This 3-week workshop series, with twice-weekly meetings led by two childhood specialists, is designed to help parents better understand and support their children who struggle with executive functioning — the brain-based skills needed to manage and navigate responsibilities in school and life through emotional and behavioral regulation, self-awareness and personal control, effective effort, and proper follow-through in relation to mental energy and stamina.
Grounded in high-level experience, current research, and leading frameworks (Smart but Scattered, Unstuck and On Target, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens), the program reframes student challenges from something they “won’t do” to figuring out the reason why they “can’t consistently do it yet.” It emphasizes that many students struggle not because of a lack of intelligence, but because of difficulty executing skills in real time, especially when under stress or completing tasks that are difficult or tedious.
Program Structure & Focus
Each meeting targets two executive functioning subsets through parent education, practical strategies, and school-based applications.
- Meeting 1: Emotional Control & Flexibility
Identifies the initial foundation of executive functioning struggles by addressing emotional regulation and rigid thinking, which directly impact a student’s ability to accept the challenges placed in front of them.
- Meeting 2: Impulsivity & Task Initiation
Reframes impulsive behavior and procrastination as issues of self-control and activation, due to a lack of intrinsic motivation, excessive stimulation, not effort
- Meeting 3: Social Thinking & Self-Awareness
Focuses on real-time social skills, feedback processing, and helping parents better understand their children’s behavior, reasonable expectations, and a timeframe for growth.
- Meeting 4: Working Memory & Attention
Addresses ADHD’s impact on children, along with why many students forget directions or lose focus, emphasizing external supports and strategies for age and developmentally appropriate engagement.
- Meeting 5: Time Management & Persistence
Explains “time blindness,” effective use of time, and difficulty sustaining effort, along with strategies for developing proper persistence and effective use of time.
- Meeting 6: Organization & Planning
Connects all prior subsets into real-world systems for managing schoolwork, materials, and long-term tasks, and how the other subsets can impact these managerial responsibilities.
Key Outcomes for Families
- Shared language between educators and parents around executive functioning
- Improved understanding of student behavior as performance issues stemming from cognitive struggles, which can lead to defense mechanisms such as defiance, avoidance, and lack of production.
- Practical, research-based strategies that can be applied at school and home
- Pathways forward for increased student independence, self-awareness, and academic follow-through
- A unique conversation each meeting with a guest professional, student, or family to lend real-world credence to the topics being discussed.
Core Message
When a student struggles, it is most likely not due to a lack of intelligence, as the average child has more than enough ability to succeed academically. Instead, it is almost always external and internal issues rooted in socio-emotional, cognitive, and/or biochemical factors that impact learners. This requires demystification, understanding, respect, and patience to guide the child through their roadblocks. As a result, it is only through gradual, age-appropriate steps that foster self-awareness and personal control, along with healthy decision-making and behavioral changes, that a student will overcome their issues to reach their potential. This program introduces parents to the skills and tools needed to begin fostering and supporting long-term success in these areas.