The Importance of an Academic Coach for your Child with Learning Differences

Written by: Kennedy Simpson

Let’s face it, the modern world is a stressful, confusing place. Your children have sports and clubs to attend, work hours are long, and finding methods to sort out the madness is the only way to keep yourself sane. This goes double for our youth juggling school, extracurriculars, and social-life navigation. 

Many of the tips and tricks for managing one’s life are just not built into the school curriculum, so it falls to parents and mentors to ensure their children can learn valuable life skills that will allow them to thrive in school and beyond. This can become tricky when the established methodology is geared toward a population of students who learn in a singular way with a narrow scope of memory methods. 

But do not fear! An academic coach will be able to help you wrangle an effective plan that can work with your child’s learning style and promote their confidence in an uncertain world.

Here are some of the benefits of having an academic coach available to work with you. 

Academic Coaches are Trained in research-supported routines to help your child succeed

Academic coaches are trained in reflective practices as well as multiple tactics to reframe students’ routines and thought processes. Sometimes the stresses of daily life are due to obligations and tasks feeling overwhelming, or impossible to overcome. Studies have shown that coaching in executive function can allow students to see their problems more clearly for what they are and how they can be managed. Executive function coaching focuses not on academics specifically but promoting self-talk, encouraging experimentation, and building emotional resilience. These skills can allow children to work with their learning differences, and not against them.

Lesson plans are customized for your child, not for a group

Unlike a school setting, academic coaching can tailor to an individual student. That means a tutor can focus on a student’s specific difficulties and find solutions that work for them. Often the tactics useful for neurotypical students are stressful or even useless for their non-neurotypical classmates. Furthermore, tutors can tailor their lessons to the individual in a way to keep them relevant and engaging, using the student’s intrinsic motives to work for them instead of against them.

Lessons are flexible to unique & changing needs

The needs of students are ever-changing. As they grow up and take on more obligations, new stressors will arise, and skills will be mastered. As such, their lessons can grow with them, introducing new skills and techniques as troubles arise. Tutors will also grow, going through trainings and learning new approaches to benefit your child. This will allow the students and tutors to adapt to their situations that much easier and provide dynamic lesson plans. 

Accountability provided from an outside source 

Obligations to parents and teachers can keep a student accountable for their homework (and executive functioning homework!), but at the end of the day, parents and teachers are authority figures that students answer to daily. Having someone specifically there to hold them accountable for their habits, provide encouragement, and act as a mentor, is important to have meaningful progress in executive functioning skills. 

In short, academic coaches can provide accountability, flexibility, personalization, and professionalism for your student as they learn techniques to improve executive function. Students with learning differences won’t always get the support they need at school, an academic coach can give them the attention they need. Having someone on their side to help with day-to-day habits and skills will make their stress less, and their learning more! 

At Illuminos, we take great care to pair your family with the right academic coach. We complete the student’s “circle of support” by also working with their teachers, school administrators, therapists, psychiatrists, and others, so each student can improve their academics, emotional wellbeing, independence, and social skills.

Our 360-degree approach includes monitoring school portals and reinforcing concepts taught in the classroom. We teach students, including those managing learning differences, Executive Functioning skills while supporting their subject matter needs. We integrate our proprietary program into your child’s everyday life.

Calm your nerves and receive the right support today!