What Is an Executive Function Coach?

If your child is bright but constantly battles missed deadlines, disorganized materials, and last-minute homework scrambles, you’re not alone. Many parents watch their capable students struggle not because they lack intelligence, but because they haven’t developed the underlying  skills needed to manage the demands of school and life. This is where an executive function coach makes all the difference.

Understanding Executive Function

Executive function is your brain’s management system and the control center responsible for planning, organizing, managing time, initiating tasks, sustaining focus, regulating emotions, and adapting when plans change. These skills, housed in the prefrontal cortex, are what help us maintain routines, prevent procrastination, and turn intentions into consistent action.

While many students develop these skills naturally during their teens, others need direct instruction and practice. Students with ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, or those who are twice-exceptional often require explicit teaching of executive function skills. The good news is that with the right support, every student is capable of learning them.

What an Executive Function Coach Does

An executive function coach is not a tutor who teaches algebra or fixes grammar. Instead, they teach the process behind successful learning across all subjects. Think of it this way: tutoring targets subjects, while executive function coaching targets the root skills needed for academic follow-through and independence.

Executive function coaches help students build eleven core skills that school rarely teaches explicitly. These include planning and prioritizing tasks, organizing physical and digital materials, managing time effectively, initiating work without endless delays, sustaining attention and refocusing after distractions, regulating emotions and impulses, self-monitoring progress, communicating needs and self-advocating, developing problem-solving strategies, building working memory techniques, and cultivating metacognition: the ability to reflect on and improve one’s own learning process.

The ultimate goal extends far beyond better grades. Coaching builds discipline, resilience, work ethic, independence, and confidence that students carry into college, careers, and adult life.

How Executive Function Coaching Works

Effective coaching is deeply personalized. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all system, coaches collaborate with students to create routines and tools that fit their unique strengths, challenges, and preferences.

Goal Setting and Execution: Big, overwhelming goals become manageable weekly plans and daily actions. Students learn to identify a concrete first step, schedule it on a calendar, and track their follow-through so progress becomes visible and motivating.

Establishing Routines and Structure: Predictable routines create calm and control in chaotic schedules. Examples include a Sunday planning reset, a brief after-school routine for backpack and portal checks, and a five-minute nightly shutdown to prepare for the next day.

Using Tools and Technology: Coaches introduce practical tools like digital calendars, task management apps, organized file naming systems, and portal audits. They also teach “browser hygiene”: keeping fewer tabs open and saving study sessions to reduce friction and help students restart work quickly.

Building Skills Through Real Work: While coaches aren’t tutors, they build executive function skills inside actual assignments. A student might outline an essay, set milestones for a lab report, review a past test to plan improvements, or rehearse a presentation. The emphasis is always on creating repeatable processes rather than providing quick fixes.

Communication and Self-Advocacy: Many students avoid asking for help because they don’t know what to say. Coaches role-play office hour conversations, draft concise emails to teachers, and practice follow-ups. Students learn to request accommodations and clarify expectations before deadlines approach.

Balancing Life Responsibilities: Better sleep and brief movement breaks protect attention and emotional regulation. Coaches help students map their week so school, extracurriculars, and downtime can coexist without constant crisis.

The Untapped Learning Approach: REP Framework

At Untapped Learning, we use the REP Framework: a proven approach that combines three essential elements:

Relational: We build trust and motivation through strong coaching relationships and near-peer coaches. Your student is never alone in their journey.

EF Skill-Building: We teach the executive function skills behind better grades: planning, focus, and follow-through, through an academic perspective that provides consistent, tangible practice opportunities.

Personalized: Support is tailored to your child with custom plans, smart tools, and flexible options including in-person sessions at our Broomfield center or virtual coaching from anywhere.

When to Consider Executive Function Coaching

Executive function coaching is especially helpful for students who are smart but scattered, those with ADHD or anxiety, students with dyslexia or other learning differences, young adults learning to manage college workloads independently, and anyone who struggles with structure, follow-through, or self-advocacy.

Many families notice better planning and fewer homework crises within four to six weeks when routines are practiced consistently. Our data shows that 95% of first-time students improve their GPA, while 87% report decreased levels of academic anxiety.

Moving Forward

If you’re seeing the potential in your child but watching them struggle with the execution, executive function coaching might be the missing piece. At Untapped Learning, our trained coaches combine relationship-building, skill development, and practical tools that fit your family’s life.

Since 2017, we’ve coached over 1000 students, helping them build not just better grades, but true independence and confidence that extends far beyond school.

Ready to explore support for your child?

Contact us today to book a free consultation and discover how executive function coaching can transform your student’s academic journey and life skills.