Our Approach

Our process for enhancing executive function skills is a five step process that includes an intake, assessment and weekly skill building meeting. Read below to learn about each step in more detail.

What is the EF Specialists process?

Step 1: The Inquiry Meeting

The inquiry meeting is an opportunity for us to learn more about the transformation you would like to see occur while working with an executive functioning coach, as well as an opportunity for us to share more about our process to support your goals.

We also ask your student to describe the characteristics and experience they would like to have with their ideal coach, so we can match them appropriately.

Through a series of questions, we will collaboratively identify if we are a "right fit" for each other.

You can book your free inquiry meeting by clicking below.

Book a free inquiry meeting

Step 2: Intake & Match Process

During the intake and match process, we evaluate your student's current executive function skills to establish a baseline by which we will measure progress.

The cost of our registration and matching process can be found on our pricing page. This covers the cost of:

Writing a plan of service
Matching your student with an appropriate executive function specialist
Data collection on your student's executive function skills
A review of any assessments, IEPs, 504 plans or other key documents
Initial consultations with teachers, mental health providers and/or other professionals you would like to connect us with

Step 3: Weekly Executive Function Coaching

During the weekly executive function coaching sessions our specialists will establish a designed alliance with our students that allows them to strengthen their executive function skills. Each of our specialists has been certified in the coaching methodology designed by founder and master executive function coach, Sean G. McCormick.

We describe executive functioning skills as P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. skills that include:

Planning
Organization
Self-advocacy
Initiation
Time management
Inhibition management
Visualizing outcomes
Evaluating priorities

By guiding our students to address the most challenging dilemmas in their academic lives while explicitly teaching P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. skills at the "point of performance," our students begin to experience an expansion of their growth mindset, sense of resilience and overall engagement with the school process.

All sessions are held online using a multi-sensory approach by one of our highly-skilled specialists.

If requested, we will also check-in between sessions using a combination of solution-focused questioning and "proof-ability" requests, to support both task-initiation and follow through.

The cost of enrolling in our program can be found on our pricing page.

Learn more about our executive function coaching sessions by clicking here.

Wondering what a typical EF coaching session looks like? Watch this video 👇

Step 4: Family Team Meeting

The Family-Team Meeting (FTM) is an opportunity for all of the key stakeholders on your student's "team" to meet and engage in a process celebrating the wins (or micro-wins), identifying adjusted or new goals, or assigning responsibility and a timeline for implementation.

The key to a successful FTM is that it is run by a skilled facilitator who ensures that everyone has the opportunity to be heard while centering the student's voice as the driving force of the process.

The Family Team Meeting is usually held in place of a normal session every 4-6 weeks. If you ever have feedback for your specialist, the Family Team Meeting is a great place to work collaboratively to get your coaching goals met.

Learn why we hold Family Team Meetings by reading this article.

Step 5: Phase Out

Phase-out is approached incrementally to help students take ownership of their developing executive function skills while reducing the intensity of our intervention to allow for independent practice.

Since we work from a subscription model requiring four sessions each 28 days, this could look like choosing a final bill date, then spreading the final four sessions across two months.

We suggest you discuss a plan with your specialist during a family team meeting.

We recommend a minimum of 6 months of coaching to fully integrate and apply the P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. skills with guidance, but many students benefit from a more extensive timeline due to the increasing demands on their executive skills as they transition into higher grade levels.