or distracted by competing interests.
- Flexibility: The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or mistakes. It relates to adaptability to changing conditions.
- Metacognition: The ability to stand back and take a bird’s-eye view of yourself in a situation, to observe how you problem solve. It also includes self-monitoring and self-evaluative skills (“How am I doing?”). For example, a young child can change behaviour in response to feedback from an adult. A teenage can monitor and critique his performance and improve it by observing others who are more skilled.
Create a Goal List with Students and Parents
Using the information from our evaluation, we discuss the primary areas of concern with the family. We then decide on the skills we will focus on first, and create a goal list for each quarter.
Implement a System
We work with the students to teach them effective systems and strategies for them to be successful in school, foster executive function development, and create a harmonious home environment. Parents and teachers work with us to help support and implement the student’s system.
Assess Learning Style
No two people learn and understand information in the same way. We discern the clear tendencies of each child’s learning style, and then work closely with the student to try different methods of studying tailored to their learning style. We try to provide each student with a set of study skills that is both efficient and effective for them now and throughout their life.
Develop academic skill sets: Evaluate the reading comprehension, math and writing ability of the student and discuss shortcomings with the parents. The goal is to have the student solidly at his grade level and prepared to handle the progressions of future grades. We like to build an ability in the student to handle constructive criticism and work through struggles, and encourage every student to seek recognition for his work.
- Reading & Writing Skills: Build reading skills beyond the basic comprehension and into the realm of synthesis and analysis. Develop writing skills for essays, exams, and SATs. Stress the importance of grammar and organization. We teach strategies for active and engaged reading. We also teach students the analytical skills necessary for academic pursuits. We work with students on vocabulary learning methods to aid in their reading comprehension and writing abilities.
- Study Skills: work with each student as an individual to gauge what their learning style is and show them how to capitalize on their natural learning preferences. Go through an intensive study skills method that is applicable for all their learning endeavors, now and in the future. We focus on memory techniques, active reading strategies, and building a study system.
- Test-taking skills: work with students (and their teachers) to analyze their test-taking skills. Work with the student on how to handle the stress of a testing environment and the different types of tests, as well as build an ability to recall the information from the study sessions.
- Independence: build confidence and knowledge in how to find answers, balance multiple projects, and engage in the learning process. We are very big on a student carrying his own weight. We are here to help, but know when to make them stand on their own. We expect a lot from our students, but they find that working hard on specific tasks and gaining results is much more satisfying than wading through unhappily on their own. We give them the tools to succeed, which is normally all that is missing.
- Mentoring: So much of what we do is provide a role model for the children. Each associate I have hired is exceptional in a variety of ways and each has a different advantage in working with children. As a whole, my program focuses on putting someone in the child’s life they can comfortably ask questions to or seek advice from. As a group, we have a junior Olympic medal, Magna Cum Laude graduations, Non-Profit founders, Teaching Award Winners, and many other magnificent achievements.
Our system is not an overnight fix or a simple subject clarification; it is truly a system of learning skills that take time and dedication to conquer. We hope to make their weekly study time decrease but their productivity increase, which is as much a relief for them as the parents.
Subject Tutoring
While we like to go beyond just basic subject tutoring, we are happy to work with any of the students on specific issues they have with comprehension in any subject. The difference between us and a normal subject tutor: We would rather teach them how to work out a problem themselves, find the answer, or be ok discussing issues with their full-time teacher. We want our students to be resourceful, not reliant.
If you want to set up an appointment for your child today to receive private coaching, please visit: http://www.lindereducationalcoaching.com/
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