Exceptional Functioning

Welcome to Exceptional Functioning, a one-on-one support service developed by Leslie Baez to help middle school and high school students develop and perfect their executive functioning skills for success in school and beyond.

What are executive functioning skills?

Executive functioning is the way your brain helps manage all of your tasks, think of them as management skills. There are three general areas of executive functioning skills:

  1. Working Memory: Typically thought of as short term memory, working memory helps your brain organize new information for long term storage. Your child may struggle with working memory if they have trouble with mental math, following practical instructions, or using information later.

  2. Cognitive Flexibility: These are the skills that help your brain switch between thinking about two concepts or multiple concepts at the same time. These skills also enable your child to change their thinking based on a change in expectations or demands. Your child may struggle with cognitive flexibility if they struggle to see things from different angles or can't use different strategies to solve problems.

  3. Inhibitory control: These are the skills that allow your child to control their impulses and behavioral responses to stimuli. If your child struggles with inhibitory control they may have trouble staying on task, self-monitoring, and organizing, planning, and prioritizing.

How do I support your student?

Prior to our initial consultation, you and your child will receive a survey to identify strengths, weakness, and goals of our time together. From this information, along with our initial consultation, I will target one or two executive functioning skills to focus on. The plan developed will be unique to your child and their specific needs. Each session will work on setting up habits and practices for your child to utilize to be successful in their own life.

Sample Supports

  • Help your child pick out and set up a planner to help schedule their daily and weekly tasks.

  • Practice identifying important tasks and prioritizing big and little to-dos.

  • Create study routines to support test prep across multiple subjects.

  • Develop self-regulation habits to help students identify distractions and focus on the task at hand.