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 executive function coaches or academic 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).

While clients may receive general academic support as part of their coaching goals (e.g. mapping out project goals and plans or outlining multi-step writing assignments), coaching does not involve subject-specific tutoring like developing writing skills or content understanding within an assignment/project.

People are not born with executive function skills they need to succeed at academics, but have the capacity to develop them over time. Some people need scaffolding (structured supports) to practice executive function skills before applying them on their own.

Students who are working towards learning goals that are in a new domain (an area of study they are not familiar with) or students who have learning differences and/or disabilities that compromise executive functions (e.g., executive function weakness or diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) often need graduated scaffolds and coaching to develop their executive function skills.

Generally, coaching takes place one time per week during a 50 minute session. Depending on clients goals and rate of progress, most clients work with our coaches a minimum of 12 weeks before fading coaching support.

As clients make progress towards their coaching goals, the need for coaching fades. Coaches work closely with clients to determine how to best fade coaching support to ensure progress and skills are still maintained.