<p>Another post prompted me to wrote this. I'm wondering how helpful students found coaches to be in college for those of us who have trouble organizing and staying on task (ADHD perhaps). </p>
<p>How often did you meet with your coach?</p>
<p>What did the coach actually do?</p>
<p>What did the coach charge?</p>
<p>What experience/credentials did the coach have?</p>
<p>Has anyone had an executive coach while in college?</p>
<p>My son is in high school and has recently started to work with one. I don’t have ADHD and I see it as a waste of time and money, however only time will tell if it works for my son. What he has been doing these first few weeks are normal organizational strategies. Things he will take advice from a 3rd party, but not from me.</p>
<p>Weekly Meetings was what we found with all 5 coaches we contacted.</p>
<p>We are only in week 3. So far the coach has reviewed his schedule, pointed out places where he could squeeze in 10 minutes of work, etc. Reviewed when he takes his meds and what he eats with them and the effect of certain foods/beverages on the meds. Helped him clean out his backpack, notes, etc. Discussed why he wasn’t using his planner and came up with ideas of what type of planner would work better for my son. Discussed how getting something done doesn;t always mean it has to be done 110%. Better to get 95% of things completed at 90% then 75% of things completed at 110%.</p>
<p>Charges ranged from $100 per meeting (recommended weekly) to $525 monthly. Most had 1 hour weekly sessions and e-mail availability in between sessions.</p>
<p>My son is dealing with a coach face to face. We found many will work remotely via Skype. </p>
<p>Experiences of coaches varied. We chose one who is an Educational Psycholigist and specializes in adult and teen ADHD. </p>
<p>We didn’t really care about the educational backaground. We were more interested in someone who could understand son’s time schedule - He does not have the flexibility of class times/schedules as many college students, he has ECs that really need to be “kept” to be competitive for college admissions, etc. We wanted to be sure we didn’t align with someone who would just recommend dropping an activity or class. Son wants to dual major in college. He enjoys his ECs. As I parent, I know I have my job, running around with kids and a household to maintain. My schedule is very much dictated by outside forces. I wanted someone who could realize “real life” does not always allow you to set your own limits. I want his coaching to show him how to cope with the curve balls.</p>
<p>What a wonderful idea! And it takes the pressure off a parent who is seen as “nagging” by the child.</p>
<p>Where does a parent go to try and find such a coach for their child? </p>
<p>How are the coaches advertised?</p>
<p>The coach we are using is part of the organization who originally diagnosed my son - They focus on PsychoEd Testing.</p>
<p>We found many others by googling ADHD groups. Start with CHADD, a national non-profit org for ADHD. CHADD has many regional groups within it. </p>
<p>For my son it was important to have a coach who has ADHD. Otherwise, he felt it was basically going to be the same as nagging Mom who simply cannot understand him (and believe me, I do try).</p>
<p>Be careful when choosing - some are “life coaches” who take on ADHD/EFD while others only specialize in ADHD/EFD. There is nothing wrong with the life coaches per se, but I felt many of them did not have the experience dealing with teens/young adults.</p>
<p>What does it mean to be a coach? I hear this term a lot and don’t really know what it means. A nurse with a background in health education and social skills training is calling herself a coach to help those going to college with ADHD and Aspergers.She seems wonderful and understanding but I guess my question is how specifically qualified does an executive coach have to be to be effective?</p>
<p>I think that a wonderful nurse with the background you describe would make a wonderful coach. To me a coach is someone who helps and supports you, to achieve whatever goal you are trying to achieve.</p>
<p>It’s hard to believe some of the stuff on this site. What is an executive coach for a college student?</p>
<p>^Mainly something for people with executive functioning disorders.</p>
<p>I had one for a while who worked out of the disabilities office at my college, but she has so many students now that it’s pretty much impossible to get an appointment with her or to even get her to answer her emails. She is an older woman and last I heard they had her working pretty much every waking hour. But when I could get in it was extraordinarily helpful for me. I have executive functioning problems due to ADHD and autism, and a big part of that was having difficulty with time management-- that isn’t to say that I procrastinated and blew off my homework, but that I had a hard time figuring out how to break up and prioritize my homework efficiently. Otherwise I would work literally nonstop and be up half the night or more, ZERO breaks, no distractions permitted, and still not get everything done in the amount of time allotted. She was able to help be schedule my work in a way that allowed me to have time to get it all done AND have time to spare for sleeping and study breaks. So that was obviously very valuable to me. It’s a shame I can’t get an appointment anymore.</p>
<p>Ema
Your reasons are exactly the reasons my HS needs help.</p>
<p>Mister K
For those of us without Exec. Functioning Disorder, it is very difficult to understand. I am super organized and my job has many strict time deadlines. I know how to get the work done doing the barest minimum required. EFD folks don’t know where the “barest minimum” is and wind up actually doing more work or more in depth than required. As I said, the coaching to me seems like common sense stuff. I was of the mindset, just buy a self help book, how hard is it. Then I had a 15 yr old who is stressed, frustrated and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Many teachers don’t understand. He does A to A+ work on exams, but projects, homework, forget it.</p>
<p>My kid works, just like Ema, until all hours of the night. But he is swimming against the tide. He is ADHD (inattentive) and has “hypo” focusing issues. We will do 125% on a long term project in research and then be crippled in the last day or two of the project to whittle down his research into a paper in the required length. He could write a graduate dissertation. He’ll wind up with 4-5x the length the project should be. Meanwhile, other courses are dropping by the wayside.</p>
<p>Ema – Now that you are no longer with a coach, are you reverting back to your old ways or are you able to utilize what was taught and stay closer to target?</p>
<p>Ahhhh, OK. I had never heard the term before. </p>
<p>Honestly, I thought it was something like personal life coaches for rich kids, for parents that want to manufacture high-achievement machines out of their little ones. Figured that executive chefs would be a topic as well. 
</p>
<p>I’m still in shellshock over what I’m reading on this site. Over in another thread, there are parents with kids taking ACTs in 7th grade so they can compete for amazing (and expensive) academic summer camp experiences, and be identified as future geniuses. Meanwhile, there’s some kid down the road throwing a frisbee to his dog that’s gonna be hiring all of them some day.</p>
<p>I assume we are talking executive function coaching? My HS son has executive function deficit related to Asperger’s syndrome. Hard time orgainizing, prioritizing, figuring out what the teachers are asking for, etc. He doesn’t spend too much time on task - he gets flustered from the beginning and does not even start! Luckily, we’ve got a lot of resources in our area. S has been in OT since a young age and recently they have addressed his executive function skills. We are hoping that he will have all this figured out before college. He has learned to use a calendar, planner, etc., to check Blackboard every evening, to ask the right questions from teacher, to set timetables. He wavers into OCD at times, so time management can be tricky. For example, he always does things in the same order - come home from school, go for a run, take a shower, eat dinner, start homework. But what happens if he has EC that throws off schedule? That’s when EF coach comes in handy.</p>
<p>Longhaul-
Executive coaching is different from executive skills coaching. The former is working with executives to polish listening skills, teambuilding/diplomacy skills, conflict resolution, media training etc. Its for higher level execs. Thats different from the organization/attention training for ADHD and executive (frontal lobe) functioning skills</p>
<p>Forgot to mention, as for the summer enrichment programs, my ss’ middle school had all the students take the SAT in 7th grade. Their scores offered the opportunity to take summer enrichment classes for talented youth, but did not require it, and certainly they (The kids) didnt specifically take the test in order to get into the programs-- it was the other way around. Please, if you want to learn about these things, ask, dont assume. Also, those programs had scholsrship opportunities for bright kids who wanted to participate but couldnt afford the tuition. I wasn’t familiar with the summer enrichment programs until my kids did really well on the 7th grade SAT, and I learned more about them at that time. No need to be insulting to programs or participants, especially if you are not familiar with them. JMO.</p>
<p>jym - Was this at a public middle school? I understand that many parents choose aggressive private schools that would include something like this in the package. But is it becoming widespread?</p>
<p>The public schools here have the kids take it, MisterK.</p>
<p>Interesting - the arms race continues to escalate… My eyes have been opened from CC, and so I’ve noticed some of the stuff that I’ve read about as I look around locally - the test prep classes, summer school for smart kids (pre-taking), college consultants. None of this used to exist (was I just naive?) But this particular thing hasn’t made it here yet.</p>
<p>You might want to watch “Race to Nowhere” if you really want your eyes opened to what is happening in many places around the US. It portrays the extremes of the pressure placed on many kids. [Race</a> to Nowhere | About the Film](<a href=“http://www.racetonowhere.com/about-film]Race”>http://www.racetonowhere.com/about-film) IMO, comments like “escalating race arms” , “aggressive private schools” or test-taking to “identify future geniuses” are unnecessarily inflammatory. It’d be lovely to see the rhetoric ratcheted down a notch. But hey, thats JMO.</p>
<p>Well jym, it is my opinion that things have gotten a bit crazy. A long time ago, I remember reading about preschools with applications and letters of recommendations, and thinking it was amusing. Now on CC the full truth is hitting home. </p>
<p>Looking around my area, I see a lot of really good students that had perfectly normal, traditional childhoods without any of that. Some of them are competitive everywhere, just as authentic kids, being who they are. That seems like a good thing to me; they had low stress, play-filled childhoods. That has to count for something, right?</p>
<p>I recognize that others have different approaches, but I am surprised by how far things have gone.</p>
<p>I will watch “Race to Nowhere” - a few people have recommended it.</p>
<p>Oops- I meant “escalating arms race”. Maybe the word juxtaposition makes it sound less hostile! </p>
<p>I dont disagree that things have gotten ridiculous, but it isnt necessary to insult or offend posters with negative commentary about things you indicate you are not familiar with.</p>