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Executive Function Coaching tutors, lessons & classes
First thing first. How most EF coaches start a session.
Personally vetted coaches who work on planning, working memory, task initiation, and transitions. The skills that decide whether assignments get done, not whether the student understands them.
Your instructors
Executive Function Coaching tutors for private lessons & classes
Strommen has been tutoring in LA since 2006. Executive-function coaching has become one of our most-requested services as more families recognize that the gap between knowing the material and getting it done is its own teachable skill. Every tutor below was met and vetted by us in person. No marketplace. Real coaches with real backgrounds, which you can read about in their bios.
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Below are the Strommen tutors who specialize in executive-function coaching. Photos, ratings, and rates are real. Click any card to read their bio and book a free 30-minute trial.
EF scaffolding in practice
5 tools EF coaches actually use
Practical scaffolds, not abstract theory. These show up in nearly every EF coaching session because they work.
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01
Time-blocking with visual schedules
Mapping the week (or just the afternoon) into visible blocks rather than holding the schedule in working memory. A printed grid, a color-coded Google Calendar, a sticky-note plan on the wall. The format matters less than the externalization. Students who use visual schedules forget fewer commitments, full stop.
e.g. After-school grid: 3:30-4:00 snack, 4:00-5:00 math, 5:00-5:30 break, 5:30-6:30 essay, 6:30 dinner. Visible on the wall.
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02
Externalizing memory via written checklists
Working memory has a limit (around 4 to 7 items for most adults, less for kids and less for ADHD brains). Trying to hold a multi-step task in working memory while doing it is the most common point of failure. Write the steps down; do them; check them off. The brain stops trying to remember and can focus on doing.
e.g. Before-bed checklist taped inside the binder: planner check, lunch packed, water bottle, charger, alarm set.
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03
Task-initiation rituals
Many EF-challenged students can do the work but can't start. The fix is a consistent ritual that triggers the start: a specific spot, a specific opening action, a timer. Over weeks the ritual itself cues the brain to begin. The hardest minute is the first one; the ritual shortens it.
e.g. "Sit at the desk, open the laptop to the document, set a 10-minute timer, type one sentence." Same five moves every day.
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04
The working-memory aid toolkit
A standing set of external supports the student can reach for: a sticky-note pad for capture, a small whiteboard for working out problems, a designated phone notes app for verbal-to-text, a digital outliner. The point is having tools ready so the student doesn't have to invent a workaround in the moment.
e.g. Sticky pad and pen always on the desk so any incoming thought ("oh I need to email coach about Friday") gets captured immediately and not lost.
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05
Transition cues
Transitions (homework to dinner, screens to bed, school to activities) are where many EF-challenged students struggle most. Explicit cues smooth them: a five-minute warning, a closing ritual for the current activity, a clear opener for the next. Helps especially for younger kids and autistic students.
e.g. "Five-minute warning, save your file. Three-minute warning. One-minute warning. Pack up. Snack at the table."
About Executive Function Coaching
When understanding the work isn't the problem
Executive function is the umbrella term for the brain's management system: planning, prioritizing, initiating tasks, holding information in working memory, switching between activities, regulating attention, and monitoring your own progress. When these systems run well, school looks easy from the outside. When they don't, school looks like a daily uphill climb regardless of the student's actual intelligence or interest in the material.
Executive-function challenges are common in students with ADHD, autism, traumatic brain injury, and several learning disabilities. They also show up in plenty of neurotypical students, especially during developmental windows when the brain's executive systems are still maturing. The prefrontal cortex doesn't finish wiring until the mid-twenties. A 13-year-old whose executive function lags two years behind their grade is normal-developing, not broken. They still need scaffolding to function in a classroom designed for an adult brain.
The symptoms parents and teachers see: missing assignments the student knew about, projects started the night before they're due, books left at school, the inability to start a long-form writing task even when the student has plenty to say, room a perpetual disaster, transitions between activities producing meltdowns. These look like motivation problems. They usually aren't. They're skill problems in a domain that isn't being explicitly taught.
What an EF coach does. They externalize the executive function the student's brain isn't doing internally yet. Written checklists replace working memory. Visual schedules replace internal time-tracking. Body-doubling (the coach being present while the student works) replaces the missing self-initiation mechanism. Timers and Pomodoro structures replace the missing time-awareness. Over time, with consistent scaffolding, many students internalize these systems and need less external support. Some students will always benefit from external systems, and that's a fine outcome too. Most successful adults with ADHD have built elaborate external systems for themselves.
A typical session focuses on real work that's actually due. The coach doesn't lecture about executive function in the abstract; they sit alongside the student and walk through, say, the science project that's been ignored for two weeks. Break it into pieces. Sequence them. Estimate time for each. Identify which piece to start tonight. Set a written checklist. The next session begins with reviewing what got done and what didn't, then doing it again. Over months the student internalizes the process.
For families with younger kids, our coaches also work with the parent on environment and routine. A 10-year-old's executive function gets a real boost from a predictable after-school routine, a low-distraction homework space, a visible family calendar. The student does the work; the parent builds the conditions. Both matter.
Many EF clients also have an ADHD or autism diagnosis. We coordinate with whatever therapeutic team is already in place: the prescribing pediatrician, the therapist, the school's special-education team. We don't replace clinical care. We supplement it with the practical, hour-by-hour skill-building school doesn't have time for. Our autism-experienced tutors and ADHD-experienced tutors can blend these specialties when both apply.
The difference between EF coaching and study-skills coaching is the focus. Study skills are about what to do with material once you're working with it. EF coaching is about the structural skills upstream: planning when to work, starting when planned, holding the plan together when it slips. Many students need both. Adults benefit too. Plenty of professionals diagnosed with ADHD in their 30s or 40s work with EF coaches to build the systems they were never taught.
Most EF coaching happens online via screen-share, which suits the work: real calendars, real assignments, real digital tools the student is already using. In-person coaching is available around LA when that helps. Book a free 30-minute trial; the coach will assess where the gaps are and what to scaffold first.
What you'll cover
Lessons & classes tailored to Executive Function Coaching
Planning and prioritization
Coaches teach students to look at a week ahead, identify what's due when, sequence the work, and protect the time it'll take. We use whatever planner the student will actually open: paper, Google Calendar, Todoist, Notion. The tool matters less than the consistency. For students whose planning needs blur into study habits, we coordinate with our study-skills coaching work.
Task initiation and follow-through
Getting started is the hardest part for most EF-challenged students. Coaches build initiation rituals, body-double during sessions, and break large tasks into pieces small enough to begin without dread. We also work on the follow-through side: noticing when a task has been abandoned, returning to it, finishing it instead of starting a new one.
Working memory and organization
External systems to compensate for limited working memory: checklists, sticky-note capture, organized binders, decluttered workspaces, scheduled inbox-and-backpack sweeps. We also teach the underlying habit of writing things down the instant they appear in the mind, before they evaporate. Especially useful for students with ADHD.
Transitions and self-regulation
Smooth transitions between activities, smooth recoveries from setbacks, smooth handling of unexpected schedule changes. These are the skills that distinguish students who manage stress from students who get overwhelmed by it. Coaches teach explicit transition protocols and self-monitoring habits. Particularly helpful for our autistic students, who often experience transitions as harder than the work itself.
FAQ
About Executive Function Coaching lessons & classes
Is executive-function coaching only for kids with ADHD?
No. ADHD students are a common subset, but plenty of clients don't have an ADHD diagnosis. Autistic students often have EF differences. So do students with anxiety, depression, recent concussions, or simply a normal-developing brain that hasn't caught up to a demanding school workload. The skills are universally useful.
What ages do you work with?
Middle school through adult. Younger students (under about 10) typically benefit more from parent coaching combined with structured routine at home; the child's prefrontal cortex isn't yet developed enough for direct coaching to land. Middle and high school is the sweet spot. College and adult coaching is increasingly common, especially for students or professionals diagnosed with ADHD later in life.
How is this different from therapy?
EF coaching is skill-building and habit-building around academic and life management. It's not therapy. We don't address emotional regulation in a clinical sense, process trauma, or treat mental-health conditions. Many of our students see a therapist alongside coaching; the two roles complement each other. If clinical mental-health needs are showing up, we'll say so and recommend a referral.
Do you coordinate with the school?
If the student has an IEP, 504 plan, or active accommodations, yes. Our coaches read the plan, align with its goals, and can join an IEP meeting if useful. We share progress notes with the parent, who can share them with the school team. We don't go around the parent to talk to the school directly.
How long does coaching typically last?
Most students see meaningful change in 3 to 6 months of weekly coaching. Some stay longer because the support is genuinely useful and they prefer keeping it; some graduate after a semester. We track concrete metrics (assignments turned in, planner use, on-time arrivals) so you can see the trajectory rather than guessing.
Can you coach me as an adult?
Yes. Many of our adult clients have been recently diagnosed with ADHD or have a long-standing sense that they're working harder than the people around them for the same output. EF coaching teaches the systems most schools never did. Common adult clients: graduate students, mid-career professionals, parents managing complex family logistics, entrepreneurs.
Online or in person?
Both. Online works well because much of the coaching happens around the student's actual digital tools (calendars, docs, planning apps) and screen-share makes that easy. In-person sessions are available around LA when a quieter environment or a more directly present coach helps. Each tutor's profile shows their available formats.
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