Middle School Executive Function Tutoring
In elementary school, students typically have one main teacher and specialists. In middle school, they now have to move from class to class as opposed to having people come to them. It’s a big shift towards the expectations of agency and independence. The workload is greater and the stakes are higher since performance in middle school influences a student’s high school future. While students are asked to be more responsible for their time at this life stage, there are expanding and competing demands on this time (i.e., peer relationships and extracurriculars) and complications like digital distractions.
At this point in a child’s development, they often want to manage their academics on their own but may not be equipped to do so. You might find yourself constantly reminding your child to do assignments, worrying about their inability to control their frustration, or feeling stress due to your child’s procrastination and disorganization. These concerns can indicate executive functioning challenges. Our tutors help students strengthen executive function skills for improvements in the near term, while also preparing students for success in high school.
Areas We Address
Every student is different but some of the key executive function skills we focus on may include:
Planning and Prioritizing
Planning and Prioritizing
Students will develop an array of strategies helping them to plan and prioritize their work effectively. These strategies include: Short-term and long-term goal creation, chunking larger assignments into constituent parts, considering urgency, importance, and difficulty of tasks, and filtering relevant from irrelevant information.
Self-Regulation
Self-Regulation
With the increased pressure of middle school, we help students recognize and label their emotions and consider the connection between motivation and emotion. During sessions, we implement mindfulness strategies to improve focus and concentration and, ultimately, aim to help students increase their frustration tolerance and grit.
Focus
Focus
Students will utilize skills to help them initiate assignments, decrease procrastination, and improve sustained focus. We do this through the creation of a distraction-free workspace, by implementing technology limits and boundaries. We also help middle schoolers identify when their attention is lost by self-monitoring and practice redirecting their attention and focus to the selected task.
Organization and Time Management
Organization and Time Management
Students will learn important general organization skills such as the physical organization of binders, folders, bags and workspace. They will organize their thoughts and ideas through notes, annotations, and written responses. Additionally, we teach students how to manage their time better through agendas (daily and weekly), estimation, and time tracking.
Executive Functioning Coaching Toolbox
We identify an experienced executive functioning tutor within our network who we feel would be the ideal match for your child based on your child’s learning challenges, personality, and learning style. Your child’s tutor will provide one on one support with personalized interventions that take into account your child’s developmental, academic, and cognitive needs, as well as the needs of your family.
Strategies may include:
Our executive functioning tutors help students bolster their skills and form positive habits so they won’t need to rely on a tutor in the long term. We want them to gain the confidence and independence to become more effective learners. The executive function skills they master won’t just help them transition to high school, they’ll also empower them academically, professionally, and socially for the rest of their lives.
