The Academic Coaching Package, valued at $2400, includes twelve virtual sessions, each lasting 50 minutes. These sessions are designed to support students improve study habits, work completion, and self-advocacy. All packages include: 

1. Initial onboarding session
Coach and client meet to get to know one another, set shared goals, and ask and answer questions​

2. Session summaries & tracker
Emailed after every session
Tracker with log of summaries and attendance (including missed & rescheduled sessions)
Keeps client informed 

3. Records review
Option to have coach review educational records like psychoeducational evaluations or individualized educational plans to inform coaching 

 Session Start (3-5 minutes)

• Check in
• Goal review
• Create a shared "agenda" 

Session Core (40-45 minutes)

• Build the learning toolkit by developing skills and using strategies to achieve short and long term academic goals

Session End (3-5 minutes)

• Wrap up & recap via email summary

A coaching relationship is a partnership between the client(s) and their coach. For the coaching relationship to be successful, the following guidelines are helpful:

1. Both parties agree to communicate honestly, be open to feedback and suggestions, and fully engage and devote themselves to the coaching process.
2. Clients understand that coaching is a voluntary process that requires participation and may sometimes involve "homework" or work outside the session to apply new learning.
3. Coaching is a comprehensive process that may explore different areas of the clients learning challenges but is ultimately the client’s decision how the client incorporates coaching into their daily life.

At Learning Specialist LLC, your coach will come prepared with activities and materials (e.g. resources, strategies, tools, frameworks) that will help you reach your goals. Coaches use a highly effective planning and feedback process that is responsive to the dynamic needs of our clients resulting in short and long term success.

Here's how to get started:

1. Request a Proposal: Email us at alyson@learningspecialist.net to request a coaching proposal or book a free consultation.
2. Approve Your Agreement: Review and approve the agreement, then submit your payment.
3. Session Tracker: A session tracker will be emailed to you and your child. Clients set the coaching schedule with their coach after receiving their fall class schedule and log the dates on the shared session tracker.

Tutoring and coaching are often used interchangeably because they are interventions that students use to improve their learning. Here is a brief overview of both to provide clarity on the key differences between the two.

Coaches, also known as ADHD coaches or executive function coaches, tend to have backgrounds in special education or psychology and teach students to become more efficient learners and will often teach strategies that help students develop a more organized approach to "doing school".

Tutors tend to work on supporting students to improve in specific subject areas (like math and science, for example) or specific academic skills (like writing essays or reading comprehension).

At Learning Specialist LLC, we offer coaching services designed to help clients develop their executive function skills using a personalized approach. Clients develop coaching goals with their coach and sessions are designed to help clients develop skills and behaviors that will enable them to achieve success. While clients may receive general academic support as part of their learning goals (e.g. mapping out project goals and plans or outlining multi-step writing assignments), coaching does not involve subject-specific tutoring like developing content-specific understanding within a project.

A common metaphor people use to describe executive function is to imagine an air traffic control system at a busy airport. Our brains executive function is like having an air traffic system managing the safe arrivals and departures of airplanes on multiple runways.

Executive function enables us to concentrate, focus, filter distractions and work with information to plan, organize, and complete tasks; similar to what an air traffic controller does when managing the various operations at an airport.

In conjunction with self-regulation skills, executive function skills allow us to focus on multiple streams of information at the same time. These critical skills help us control our impulses, achieve our goals, and make healthy decisions. Executive function comprises both the skills that involve thinking (or cognition) and doing (or behavior). (Karen Huberty and Maureen Bechard, ADDitude).

Hidden curricula (how to manage time and systems effectively, how to study, and how to advocate for oneself) become noticeable when they’re missing from one's skill set. Many students who need instruction and time to learn these “rules of school” struggle with aspects of school life that seem like common knowledge to others. Our coaching bridges these gaps, saving time and preventing frustration that can derail academic success.