Understanding ADHD and Executive Function
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurological disorder that affects one's ability to control their impulses, focus on tasks, and pay attention to details. ADHD symptoms may begin in childhood and continue into adulthood, causing significant difficulties in everyday life. Executive function (EF) is another aspect that plays a role in ADHD, as it helps the individual manage and prioritise tasks, control emotions, and inhibit behaviour. People with ADHD and EF deficits often face daily challenges in managing time, organising their environment, and completing tasks.
Effect of ADHD and Executive Dysfunction on Students' Academic and Personal Lives
ADHD and executive dysfunction can profoundly affect a student's academic, social, and daily life. These conditions can jeopardise a student's learning in many ways, such as challenges paying attention in class, trouble managing frustration and regulating emotions, difficulty with self-control and impulsiveness, planning and time management, and organisation. The symptoms of ADHD or executive dysfunction can also include:
ADHD and executive dysfunction can cause various difficulties, such as decreased academic performance, low self-esteem, and problems with social interactions. ADHD can also lead to deficient self-regulation, which can cause anxiety and depression in some individuals. ADHD and executive function coaching can help alleviate these problems by providing support and guidance to students with ADHD and executive function deficits, helping them learn to manage their daily lives more effectively.
What Is an ADHD and Executive Function Coach?
An ADHD and executive function coach is a life coach who is specifically trained to help students better manage their academic and personal lives. Evoke's approach to coaching is collaborative, supportive, and goal-oriented. Coaches employ open-ended questions to elicit unique, individual patterns of responses and, through this process, engage students in self-regulatory behaviour to initiate change in their own lives.
At Evoke Learning, we are dedicated to providing students with the tools they need to achieve their academic and personal goals. Our coaches understand the biological underpinnings of ADHD, the core symptoms, and their comorbidity with executive dysfunction. ADHD/executive function coaching addresses the academic, emotional, and interpersonal difficulties resulting from these symptoms and helps students find ways to overcome these challenges. Through individualised support, coaches help students concentrate on where they are now, where they want to be, and how to get there. Students can better realise their goals with a strong plan and regular check-ins to extend accountability.
Consistent Communication and Personalized Guidance
Efforts made by students between coaching sessions are as important as the work completed alongside their coach. Inter-session check-ins serve as an opportunity for students to engage in self-reflection and take decisive action. These check-ins encourage adherence to established plans, promote weekly goal-setting, and assist students in pinpointing barriers that hinder the achievement of their objectives.
By offering personalised guidance, coaches empower students to focus on their present situation, envision their desired outcomes, and formulate effective strategies to reach those milestones. This tailored approach facilitates the coach's commitment to understanding each student's unique needs, ensuring a supportive learning environment that fosters growth and progress.
Collaborative and Goal-Oriented Approach to Coaching
Our coaches employ a collaborative and goal-oriented approach, ensuring that students actively participate in their learning process. This personalised approach enables the development of practical, research-informed skills and strategies tailored to each student's unique needs and aspirations. By working in close partnership with students, our coaches foster an environment of mutual trust, open communication, and shared responsibility.
In order to ensure progress toward identified objectives, our coaches establish a well-defined plan that outlines the steps necessary to achieve each goal. Regular check-ins provide opportunities to track progress, address challenges, and fine-tune strategies. This ongoing support and accountability are key to empowering students to take ownership of their learning journey and build the self-efficacy needed for long-term success.
Through this dynamic coaching process, students improve their academic performance and develop critical life skills, such as time management, goal-setting, and problem-solving. Our coaches are dedicated to cultivating these abilities, empowering students to become confident, self-directed learners equipped to navigate the challenges of education and beyond.
Focus Areas of ADHD and Executive Function Coaching
ADHD and executive function coaching is a practical intervention that specifically targets the core impairments of ADHD and executive function deficits, such as planning, time management, goal setting, organisation, and problem-solving. Coaching helps students understand the opportunities and challenges of their neurodiversity, establish habits that lead to accomplishing goals, teach executive function skills, and manage any obstacles they might encounter.
Coaching sessions may focus on helping students understand how the symptoms of ADHD and executive dysfunction play out in their daily, personal, and academic lives, working with students to identify their personal and academic goals, translating abstract goals into concrete actions, creating awareness of self-sabotaging behaviours, raising students' understanding of what they could and are willing to do differently to meet their goals, providing encouragement, feedback, and practical suggestions to address specific challenges, holding students accountable for following through on their goals, and providing the external scaffolding they require to manage their executive function challenges.
Benefits of ADHD and Executive Function Coaching Outcomes and Benefits
Students who engage in coaching develop enhanced executive functioning and self-determination skills, engage in more positive thoughts and behaviours, take greater responsibility for their actions, use goal-attainment skills to manage stress more effectively, improve study skills and learning strategies, experience increased self-awareness, self-esteem, and satisfaction with school and work, and are more likely to persist in postsecondary education and have significantly better retention and graduation rates than those who did not receive coaching.
ADHD and executive function coaching offers many benefits to students, including a better understanding of their unique challenges and strengths, improved focus and attention, better time management skills, and enhanced self-awareness. By working with an ADHD and EF coach, students can learn strategies to help manage their symptoms and improve their academic performance, increasing their confidence and overall well-being.
Students participating in ADHD and executive function coaching often report increased self-confidence, better communication skills, and improved organisational and time management skills. They also experience greater motivation and a sense of purpose, which can lead to more significant academic success and better job prospects in the future. Additionally, ADHD and EF coaching can help students overcome negative thoughts and emotions associated with their conditions, improving self-esteem and overall life satisfaction.
ADHD and executive function coaching offers a practical, evidence-based intervention that can help students with ADHD and EF deficits learn to manage their daily lives more effectively. With the help of an ADHD and EF coach, students can develop new strategies to manage their symptoms and improve their academic performance, increasing their confidence and overall sense of well-being. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with ADHD or EF deficits and would like to change, contact Evoke today to learn more about our coaching services.
Who Can Benefit From ADHD and Executive Function Coaching?
ADHD and executive function coaching is suitable for any student diagnosed with ADHD or executive function deficits and ready to make a change. Students who struggle with self-regulation, impulsivity, and poor organisational skills can benefit from coaching sessions, as can those with difficulty with focus, time management, and planning. Students must be willing and ready to learn new strategies and implement them in their daily lives. Students prepared for coaching are curious and open to learning new approaches and methods. They must also want and be ready to make changes. As such, students must also be willing to spend the time necessary to co-create strategies for improving their habits and be willing to adhere to them to the best of their ability.