AURA Coaching & Education Services

School is just around the corner! If you are feeling nervous about how it will go for your teen, reach out and let’s chat about how Executive Function Coaching at AURA can help!

Navigating life is much easier when we have a good idea of where we are going and when we have a map!

I love introducing this Compass tool to my clients. It is designed to help think about multiple aspects of life and how it's going. There's no "good" or "bad" here. Instead, a scale is used to help consider what might be the positive and negative aspects at the same time.

The power of questions comes next. I had a client indicate a 6 for "friends" category today and I asked my typical question.

"What brings it up to a 6?"

This framing calls upon them to start searching for the positives at hand which isn't always an easy task. Then, I hit him with the followup.

"What could happen that might help you feel like a 7?"

There is no right or wrong answer to that question and it requires a level of curiousity and vulnerability, so it can be a difficult one. I heard the greatest answer I could ever imagine today. He shared, "I guess just talking about what brought it up to a 6 helped me feel like a 7... oh, dang it..."

He knew the drill because I'm that kind of guy. "That's right. 6 7, buddy. It's 6 7." 😁

In all seriousness, did you catch the executive functioning skill utilized?

He did. And, I didn't teach it. He experienced it from within his own metacognition and critical thinking through answering high quality questions and he even brought me the aha in real-time. The very act of Self-Monitoring (one of our executive functions) can help re-frame how we see and feel about things. How we feel dictates the very brain state utilized in approaching life. There is no way around it- emotional regulation is a crucial aspect of growing our executive functioning skills. Luckily, we are wonderfully designed and can build skills that help!

If you know a kid getting stuck in the black/white, good/bad way of looking at things, try asking about it on a scale and hit 'em with the ol' 2 high-quality question combo and remember, the magic is the answers are actually there for their consideration.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel about...?"

"What brings it up to a __?"

"What could happen that would feel like __+1?"

Notice anything different?

~

So much energy is focused on WHAT to learn in school, but not near as much on HOW to get it done. Executive Function Coaching is all about the HOW.

What makes AURA different?

Something must be. Over the 5 years of being an Executive Function Coach, I’ve found myself getting regular referrals from pediatrician and counseling offices. I’ve asked other service providers the question and I hear that I’ve helped others achieve “therapeutic relationships” in their offices, but maybe that’s because I’m willing to do things like hop in the car and ride with the family to the appointment. I definitely do things differently in that sort of way.

I also take the coaching aspect of the job very seriously. I remove my judgement from the equation to make room for them to get in touch with theirs because that is the starting place of our executive function. We need our “why?”

Awareness. Understanding. Responsibility. Action. AURA is a framework to approach life in a way that feels meaningful, purposeful, and connected because that is actually how our executive function works. The calendars and to do lists are just tools and skills that help along the way.

Check out the blog post below for more of my thoughts on what makes AURA different and go ahead and click around at the new website while there. We are very excited to share all that’s on the horizon!

-Paul M. Benton

AURA Coaching & Education Services - What Makes AURA Different? What Makes AURA Different?

https://canva.link/katstutoring

AURA is very excited to announce collaboration with Kathleen Walsh, a multi-talented educator with the Awareness, Understanding, Responsibility, & Action necessary to support kids, teens, and parents at foundational levels.

If your kid or teen is in need of some supports in their approach to school and life, reach out and let's chat about how we can bring some real value to the last stretch of the school year!

Kat's Tutoring Flyer Check out this Real Estate Flyer designed by Kathleen.

There are no meaningful executive function accommodations on a school campus if it utilizes Learning Management Software (LMS) to communicate assignments and grades to students when the staff usage is ultimately a digital hot mess to navigate. This has been a concerning trend over the last few years and I’m hearing major changes as solutions that don’t even aknowledge the actual problems—no longer teaching how to use the software to staff and no longer holding accountability of usage.

Changing to a new LMS, but keeping the same habits, will result in the same disorganized outcomes. As our local districts like Austin ISD and Round Rock ISD change software programs, I consistently hear the same messaging that blames the current software used as if countless districts aren’t doing so all over the nation with far more success and at least not in the way of executive function development.

As the districts make these changes, I’d love to hear messages of responsibility from school leaders so the same problems aren’t brought to the new software. It’s an excellent time for school communities to be considering how well their school supports executive function development. If this resonates, check out the blog below. It’s an oldie, but now more relevant than ever, I’m afraid.

How Well Does Your School Support Executive Functions Development? — AURA Coaching & Education Services How well does your school support executive functions development? Sometimes, the best strategies are back to the basics and free.

One of the most difficult realities about a teen’s motivation is how impacted it can be from external judgement and expectations from parents, teachers, etc… and often in counterintuitive ways. Teens often share they want the adults off their back, and their adults often share they don’t want to be on their back, but it’s hard to see that everyone agrees when things aren’t going well.

A truth about adolescence is that it’s the exact developmental window for people to start exercising and managing their own judgement and expectations of themselves in order to create who they will be as an adult. This is seriously important stuff.

If you find yourself chronically on your teen’s back and it doesn’t feel quite right, that makes perfect sense. It can present an issue that can be quite confusing- motivation and compliance are two different things, but they can largely look the same on the outside while feeling completely different on the inside.

What feels different on the inside when compliance replaces motivation?

Excitement, curiosity, and the motivation to sit yourself in the driver’s seat of life. These are the very ingredients for thriving.

Just like driver’s ed, adolescence is when you exercise driving your life with the help and support of your grown ups HAVING your back, not being on it.

If you are ready to help create the environment around your kid to sit them in their driver’s seat of their life, then sign up for a time to chat at www.aura-edcoach.org!

AURA Coaching & Education Services brings coaching to the lives of teens & their parents and schools. AURA Coaching & Education Services brings coaching to the lives of teens & their parents and schools. A community for coaches and resources for teens, parents, and schools.

The Phonics and Whole Language approaches to teaching reading have drastically shifted our pedagogy over the last 30 years. I imagine I was one of the last cohorts of teachers that learned phonics instruction in college at UT’s special education department in 2006.

The Mississippi Miracle is simply a move back to phonics instruction. This article talks about accountability and such, too, but the core is an entire pedagogy shift back to what was. If you have struggling readers on your campus and don’t use a phonics approach to reading instruction, then you are leaving them behind by design, unfortunately. The outcomes are glaring at us like this all the time. Kudos, Mississippi.

Mississippi’s education miracle: A model for global literacy reform The state, once ranked near the bottom of education standings, dramatically improved student literacy rates while using little money.