Parenting Balance Podcast
On the Parenting Balance Podcast, Teresa, a licensed mental health counselor, and Kelly, a licensed clinical social worker, debate and simplify the latest brain science research for emotional wellness. Experienced family therapists and parents of complex kids themselves offer different viewpoints on what it takes to raise resilient kids in today’s complicated world. The end result is that you will hear the latest research on ADHD and anxiety, and learn simple parenting strategies to help you find the right balance for your family.
Parenting Balance Podcast
013 Could Academic Coaching Be The Missing Piece For Your Child?
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Teresa VanPelt and Kelly Williams
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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If your child continues to struggle academically academic coaching could be the answer. Students with ADHD and anxiety are more likely to experience problems with homework, GPA, and attendance. Oftentimes therapy and medication aren’t enough. We interviewed Dr. Norrine Russell, owner, and founder of Russell Coaching, to learn the difference between tutoring and academic coaching as well as the difference between traditional therapy and ADHD coaching. She covers information like what to look for in an academic coach and ADHD coach and how to determine if your child could benefit from coaching. There is so much useful information packed into this one episode.
Russell Coaching, LLC, which specializes in academic and ADHD coaching for students, life coaching for tweens and teens, and coaching and school choice consultations for parents. With twenty years of experience creating positive youth development and parenting education programs, Dr. Russell has extensive knowledge of child development, learning styles, special needs, and positive parenting philosophies. As a coach, she blends this knowledge to provide students and parents with comprehensive support and the tools they need to grow and thrive.
Russell Coaching is accepting a limited number of new clients for the fall.
Registration begins July 15, 2020.
If you are interested in coaching services for your child through Russell Coaching you can complete a new student information form here or email Dr. Russell at norrinerussell.com.
You can find more information about the services offered at https://russellcoaching.com/.
<<Special Offer>> Mention this podcast and receive $100 off the fees for the first two months of services.
Here at the Parenting Balance Podcast, you'll find simple, science-based tools and tricks for parenting kids with ADHD or anxiety. Although we are both family therapists, this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not replace the guidance of a qualified professional. Join us as we debate and discuss our own experiences as parents of kids diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety and breakdown the latest research into easily digestible portions. We created this podcast to educate, inspire hope, explore new ideas and discover together what we know to be true: you are not alone, and finding a community of support can make all the difference. Please join our Parenting Balance Podcast Community here and sign up here to be the first in line for our new Modern Guide to Understanding Kids With ADHD mini-course.
Kelly Williams
Hi, everyone, welcome to the parenting balanced podcast. My name is Kelly Williams. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and an ADHD parenting expert by experience. I'm here with my partner. Hi, I'm Teresa Vanpelt. I'm a licensed mental health counselor and anxiety parenting expert by experience.
Teresa Vanpelt
And for the past 10 years,
Kelly and I have had a family practice in Florida. This podcast is for parents who want to really understand what's going on with ADHD and anxiety so you can ditch the chaos and feel confident and happy again. Dr. Doreen Russell is the founder and owner of wrestle coaching, which specializes in academic and ADHD coaching for students, school choice compensations for parents, and life coaching for
tweens and teens.
Kelly Williams
Dr. Russell moved into coaching after many years
Unknown Speaker
of creating positive youth development and parenting education program. We're thrilled that she's here with us to talk about academic and ADHD coaching. Thank you so much for being here today. Noreen, a really big thank you because we had to overcome some major technical issues. But, you know, the field of coaching is relatively new as a helping profession. And I think it's safe to say that academic coaching specifically is really not that well known by parents as a resource. And especially given with the current COVID situation and the changes that are, you know, that we don't even know about that lie ahead. I am super grateful. That you are here and we can teach parents about this amazing service that you provide. Yes. Let's get started. So can
Unknown Speaker
you tell us
Unknown Speaker
what is academic coaching?
Dr. Norrene Russell
Sure, of course I can. Yeah, I would be delighted to I want to thank you both
for inviting me to come on the show. This is really
Unknown Speaker
exciting. And
Dr. Norrene Russell
I think might be my first media engagement through Russell coaching. So back when I was directing nonprofits,
I did a lot more of that. But this is
my first media engagement with
Russell coaching. So that's very exciting. Thank you.
And it's fancy
Unknown Speaker
today, because we're actually in person we are.
Dr. Norrene Russell
We're so fancy. Yes. So you're absolutely right. academic coaching is not something that most parents are familiar with. In fact, most people when they meet me, and they find out what I do, they say, I've never heard of that. I wish I had heard of you years ago. So I think that's an exciting thing. That we're doing tonight because we will be able to help people understand what is academic coaching.
Unknown Speaker
So, academic
Dr. Norrene Russell
coaching is really designed to be much like what we think of as other kinds of coaching, right. So people have job coaches, they have leadership coaches, they have performance coaches, we have sports coaches, and all of those coaches, what they have in common is they are working collaboratively to set goals with the client, and then helping that client to build skills that they need in order to be successful. So in our case, the skills that we're working on include executive functioning skills, academic skills, and also sometimes if it's ADHD coaching, how to manage the symptoms of ADHD, like those strong emotions that I'm always talking about. Yeah, yeah, cuz there's a big emotional component to being successful academically, would you agree?
Unknown Speaker
Oh, absolutely. 100%. And
Unknown Speaker
when it happens naturally and organically that
Unknown Speaker
a student
Unknown Speaker
is motivated, they're even keeled. They're able to build relationships with their teachers
Unknown Speaker
and with peers, we kind of have a tendency,
Dr. Norrene Russell
I think, to take that for granted. Unless we're the kind of parents who know that this is not the way it goes all the time. Right. Right. And so then we can be acutely aware of how difficult the emotional component of school can be, and emotional regulation of ADHD can be. So, you know, and I think we're weaving together a few different things here. Of course, you know, at our practice, we do academic coaching, with kids for a number of different reasons. And then sort of one of the specialties within academic coaching is that ADHD coaching piece, because, of course, not every child who's with us at our practice. has ADHD. But yes, Kelly back to your point. Of course, those kiddos can really have a hard time with the emotional regulation piece of things. Yeah, well, in my experiences to that they, they aren't aware that it is an emotional issue a lot of the time. And so I could totally see where they find their way to your practice because there's an academic problem. And then through through the way that you guys assess and, and talk about things and set the goals that you've discovered then in your teaching, and it's, it's very similar, really, to what I do in my practice. I yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about, like the differences between
Unknown Speaker
like if someone,
Unknown Speaker
a parent were trying to decide if they needed an academic or an ADHD coach,
Unknown Speaker
or a counselor or a therapist, a family therapists,
Unknown Speaker
so they probably all have something we can contribute there.
Unknown Speaker
I would say When I tell people
Unknown Speaker
is
Unknown Speaker
our job with academic and ADHD coaching is really to focus on helping that student to achieve at the level they want to and achieve at a level that's roughly corresponding to their ability or potential, right? We're not, you know, Tiger moms over here or helicopter parents, but it is sad when you see a child who is
Unknown Speaker
underachieving simply because they don't
Unknown Speaker
yet have the skills that they need, right?
Dr. Norrene Russell
And so, counseling or therapy, some of the kids who are in my practice, also have a counselor or therapist if they are also dealing with anxiety or depression or some social isolation or family dynamics. So I think if you were going to draw a line in the sand, what you would say is counseling or therapy is designed to help address mental health issues. And coaching is designed for building life skills that everyone needs or
Unknown Speaker
everyone can benefit from. I don't think it's so
Unknown Speaker
easy to define in person because I think a lot of therapists play a coaching role in people's lives. And I think most people can benefit
Unknown Speaker
from therapy. So
Kelly Williams
one important difference, though, is that coaching and I think this is a topic we should talk about, so that as we educate your audience, coaching is of yet unregulated and unlicensed. And so when you're looking for an academic or an ADHD coach, you really want to make sure you know, what that person's credentials are, and how long they've been doing it and what kind of methods they use, to make sure that they're even with, you know, scientific practices and best practices and things like that. Especially When it comes to coaching kids with ADHD Yeah, but that was actually one of my questions like, how do parents find?
Unknown Speaker
You know, if they decide,
Unknown Speaker
yes, I think we're going to pursue academic or
Unknown Speaker
coaching. How
Unknown Speaker
I want to find the right person. Yeah,
Dr. Norrene Russell
sure. So there are not that many
Unknown Speaker
practices in the country that are doing it.
Dr. Norrene Russell
There are a few national organizations that do offer academic or ADHD coaching. And sometimes they'll refer to themselves as executive functioning coaches, because that really, then spans the divide between kids with ADHD and kids without ADHD, but everyone's struggling with the executive functioning case. That term wasn't even popular when I started the practice 12 years ago, and so I've never labeled myself like that. But That is what you would start, you know, as you would start to look for someone who is an executive functioning coach for teens, or for middle school students, and see who comes up and what their credentials are, how long they've been in practice and things like that. And you are getting ready to expand your practice. Are
Unknown Speaker
you not? I am, we are joining
Dr. Norrene Russell
one of only a handful of national coaching practices. And so we have made the decision I have made the decision in the last few months with our very easy transition to working remotely that it's time and so so this will be a service available remotely.
Unknown Speaker
Yes. So
Dr. Norrene Russell
we are up and ready and able to serve students anywhere across the United States. Wow, that's really nice. Because your graduation,
Unknown Speaker
the Tampa Bay area,
Dr. Norrene Russell
but now you're able to serve the full. Yeah, that's wonderful. And you know, that's one of the things that Having a license. Okay, so you had mentioned that the field of coaching isn't regulated. And there's pros and cons to that, right? But we are. So as therapists, we are so regulated, that we cannot provide our service to people that live outside of Florida, because we can only practice in the state where we're licensed. So, so coaching is so it's good. Like it's, it's, it's just, it's good for parents to know how to find the right resource that they need. because, frankly, I think when it comes to ADHD, anxiety, the academic problems, the mental health problems, no matter what kind of a service you're seeking, you need to find the right provider, because there's so many providers out there who aren't you know, the science has moved forward so quickly, like you said, like, right, like executive function wasn't even a word. Right? Yeah, well, we graduated from school I was there Coaching wasn't a thing. No, no. No. Right. And so the cert does is takes a lot of time and effort and energy on the part of the provider to make the choice to, to specialize in something specific and then to stay up to date. Oh, yeah. You know, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, coaching will become regulated over the next decade is my prediction. But the people who are doing coaching for the most part in these national firms are really doing a great
Unknown Speaker
job. They come from a background in
Dr. Norrene Russell
maybe speech language that come from being educational therapists.
Unknown Speaker
And so I think
Dr. Norrene Russell
in the national firms, parents are pretty safe. I always feel like
Unknown Speaker
it's a shame that not more parents
Dr. Norrene Russell
know that this is an option because I'll often have kids who have come to me who have seen tutor after tutor after tutor or who have had numerous school placement changes, or who has been at a therapist who has had a conceptualization of ADHD as a behavioral problem and not a neurodevelopmental problem. And so often and I imagine this is true for both of you. People have been on a long, long, painful, lonely journey when they get to my office, and they're like, I didn't know this was
Unknown Speaker
a thing. I'm like,
Dr. Norrene Russell
Yeah, I didn't really know what the thing when I started 12 years ago either, but what I found was that there was this huge need out there, right and it is a blend
Unknown Speaker
of
Unknown Speaker
helping with normal typical development
Unknown Speaker
and
Unknown Speaker
kind of the emotional support piece. And
Unknown Speaker
so for me, I absolutely love
Dr. Norrene Russell
it. I feel like I'm in the right place. But I feel for parents who
Unknown Speaker
don't know that this is an option
Dr. Norrene Russell
in addition to, you know, the medication piece that there VPS you know, the school support plan? Because when coaching is the right service, you know, just like when therapy is the right service, it's life changing. Yeah, it makes a big difference. We have a little thing that I always say on the podcast, and that is you don't know what you don't know, right? It's so true. And that's what our mission is, is just to bring, bring together a variety of information that help people learn about all the different
Unknown Speaker
all the different options that
Unknown Speaker
are available, you know, and it's true, we do a lot of
Unknown Speaker
teaching.
Kelly Williams
Right? Call it the, you know, you have to have the positive sensory experience, right? And just like in baseball, you can be on one team and the coaches in a good fit, right? And you move over to another team and boom, there it is. So, you know, it isn't necessarily that there aren't good, well meaning professionals out there but finding the right fit for your kid. Is is really key. It's really important. And sometimes we have to go the extra mile because our kids are more laws. They have more peccadilloes, my husband would say, right, like, the more layers of complexity that you have, right? In some ways, the narrower your choices become, because who are the professionals out there who are experienced
Unknown Speaker
in both ADHD and anxiety?
Dr. Norrene Russell
Who are the professionals out there who are experienced in ADHD anxiety, and a learning disability? Right, who are the professionals out there who have seen kids who have autism, ADHD, and anxiety, you know, and so, the more pillows or complexities you have, the narrower your range becomes because not everyone has seen enough kids like that to really be knowledgeable enough. And then our kids Of course, I don't know about yours, but mine
Unknown Speaker
You have
Unknown Speaker
strong reactions to people a lot of times, you know, based on
Unknown Speaker
their feelings with those
Unknown Speaker
professionals. So, yeah, I don't think anything is more true than it's all about fit. It's all about fit. But there is a certain knowing that comes from living with, right, like, like this being a part of your life both personally and professionally. And and I feel like that, you know, it just you can't, that that's something that can't be taught in any graduate program or licensure.
Unknown Speaker
You know, so there is that to
Dr. Norrene Russell
know. Absolutely. Now, when you have your own children who have, you know, who are neurologically atypical in some way? I think you bring, first of all, an understanding of the parents experience, you know, of how hard it is to peel the layers of that onion. I don't know what the metaphor would be for peccadilloes because I I know that we're But I don't really know what it means. So I can't, I can't jump on that bandwagon about the picadillo to Kelly might not even know that. So I'm gonna go back to my right as we peel those layers with our kids as parents, right, and we discover all of the different layers that they have, you know, that can be a lonely journey, it can be a frustrating journey, it can be sad. I'm not saying it's 100% negative. I think my children have brought more to my life than any other experience for me as a human being. But I think, pretty sound research that supports that parents of kids with non neurotypical brains of any sort, endure, have more stress, they have more perceived stress along their parenting journey, which isn't to say that we you know, right like that isn't as enjoyable a journey but I think it is to say to parents, like it's okay to get supporter right like to find the professional who can guide you and take some
Unknown Speaker
of the load off. We don't, we don't have to
Unknown Speaker
go at this alone and in secret,
Unknown Speaker
in fact,
Unknown Speaker
you know, that's kind of how this whole process
Unknown Speaker
thing started. Even with us, like we are seeking other information and other professionals to fill in this, you know, to fit the puzzle together, there's a kinship, you know, there's a, when we, when we reach out to each other, everything is easier, you know, and, and from working with our clients, we get that support, personally and perfect, you know, right. So they're all overlapping. I do think that
Unknown Speaker
being the parent of a neurologically atypical
Unknown Speaker
child, it helps you to bring
Dr. Norrene Russell
something to your practice, as a professional, whatever that is, whether you're in teaching, whether you're a psychologist, you know, coach,
Unknown Speaker
therapist, I think
Unknown Speaker
when you live that ever Every day,
Unknown Speaker
you develop a really deep
Unknown Speaker
understanding of the frustrations
Dr. Norrene Russell
of that path. And for me, I think, a very genuine empathy,
Unknown Speaker
right? You know that,
Dr. Norrene Russell
wow, this, this is really tough. It's not tough all the time. And it's not necessarily bad all the time. I'm not saying that I you know, but, but there are aspects of it that can be extremely frustrating. And so, for me, it's been very rewarding to be able to take some of those parent experiences and channeling it helping other parents who I know, you know, are kind of walking in at least the same forest I am, if not on exactly the same path,
Unknown Speaker
right? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
it is. There's a special kind of rewarding
Unknown Speaker
feeling that you get from that isn't there.
Teresa Vanpelt
Sometimes you don't have to say anything. They start talking and you start talking and then there's the There's an understanding that you get it at a different level. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
absolutely. Another.
Unknown Speaker
So how do parents know the difference
Unknown Speaker
between
Dr. Norrene Russell
whether or not their child would benefit more from a tutor or a coach? Sure, sure. So, what I tell my clients and my families is that if your student is having trouble with the material, they're having trouble comprehending the material might be math, science, it might be literature, but what they're really struggling with is the understanding of the material. That's a great time for a tutor, right? Because that tutor is going to go over the actual material and help the student develop a better understanding of the material. Now, coaches I think, historically, I mean tutors, right? historically have done some coaching type stuff or taken over the pressure on students by managing Okay, what's due this week? What tests you have this week? Okay, let's get ready.
Unknown Speaker
Let's do this. Let's do that. I think
Dr. Norrene Russell
what coaching strives to do is to really help that student build the fundamental executive functioning and academic skills they need. So they can self manage those things, right. So a tutor can help remediate the content and often alleviate the pressure of the executive functioning demands. Where I see a coach being so valuable is teaching the
Unknown Speaker
student how
Dr. Norrene Russell
they can build those skills themselves. And thus develop some competencies in the areas of
Unknown Speaker
time management,
Dr. Norrene Russell
task initiation, frustration, tolerance, impulse control, goal directed persistence, right flexibility, whereas I think that's not necessary. The focus in tutoring or often therapy, I'm not saying there are therapists who do that kind of thing, but that's really not traditionally. I guess that's a good way to put it. Yeah, not traditionally. Absolutely. Teresa. Yeah. That is really what a coach is there for.
Kelly Williams
So fostering
Unknown Speaker
independence.
Dr. Norrene Russell
Absolutely. It's always an eye on the future where, where you're building toward the goal of being able to eventually do this on your own. Right, right. And we know that our ADHD kids can be
Unknown Speaker
delayed
Dr. Norrene Russell
right? socially, emotionally. Not necessarily impaired cognitively, but a little bit delayed in terms of maturity. And so if you think about, you know, a middle schooler who's entering into sixth grade who might be a little bit more like a third or fourth grader on the maturity side, but they're getting hit
Unknown Speaker
with six, maybe seven classes,
Unknown Speaker
or the organizational demands of that building relationships with
Unknown Speaker
six or seven teachers
Unknown Speaker
that I think is a valuable place for coaching. And probably the same thing with the transition to high school, in the sense of
Unknown Speaker
you have someone who is
Unknown Speaker
quite likely to be a little bit delayed in their
Unknown Speaker
development and yet
Kelly Williams
their age, right is creating some demands for variation. Yeah, exactly. What we say on this podcast is that executive age is three years less than chronological age. Absolutely. So I just teach that it is reasonable for parents to have this calculation in their mind. So and the reason for that is to take out the shame part of it right, the blame and shame because that's the whole thing. It's hard to look at a child who you can't see anything different on the outside, right. And to to remember that they're not not doing Certain things on purpose. Well, I think that's so
Unknown Speaker
hard, right? And it's something that doesn't
Unknown Speaker
often get explained in the diagnosis and evaluation part of it.
Unknown Speaker
ADHD
Unknown Speaker
is not a problem with knowing
Dr. Norrene Russell
what to do. It's doing what you know, right? And so it's so frustrating for parents who haven't had enough education to understand, okay, if my kid did this last week, why can't they do it this week? For example, I have a student who was, you know, we have a number of students who are in summer coaching, and a few of them are working on remediating in different areas.
Unknown Speaker
Many times it's math.
Dr. Norrene Russell
And so, I have this one student who, you know, for a week, he did his 45 minutes, right. And his parents were like, Well, yeah, cuz I really talked to him. You know, I told him that this was important, you know, and we were all you know, very happy that week and then the next week he fell off. Why can't you do
Unknown Speaker
it? What's the problem with him He's so
Unknown Speaker
unmotivated. And I was like, This is just
Dr. Norrene Russell
normal, typical ADHD behavior. We are going to see ebbs and flows.
We don't need to shame him. We don't need to blame him. We need to kind of explain this is how your brain works, right? The motivation is going to come and go a little bit. And we need to figure out how do you get your work done, even when you're not feeling particularly motivated. Right? But Kelly, I'm still with you. And Teresa like it creates so much anxiety right when we miss assign the shame and the blame, because we don't understand the neurology of ADHD. Right? Well, and you know, there's many teachers out there, who,
Unknown Speaker
sadly,
Unknown Speaker
you know, when given the prevalence of
Kelly Williams
neurological differences in classrooms, we're talking about any teacher with a classroom of 20 students is guaranteed to have at least two students with a diagnosis. So so but yet they're not required to have any kind of special Education really about this, you know? And so that's a little mind boggling to me. But, um, but you know, a lot of times parents are looking to the teacher as the guide, and saying, what should I do? What should I do? He's not doing this. He's not doing that. And, and they're getting bad advice from the teacher, you know, and that's another frustrating thing I see a lot in my practice. Which brings me to another question that I have for you. Because I wonder like, how much do you ever advocate for kids in the academic setting? If you have a student that you're working with, and you start to see where there could be accommodation made in order to support them? They're learning in the classroom. Do you initiate talking to the school or like, how do you? Absolutely. So, as you know, that's a very complicated process, but when someone comes to my office for the first time, I do a very comprehensive Interview with them because I want to know, where have you been? What have you done? what's worked? What Schools has he been at? What therapies has he had, right? And at that point, I always review the 504 or the IEP, or as we refer to it private school, the student support plan. So just so that all the parents who are out there listening can say, Does my kid have a Bible for an IEP or if their private school might be a student support? And I take a look at that. And I compare what's on there to what's in the evaluation, right? And we talk about where the pressure points because they're not in my office if they're not tons and tons of pressure points, right. So we might start coaching with making sure we've got that school plan
Dr. Norrene Russell
optimized. Now I will say, often school plans are not the panacea that they are
Unknown Speaker
kind of painted to be In a lot of
Dr. Norrene Russell
evaluation recommendations like, Oh, well, we need the seating arrangement, we need extended time here. And we need a note taker, as if like, three pages of recommendations about school plans, is really going to have this significant impact. And I don't really see that happening for the students that I see in my practice. Also, at my practice, we go then, to every subsequent five or four IEP meeting, so I don't do five before or IP advocacy separate from our clients. But we do attend any of those, whether they're just the annual meetings, or whether we call a meeting to say, How can we address this.
Unknown Speaker
If the student is
Unknown Speaker
at a private school
Dr. Norrene Russell
that is really open to getting feedback, then
Unknown Speaker
it's possible
Dr. Norrene Russell
that we might be sending them some feedback as we run into problems or we can start or celebrate new skills. And so we do a lot of what I think you will would refer to as case management, you know, what's the bigger picture going on here? And how do we bring the pieces together? And I know that you recently had a guest, who does ADHD treatment. And we include that a little bit. In our case management, who do we refer to? Are your medications optimized and things like that?
Unknown Speaker
Because
Unknown Speaker
coaching will just become another situation
Kelly Williams
that's not working. If we don't have everyone wrapped around the goals, I have to coordinate the care with all the different providers. Yeah. Wow. So for our listeners, that difference, do you know the difference between Can you talk a little bit about the difference between a 504 and IEP? And you mentioned that a student support plan would be the equivalent of these but for private school, right, but what's the difference between fiber for an IEP Sure, so A 504 plan, what you'll commonly hear people say is that a 504 plan is accommodations, not services. That's a little bit of an oversimplification. But what a 504 plan does is accommodate the students in school language disability. Now we could talk for a long time about disability versus a typical and how much of a disability but that's the school language, right? It's a disability. And so, typical accommodations for kiddos with ADHD might be extended time might be private testing might be additional
Unknown Speaker
resources around note taking,
Dr. Norrene Russell
but quite honestly, there are not a lot of school accommodations that do a great job that are useful, right? I mean, there just aren't, you know, what they mostly are is a workaround for a student who is still having a tremendous amount of symptoms. If you Get the symptoms under control and you build the skills that they need. The school accommodations can become nearly irrelevant, but a lot of people because they get that evaluation background and pages and pages of school accommodations, and IP, on the other hand, and again, this is sort of a rough generalization because now, many people are trying to cram services into 504 plans but an IEP is called an individual education.
Unknown Speaker
Plan and that does come from
Dr. Norrene Russell
special education law. And what it does is provide additional services for your child. So let's say for example that your ADHD or has a
Unknown Speaker
specific learning
Dr. Norrene Russell
disability in reading or math, the IEP could provide services for that. So tutoring would be one of the services or specialized instruction, right. We've all kind of been around the block about dyslexia and you know, schools kind of doing the same old thing. with dyslexia and now really it's moms across the country who are coming to say, you know what, ah, no way not anymore. I want evidence based interventions for my kiddo with a specific learning disability in reading Now, what would we ideally want for a kid with ADHD? We'd want an IEP with services. To help build executive functioning skills, this same way you would with a kid with SL D but most schools don't Have someone
Unknown Speaker
who does that. Most schools
Dr. Norrene Russell
Speaking frankly, most schools don't want to add more IDPs right. Most schools don't have someone who's trained in how to teach executive functioning skills. And so while kids with ADHD would benefit From being taught those skills and receiving them as services under their IEP He that doesn't help did happen in my experience has been that many schools don't get that there's that belief. There's that problem of like, the old Yeah, they're just lazy or not Trying hard enough to grow so why why bother? Maybe it's a parenting problem. You're probably Just not providing enough supervision and you know others all those incredibly inaccurate. Try harder. You know? When Johnny fo cusses when Mason gives It is all you know if somebody would do a National Training about the fact that performance is uneven for kids with ADHD and that is the norm and stop assuming that
Unknown Speaker
what they do one
Dr. Norrene Russell
day is what they can do every day. We would be leaps of ahead of where we are right now.
Unknown Speaker
My husband is cheering as you say
Unknown Speaker
that over there.
Unknown Speaker
You know I think you're right.
Unknown Speaker
Exactly.
Dr. Norrene Russell
It's just the nature of the beast. You know that The neurotypical brain is a little bit more wired for consistency and the neuro atypical brain is a little bit more wired to be in consistent and then when it's stressed right when we're looking at anxiety We're looking at sensory overload and we're looking at some depression.
Unknown Speaker
Then the system shuts down and our executive functioning
Dr. Norrene Russell
goes down. The window and people like but but last year He had a good teacher. Maybe last year wasn't as stressful or maybe last year as well. A good teacher makes it less stressful right? It's just like having a good boss. We've all been there. Right? Exactly. Yeah, it does. That does impact your stress level and the only consistent thing about ADHD is that it's been consistent consistently expected to consistent and once you wrap your mind around that as a parent that this is normal This is to be expected. Okay, you're still living in crazy town sometimes. But it does do To make sense later this I always say to parents, if you can understand the lens right if you can But on those ADHD glasses, all this behavior, it actually does Make sense, especially when we talk about the motivation pathway in the brain, right and parents are like Why? Isn't he motivated? I'm like, What have you read anything about the neurobiology motivation and ADHD. Like
Unknown Speaker
if I didn't feel
Dr. Norrene Russell
motivated like tonight To get up and drive out to see you to wonderful people was I wasn't motivated to come on your podcast right? I'd be sitting at home Because my neural pathways wouldn't have been lighting up with Yeah this is important oh yeah I want to do this therefore I have to use my executive functioning skills up organization. Okay, what are the kids going to do? What do I need to get done at home before I come task initiation to I need to get glammed up to go Do I just need to find my keys? Right? And what do I need to take with me? Right? If I didn't have some motivation, none of that would happen. Well and it has to be, you know, the core of motivation is that things are personally meaningful Right like they are personally meaningful and let's face it, right who kids go to school. Like if they got to choose what they did all day
Unknown Speaker
would they be going to
Unknown Speaker
I don't think so many of them,
Unknown Speaker
right, right, right. And so
Unknown Speaker
They're in is one of the problems right there. Like, you know that that's not what they want to be doing. And so it's really, really hard to be motivated to do something that you don't I really care about and I think in
Unknown Speaker
my experience,
Unknown Speaker
we underestimate
Unknown Speaker
how difficult ADHD is
Unknown Speaker
for the child right? And the two of you, I know see a lot of kids who have more than one diagnosis right? So for listeners out there who are thinking that my kid has ADHD but they also have anxiety or my kid Also has depression or my kid has sensory issues right over half the time ADHD comes with a buddy.
Unknown Speaker
And so
Dr. Norrene Russell
then you're stuck. Figure all of that stuff that's hard for your kid you know? That is really tough. ADHD is not easy for the kid. It looks Right, if we're looking at it through one lens like, Oh, they don't care, they're just doing what they want their pulses. They're having a good time. I don't know that it's necessarily The way that lived experience actually feels on the inside. You know, I think that the personal relationships are what really makes all the difference in that experience. I'm always talking to have how to create a positive sensory stream. So how can we think about it in a different kind of way? How can we surround ourselves with people who are nice to us, not necessarily the best teacher or the you know, the most prestigious school, but like the goal, we need to kind of look at how the relationship piece The kinship piece of it is so important for kids with ADHD because again, I'm reading this book, my son and I are reading a book. It's called big potential. I can't think of the author right now but it's all about how You know the one metric that is gives us the best prediction of future success. Right is resilience it's being able to recover from a mistake to bounce back from setbacks and it's connected to being able to get along with other people like like being Able to be flexible enough to work in a group and
Unknown Speaker
Anyway, there's a lot of science
Unknown Speaker
that says that our kids who have these struggles in their academic career are actually really well situated to become some of the most successful For people as adults because
Unknown Speaker
they're learning these important
Dr. Norrene Russell
skills of how to recover How to find your way even though it's hard, right? So, but again, like Nobody does that in a vacuum. Right? You know it takes it takes saw the support it takes The parent you know, being able to understand what's going on Finding a community of others like minded parents To and, and get ideas from enlisting the services of the academic coach when That you know, because we can't. There's there's only so much available effort for anyone. Right well I think part of what you're saying that's so important is When we can have our children in relationships with people who see their strengths Right and who can help them build that resume. See by kind of staying with it They're like, zoned out. What They can do and what they can learn right a long time ago we used to call this the zone of proximal development. Kind of what can the child do right? If you're always To above, the child feels defeated if you're always too bold Their zone, then the child is sort of checked out. Yes. All right, right. So if you Have a relationship as a teacher as it counts. As a therapist as a special ed teacher at the learning therapists as educational therapists as the academic coach and you know exactly where that zone is where the child can learn experience a little bit of failure, bounced back, learn and have some success. And failed resiliency, right? Because resiliency is not you know Bubble Wrap from failure. resiliency is experiencing things that you can successfully bounce back from right and so I think your point about relationships is so vital. Because the more you are in relationship, the more you see That student no matter whether they're 510 or 15, right Then the strikes.
Unknown Speaker
I mean
Unknown Speaker
Gosh, I don't know that anything is more true but this drinks have The ADHD are really become visible
Unknown Speaker
in adulthood
Dr. Norrene Russell
with good treatment and support Yes, the weaknesses can also become very, very visible. But I'm telling the two Have you I look around at people who have ADHD in middle age and I'm like, sign me up now. That amount of energy.
Unknown Speaker
Like, this is great,
Unknown Speaker
you know,
Unknown Speaker
the creativity the out of the box thinking
Dr. Norrene Russell
the you know what can look like such odd Or disobedience, you know that becomes really goal directed persistence in adulthood. There are a lot of rakes of ADHD that are so incredibly helpful in adulthood. We have to make sure they stay on the right path, right?
Unknown Speaker
Because ADHD is can be at risk of short
Unknown Speaker
negative life outcomes. But when managed well, gosh, like, what
Unknown Speaker
great strengths they have and what
Unknown Speaker
a great take on them. And what gifts the art of the world?
Unknown Speaker
Well, and you know, I think everyone has it gift, you know everyone, all of us I mean, and but finding the gift, right and sometimes it doesn't look the same as everybody else gift so That sort of attention to detail like I can tell you right now my daughter's got wonderful attention to detail that I'm sure will result in something wonderful when she's older. It is really, really hard to get homework assignments. When you haven't Who's paying attention to every you know, to too many things right? And you can't kind of get past that and get on to doing the assignment. So, but but again, doing the work, you know, I know what that looks like when she's in it. And it'll be wonderful. Absolutely. It will be kind of hard to parent. But you know, that's where having an academic coach come right because it's not a comprehension problems for her. It's a getting out of your own way. Kind of problem for her. And so coaching is probably a good service for her and if We encounter you know, who knows what the school year is going to hold? We're going to be doing the elearning Option, okay, so she'll be home 100% of the time and I work from home. Well, and I think too, you know, and I have this conversation all the time with parents because they get used
Unknown Speaker
to In elementary school,
Dr. Norrene Russell
being the executive functioning person, right And the kids are younger than that and it doesn't really create a lot of friction And your parenting role at that time is often more of a manager, you know, so it's all going along swimmingly until we get to middle school and then it all falls out. part right. So we see a lot of people coming into the practice in middle school because all of a sudden the kids are much less Willing or interested to take direction from the parents. The parents are more frustrated because they don't want to be in Middle School right and they also know
Unknown Speaker
that their kid needs them too. Be a parent,
Unknown Speaker
right and so they don't want To be managing school But they don't want their kid to fail either.
Unknown Speaker
And let's face it
Unknown Speaker
We have this idea in America okay? People learn from failure. Let them fail. Fail Right now with our population trees So exactly right like we have good Who would not learn from failure without building their skills? And I think to parents aren't necessarily and I don't know about you,
Unknown Speaker
but
Dr. Norrene Russell
my kids have needed a lot of specialists that I don't have training. You know? Yeah, right. So I think parents are happy to bring them to someone who can release that pressure valve on the relations. And the family and the nagging and Oh did you check campus Did you check as we did to check Schoology I'm getting text. I'm getting text on I'm getting text here behind this you're missing this assignment and to know that, okay, there's someone who is trained in Not just triage illness right like we don't want to put band aids on bullet holes day after day. After dead, right? We want to teach that kid to stay on the line of fire, right? I mean, we don't want to Have all of that dripping blood from school all the time. That's terrible. And so I think One of the benefits that I see of coaching and why become such a huge
Unknown Speaker
proponent
Dr. Norrene Russell
For it for kids that we all tend to work with That it. First of all helps parents realize you don't have to do everything and be everything right. And there are professionals out there who know something about this. And you know what?
Unknown Speaker
Your child only has one
Dr. Norrene Russell
mom or one dads or two moms. To dad, but we can get someone else to help with the school stuff. Right. But if your relationship becomes obsessed with or consumed by, and it really becomes school performance, it's not Learning. It's really school performance then you miss out on these vital years where your child your tween your teen needs you and you wanted to be mom. You didn't want to be this manager that was the biggest thing I noticed when the Copa partying first started. Was that The shift that level of stress Well first of all, there's like everybody's at home and we're trying we're making all these things places, cetera computer and everything. Nobody has their own base, but that school stress whereas maybe it used to go on in school and then There wouldn't be this transition. It carried all the way through the day. By the end of the week, oh man, we were like ticking time bomb around here. Nobody liked it. But, you know, and we couldn't go anywhere. It was remarkable. The I just, you know, observing it and I didn't know what to do. I mean Like It took months to kind of feel like I I have a handle on it but
Unknown Speaker
but I've been
Dr. Norrene Russell
working with lots of other families kind of right going through the same thing again and I think going into the new year we will have some better ideas but in the beginning this that school stress parent Relationship thing, man. No, it was tough. I know as a mom, I was absorbing all of this stress from my kids and I wasn't used to being around there. School stress you know, and I wasn't used to having to worry about is this assignment in or that assignment in and out As someone who excelled in school, I sort of felt like it became I put it on myself as a good mom to be the good didn't have my kids learning and and that was the time I didn't know that We didn't have a frame of reference. I didn't know how to do that. It all kind of got thrown Not us, right? So I think this is, in some ways timely right that we're going Back to School that every state in the nation is trying to figure out. Are we going back In person, if we go back and person how long are we going to be there are we going to go back in April? First
Unknown Speaker
and to know you know what
Dr. Norrene Russell
you do you have options out there if you can find academic coach to work with your child once a week, set up A system set up a schedule, set up a structure someone else who's Looking at that school portal and helping your child Make goals and it becomes manageable bite sized It can make all the difference. In the world, and we're going to go back I think to a very unpredictable situation which is going to cause stress and anxiety anyway, right? Well and I always do encourage parents to look at it this way if you if you suspect that you might be someone who is interested or needing coaching this year? Sooner is gonna be a A lot better accessing the service sooner is better than Waiting, even if like to get the first couple of weeks of school off with a good structure with good understanding of what the requirements are of knowing You know making sure that your child or student has everything in place that they need that that can make or break at my prime desire here. We actually require that families start the week before school starts and we start with a goal setting session. Right We start with what strengths are you bringing forward from last year? What things did you learn? What things are you excited about this year? What things are you dreading? So we're starting that process of really thinking about and preparing mentally for the year. We've got their planners that day we're laying out the classes in the planner right? We're revisiting How does our planner system work? So that they go into that first day, sort of like we used to remember in kindergarten and primary school and you were excited you had your little bag over your shoulder and you're feel confident right you know you got a plan you know what's gonna happen you
Unknown Speaker
you Ready right
Dr. Norrene Russell
you know and You haven't been avoiding it up until 645. If your stomach hurts and you have a headache and Right, exactly, exactly. And so having a plan Having that relationship in place having a supportive person Looking at it, you know, I mean For anxious kiddos isn't half the battle just plan that they have to know ahead of time and that eases so much So every student in our practice starts The week before school starts. We will be doing registration for our false In two weeks on so that we can get all the matches made and get their day in Time set. Oh, so let's start How can people get ahold of you? Sure, absolutely. So The website for my coaching practice is Russ Soul coaching.com My Russell has to SS and two L's so www dot Ru, ss e Ll coaching.com.
Unknown Speaker
And what you'll find on the website
Dr. Norrene Russell
is a description of the services that we offer. So academic coaching, which can be for students who are gifted and achieving at a really high level it can be Students who are over scheduled and overbooked and need help with time management. It can be for students with executive functioning difficulties unrelated to ADHD. And then we do offer, you know, kind of this specialty service of a type of academic coaching that really relates to the ADHD coaching where we are really honing in on making sure the symptoms are controlled as best as possible and then building all those skills So, you'll see on the website the different services that we offer for students as well as what we do for parents in terms of parent education as well. We all know that there is not enough the parents understand to really genuinely understand about ADHD The forms to get started on our online there is a contact form that's online. The easiest thing for
Unknown Speaker
someone who's in For any of your listeners who
Dr. Norrene Russell
are interested is to go to That website and either do the form Contact me or two New Student intake form and that will come to directly to me and then I will get in touch and the first step is to say That's a pretty intensive two hours interviews. I can learn everything Your child's educational experiences so far. and match them with their coach and figure out his any case management that we need to do as well. Wow, that's amazing. We will yes and we're gonna Of course, put a link to your website. in the show notes which are right below this podcast on your player You have offered a special opportunity for podcast parenting balance podcast listeners, and then a super generous $100 off the monthly fees For the first two months of coaching I have and that offer is the only offer that's out there. So it's only For your listeners who reference this, that is a blanket discount that we give. I created that just for your listeners. So I hope they will take advantage of it. I do too. too. I do too. And thank you again for being here today. During a so much impact meishan so valuable Thank you for having me. I really appreciate It's been great fun to sit and talk with all of
Unknown Speaker
you we have so in common, and again, I think
Kelly Williams
all of us are committed to helping parents find the services that they need for their kids. Not just for the Kids but for the family right family well being thank you both Let's what's really fun? Yeah, when I come back thank you for listening to the parenting balanced podcast. To join our mailing list go to parenting balanced.com
Unknown Speaker
slash podcast. When you join
Unknown Speaker
you will be notified of upcoming live q&a
Teresa Vanpelt
You can help us plan future episodes. We'd love to hear comments and questions. You can reach us by email. Hello at parenting balanced calm and if you You found this information helpful. Please share it with anyone else who can benefit and subscribe and give us a rating on your podcasts. platform and Until then, remember Different isn't wrong
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Hi, everyone, welcome to the parenting balanced podcast. My name is Kelly Williams. I'm a licensed clinical social worker and an ADHD parenting expert by experience. I'm here with my partner. Hi, I'm Teresa Vanpelt. I'm a licensed mental health counselor and anxiety parenting expert by experience.
Teresa Vanpelt
And for the past 10 years,
Kelly and I have had a family practice in Florida. This podcast is for parents who want to really understand what's going on with ADHD and anxiety so you can ditch the chaos and feel confident and happy again. Dr. Doreen Russell is the founder and owner of wrestle coaching, which specializes in academic and ADHD coaching for students, school choice compensations for parents, and life coaching for
tweens and teens.
Kelly Williams
Dr. Russell moved into coaching after many years
Unknown Speaker
of creating positive youth development and parenting education program. We're thrilled that she's here with us to talk about academic and ADHD coaching. Thank you so much for being here today. Noreen, a really big thank you because we had to overcome some major technical issues. But, you know, the field of coaching is relatively new as a helping profession. And I think it's safe to say that academic coaching specifically is really not that well known by parents as a resource. And especially given with the current COVID situation and the changes that are, you know, that we don't even know about that lie ahead. I am super grateful. That you are here and we can teach parents about this amazing service that you provide. Yes. Let's get started. So can
Unknown Speaker
you tell us
Unknown Speaker
what is academic coaching?
Dr. Norrene Russell
Sure, of course I can. Yeah, I would be delighted to I want to thank you both
for inviting me to come on the show. This is really
Unknown Speaker
exciting. And
Dr. Norrene Russell
I think might be my first media engagement through Russell coaching. So back when I was directing nonprofits,
I did a lot more of that. But this is
my first media engagement with
Russell coaching. So that's very exciting. Thank you.
And it's fancy
Unknown Speaker
today, because we're actually in person we are.
Dr. Norrene Russell
We're so fancy. Yes. So you're absolutely right. academic coaching is not something that most parents are familiar with. In fact, most people when they meet me, and they find out what I do, they say, I've never heard of that. I wish I had heard of you years ago. So I think that's an exciting thing. That we're doing tonight because we will be able to help people understand what is academic coaching.
Unknown Speaker
So, academic
Dr. Norrene Russell
coaching is really designed to be much like what we think of as other kinds of coaching, right. So people have job coaches, they have leadership coaches, they have performance coaches, we have sports coaches, and all of those coaches, what they have in common is they are working collaboratively to set goals with the client, and then helping that client to build skills that they need in order to be successful. So in our case, the skills that we're working on include executive functioning skills, academic skills, and also sometimes if it's ADHD coaching, how to manage the symptoms of ADHD, like those strong emotions that I'm always talking about. Yeah, yeah, cuz there's a big emotional component to being successful academically, would you agree?
Unknown Speaker
Oh, absolutely. 100%. And
Unknown Speaker
when it happens naturally and organically that
Unknown Speaker
a student
Unknown Speaker
is motivated, they're even keeled. They're able to build relationships with their teachers
Unknown Speaker
and with peers, we kind of have a tendency,
Dr. Norrene Russell
I think, to take that for granted. Unless we're the kind of parents who know that this is not the way it goes all the time. Right. Right. And so then we can be acutely aware of how difficult the emotional component of school can be, and emotional regulation of ADHD can be. So, you know, and I think we're weaving together a few different things here. Of course, you know, at our practice, we do academic coaching, with kids for a number of different reasons. And then sort of one of the specialties within academic coaching is that ADHD coaching piece, because, of course, not every child who's with us at our practice. has ADHD. But yes, Kelly back to your point. Of course, those kiddos can really have a hard time with the emotional regulation piece of things. Yeah, well, in my experiences to that they, they aren't aware that it is an emotional issue a lot of the time. And so I could totally see where they find their way to your practice because there's an academic problem. And then through through the way that you guys assess and, and talk about things and set the goals that you've discovered then in your teaching, and it's, it's very similar, really, to what I do in my practice. I yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about, like the differences between
Unknown Speaker
like if someone,
Unknown Speaker
a parent were trying to decide if they needed an academic or an ADHD coach,
Unknown Speaker
or a counselor or a therapist, a family therapists,
Unknown Speaker
so they probably all have something we can contribute there.
Unknown Speaker
I would say When I tell people
Unknown Speaker
is
Unknown Speaker
our job with academic and ADHD coaching is really to focus on helping that student to achieve at the level they want to and achieve at a level that's roughly corresponding to their ability or potential, right? We're not, you know, Tiger moms over here or helicopter parents, but it is sad when you see a child who is
Unknown Speaker
underachieving simply because they don't
Unknown Speaker
yet have the skills that they need, right?
Dr. Norrene Russell
And so, counseling or therapy, some of the kids who are in my practice, also have a counselor or therapist if they are also dealing with anxiety or depression or some social isolation or family dynamics. So I think if you were going to draw a line in the sand, what you would say is counseling or therapy is designed to help address mental health issues. And coaching is designed for building life skills that everyone needs or
Unknown Speaker
everyone can benefit from. I don't think it's so
Unknown Speaker
easy to define in person because I think a lot of therapists play a coaching role in people's lives. And I think most people can benefit
Unknown Speaker
from therapy. So
Kelly Williams
one important difference, though, is that coaching and I think this is a topic we should talk about, so that as we educate your audience, coaching is of yet unregulated and unlicensed. And so when you're looking for an academic or an ADHD coach, you really want to make sure you know, what that person's credentials are, and how long they've been doing it and what kind of methods they use, to make sure that they're even with, you know, scientific practices and best practices and things like that. Especially When it comes to coaching kids with ADHD Yeah, but that was actually one of my questions like, how do parents find?
Unknown Speaker
You know, if they decide,
Unknown Speaker
yes, I think we're going to pursue academic or
Unknown Speaker
coaching. How
Unknown Speaker
I want to find the right person. Yeah,
Dr. Norrene Russell
sure. So there are not that many
Unknown Speaker
practices in the country that are doing it.
Dr. Norrene Russell
There are a few national organizations that do offer academic or ADHD coaching. And sometimes they'll refer to themselves as executive functioning coaches, because that really, then spans the divide between kids with ADHD and kids without ADHD, but everyone's struggling with the executive functioning case. That term wasn't even popular when I started the practice 12 years ago, and so I've never labeled myself like that. But That is what you would start, you know, as you would start to look for someone who is an executive functioning coach for teens, or for middle school students, and see who comes up and what their credentials are, how long they've been in practice and things like that. And you are getting ready to expand your practice. Are
Unknown Speaker
you not? I am, we are joining
Dr. Norrene Russell
one of only a handful of national coaching practices. And so we have made the decision I have made the decision in the last few months with our very easy transition to working remotely that it's time and so so this will be a service available remotely.
Unknown Speaker
Yes. So
Dr. Norrene Russell
we are up and ready and able to serve students anywhere across the United States. Wow, that's really nice. Because your graduation,
Unknown Speaker
the Tampa Bay area,
Dr. Norrene Russell
but now you're able to serve the full. Yeah, that's wonderful. And you know, that's one of the things that Having a license. Okay, so you had mentioned that the field of coaching isn't regulated. And there's pros and cons to that, right? But we are. So as therapists, we are so regulated, that we cannot provide our service to people that live outside of Florida, because we can only practice in the state where we're licensed. So, so coaching is so it's good. Like it's, it's, it's just, it's good for parents to know how to find the right resource that they need. because, frankly, I think when it comes to ADHD, anxiety, the academic problems, the mental health problems, no matter what kind of a service you're seeking, you need to find the right provider, because there's so many providers out there who aren't you know, the science has moved forward so quickly, like you said, like, right, like executive function wasn't even a word. Right? Yeah, well, we graduated from school I was there Coaching wasn't a thing. No, no. No. Right. And so the cert does is takes a lot of time and effort and energy on the part of the provider to make the choice to, to specialize in something specific and then to stay up to date. Oh, yeah. You know, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, coaching will become regulated over the next decade is my prediction. But the people who are doing coaching for the most part in these national firms are really doing a great
Unknown Speaker
job. They come from a background in
Dr. Norrene Russell
maybe speech language that come from being educational therapists.
Unknown Speaker
And so I think
Dr. Norrene Russell
in the national firms, parents are pretty safe. I always feel like
Unknown Speaker
it's a shame that not more parents
Dr. Norrene Russell
know that this is an option because I'll often have kids who have come to me who have seen tutor after tutor after tutor or who have had numerous school placement changes, or who has been at a therapist who has had a conceptualization of ADHD as a behavioral problem and not a neurodevelopmental problem. And so often and I imagine this is true for both of you. People have been on a long, long, painful, lonely journey when they get to my office, and they're like, I didn't know this was
Unknown Speaker
a thing. I'm like,
Dr. Norrene Russell
Yeah, I didn't really know what the thing when I started 12 years ago either, but what I found was that there was this huge need out there, right and it is a blend
Unknown Speaker
of
Unknown Speaker
helping with normal typical development
Unknown Speaker
and
Unknown Speaker
kind of the emotional support piece. And
Unknown Speaker
so for me, I absolutely love
Dr. Norrene Russell
it. I feel like I'm in the right place. But I feel for parents who
Unknown Speaker
don't know that this is an option
Dr. Norrene Russell
in addition to, you know, the medication piece that there VPS you know, the school support plan? Because when coaching is the right service, you know, just like when therapy is the right service, it's life changing. Yeah, it makes a big difference. We have a little thing that I always say on the podcast, and that is you don't know what you don't know, right? It's so true. And that's what our mission is, is just to bring, bring together a variety of information that help people learn about all the different
Unknown Speaker
all the different options that
Unknown Speaker
are available, you know, and it's true, we do a lot of
Unknown Speaker
teaching.
Kelly Williams
Right? Call it the, you know, you have to have the positive sensory experience, right? And just like in baseball, you can be on one team and the coaches in a good fit, right? And you move over to another team and boom, there it is. So, you know, it isn't necessarily that there aren't good, well meaning professionals out there but finding the right fit for your kid. Is is really key. It's really important. And sometimes we have to go the extra mile because our kids are more laws. They have more peccadilloes, my husband would say, right, like, the more layers of complexity that you have, right? In some ways, the narrower your choices become, because who are the professionals out there who are experienced
Unknown Speaker
in both ADHD and anxiety?
Dr. Norrene Russell
Who are the professionals out there who are experienced in ADHD anxiety, and a learning disability? Right, who are the professionals out there who have seen kids who have autism, ADHD, and anxiety, you know, and so, the more pillows or complexities you have, the narrower your range becomes because not everyone has seen enough kids like that to really be knowledgeable enough. And then our kids Of course, I don't know about yours, but mine
Unknown Speaker
You have
Unknown Speaker
strong reactions to people a lot of times, you know, based on
Unknown Speaker
their feelings with those
Unknown Speaker
professionals. So, yeah, I don't think anything is more true than it's all about fit. It's all about fit. But there is a certain knowing that comes from living with, right, like, like this being a part of your life both personally and professionally. And and I feel like that, you know, it just you can't, that that's something that can't be taught in any graduate program or licensure.
Unknown Speaker
You know, so there is that to
Dr. Norrene Russell
know. Absolutely. Now, when you have your own children who have, you know, who are neurologically atypical in some way? I think you bring, first of all, an understanding of the parents experience, you know, of how hard it is to peel the layers of that onion. I don't know what the metaphor would be for peccadilloes because I I know that we're But I don't really know what it means. So I can't, I can't jump on that bandwagon about the picadillo to Kelly might not even know that. So I'm gonna go back to my right as we peel those layers with our kids as parents, right, and we discover all of the different layers that they have, you know, that can be a lonely journey, it can be a frustrating journey, it can be sad. I'm not saying it's 100% negative. I think my children have brought more to my life than any other experience for me as a human being. But I think, pretty sound research that supports that parents of kids with non neurotypical brains of any sort, endure, have more stress, they have more perceived stress along their parenting journey, which isn't to say that we you know, right like that isn't as enjoyable a journey but I think it is to say to parents, like it's okay to get supporter right like to find the professional who can guide you and take some
Unknown Speaker
of the load off. We don't, we don't have to
Unknown Speaker
go at this alone and in secret,
Unknown Speaker
in fact,
Unknown Speaker
you know, that's kind of how this whole process
Unknown Speaker
thing started. Even with us, like we are seeking other information and other professionals to fill in this, you know, to fit the puzzle together, there's a kinship, you know, there's a, when we, when we reach out to each other, everything is easier, you know, and, and from working with our clients, we get that support, personally and perfect, you know, right. So they're all overlapping. I do think that
Unknown Speaker
being the parent of a neurologically atypical
Unknown Speaker
child, it helps you to bring
Dr. Norrene Russell
something to your practice, as a professional, whatever that is, whether you're in teaching, whether you're a psychologist, you know, coach,
Unknown Speaker
therapist, I think
Unknown Speaker
when you live that ever Every day,
Unknown Speaker
you develop a really deep
Unknown Speaker
understanding of the frustrations
Dr. Norrene Russell
of that path. And for me, I think, a very genuine empathy,
Unknown Speaker
right? You know that,
Dr. Norrene Russell
wow, this, this is really tough. It's not tough all the time. And it's not necessarily bad all the time. I'm not saying that I you know, but, but there are aspects of it that can be extremely frustrating. And so, for me, it's been very rewarding to be able to take some of those parent experiences and channeling it helping other parents who I know, you know, are kind of walking in at least the same forest I am, if not on exactly the same path,
Unknown Speaker
right? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
it is. There's a special kind of rewarding
Unknown Speaker
feeling that you get from that isn't there.
Teresa Vanpelt
Sometimes you don't have to say anything. They start talking and you start talking and then there's the There's an understanding that you get it at a different level. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker
absolutely. Another.
Unknown Speaker
So how do parents know the difference
Unknown Speaker
between
Dr. Norrene Russell
whether or not their child would benefit more from a tutor or a coach? Sure, sure. So, what I tell my clients and my families is that if your student is having trouble with the material, they're having trouble comprehending the material might be math, science, it might be literature, but what they're really struggling with is the understanding of the material. That's a great time for a tutor, right? Because that tutor is going to go over the actual material and help the student develop a better understanding of the material. Now, coaches I think, historically, I mean tutors, right? historically have done some coaching type stuff or taken over the pressure on students by managing Okay, what's due this week? What tests you have this week? Okay, let's get ready.
Unknown Speaker
Let's do this. Let's do that. I think
Dr. Norrene Russell
what coaching strives to do is to really help that student build the fundamental executive functioning and academic skills they need. So they can self manage those things, right. So a tutor can help remediate the content and often alleviate the pressure of the executive functioning demands. Where I see a coach being so valuable is teaching the
Unknown Speaker
student how
Dr. Norrene Russell
they can build those skills themselves. And thus develop some competencies in the areas of
Unknown Speaker
time management,
Dr. Norrene Russell
task initiation, frustration, tolerance, impulse control, goal directed persistence, right flexibility, whereas I think that's not necessary. The focus in tutoring or often therapy, I'm not saying there are therapists who do that kind of thing, but that's really not traditionally. I guess that's a good way to put it. Yeah, not traditionally. Absolutely. Teresa. Yeah. That is really what a coach is there for.
Kelly Williams
So fostering
Unknown Speaker
independence.
Dr. Norrene Russell
Absolutely. It's always an eye on the future where, where you're building toward the goal of being able to eventually do this on your own. Right, right. And we know that our ADHD kids can be
Unknown Speaker
delayed
Dr. Norrene Russell
right? socially, emotionally. Not necessarily impaired cognitively, but a little bit delayed in terms of maturity. And so if you think about, you know, a middle schooler who's entering into sixth grade who might be a little bit more like a third or fourth grader on the maturity side, but they're getting hit
Unknown Speaker
with six, maybe seven classes,
Unknown Speaker
or the organizational demands of that building relationships with
Unknown Speaker
six or seven teachers
Unknown Speaker
that I think is a valuable place for coaching. And probably the same thing with the transition to high school, in the sense of
Unknown Speaker
you have someone who is
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quite likely to be a little bit delayed in their
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development and yet
Kelly Williams
their age, right is creating some demands for variation. Yeah, exactly. What we say on this podcast is that executive age is three years less than chronological age. Absolutely. So I just teach that it is reasonable for parents to have this calculation in their mind. So and the reason for that is to take out the shame part of it right, the blame and shame because that's the whole thing. It's hard to look at a child who you can't see anything different on the outside, right. And to to remember that they're not not doing Certain things on purpose. Well, I think that's so
Unknown Speaker
hard, right? And it's something that doesn't
Unknown Speaker
often get explained in the diagnosis and evaluation part of it.
Unknown Speaker
ADHD
Unknown Speaker
is not a problem with knowing
Dr. Norrene Russell
what to do. It's doing what you know, right? And so it's so frustrating for parents who haven't had enough education to understand, okay, if my kid did this last week, why can't they do it this week? For example, I have a student who was, you know, we have a number of students who are in summer coaching, and a few of them are working on remediating in different areas.
Unknown Speaker
Many times it's math.
Dr. Norrene Russell
And so, I have this one student who, you know, for a week, he did his 45 minutes, right. And his parents were like, Well, yeah, cuz I really talked to him. You know, I told him that this was important, you know, and we were all you know, very happy that week and then the next week he fell off. Why can't you do
Unknown Speaker
it? What's the problem with him He's so
Unknown Speaker
unmotivated. And I was like, This is just
Dr. Norrene Russell
normal, typical ADHD behavior. We are going to see ebbs and flows.
We don't need to shame him. We don't need to blame him. We need to kind of explain this is how your brain works, right? The motivation is going to come and go a little bit. And we need to figure out how do you get your work done, even when you're not feeling particularly motivated. Right? But Kelly, I'm still with you. And Teresa like it creates so much anxiety right when we miss assign the shame and the blame, because we don't understand the neurology of ADHD. Right? Well, and you know, there's many teachers out there, who,
Unknown Speaker
sadly,
Unknown Speaker
you know, when given the prevalence of
Kelly Williams
neurological differences in classrooms, we're talking about any teacher with a classroom of 20 students is guaranteed to have at least two students with a diagnosis. So so but yet they're not required to have any kind of special Education really about this, you know? And so that's a little mind boggling to me. But, um, but you know, a lot of times parents are looking to the teacher as the guide, and saying, what should I do? What should I do? He's not doing this. He's not doing that. And, and they're getting bad advice from the teacher, you know, and that's another frustrating thing I see a lot in my practice. Which brings me to another question that I have for you. Because I wonder like, how much do you ever advocate for kids in the academic setting? If you have a student that you're working with, and you start to see where there could be accommodation made in order to support them? They're learning in the classroom. Do you initiate talking to the school or like, how do you? Absolutely. So, as you know, that's a very complicated process, but when someone comes to my office for the first time, I do a very comprehensive Interview with them because I want to know, where have you been? What have you done? what's worked? What Schools has he been at? What therapies has he had, right? And at that point, I always review the 504 or the IEP, or as we refer to it private school, the student support plan. So just so that all the parents who are out there listening can say, Does my kid have a Bible for an IEP or if their private school might be a student support? And I take a look at that. And I compare what's on there to what's in the evaluation, right? And we talk about where the pressure points because they're not in my office if they're not tons and tons of pressure points, right. So we might start coaching with making sure we've got that school plan
Dr. Norrene Russell
optimized. Now I will say, often school plans are not the panacea that they are
Unknown Speaker
kind of painted to be In a lot of
Dr. Norrene Russell
evaluation recommendations like, Oh, well, we need the seating arrangement, we need extended time here. And we need a note taker, as if like, three pages of recommendations about school plans, is really going to have this significant impact. And I don't really see that happening for the students that I see in my practice. Also, at my practice, we go then, to every subsequent five or four IEP meeting, so I don't do five before or IP advocacy separate from our clients. But we do attend any of those, whether they're just the annual meetings, or whether we call a meeting to say, How can we address this.
Unknown Speaker
If the student is
Unknown Speaker
at a private school
Dr. Norrene Russell
that is really open to getting feedback, then
Unknown Speaker
it's possible
Dr. Norrene Russell
that we might be sending them some feedback as we run into problems or we can start or celebrate new skills. And so we do a lot of what I think you will would refer to as case management, you know, what's the bigger picture going on here? And how do we bring the pieces together? And I know that you recently had a guest, who does ADHD treatment. And we include that a little bit. In our case management, who do we refer to? Are your medications optimized and things like that?
Unknown Speaker
Because
Unknown Speaker
coaching will just become another situation
Kelly Williams
that's not working. If we don't have everyone wrapped around the goals, I have to coordinate the care with all the different providers. Yeah. Wow. So for our listeners, that difference, do you know the difference between Can you talk a little bit about the difference between a 504 and IEP? And you mentioned that a student support plan would be the equivalent of these but for private school, right, but what's the difference between fiber for an IEP Sure, so A 504 plan, what you'll commonly hear people say is that a 504 plan is accommodations, not services. That's a little bit of an oversimplification. But what a 504 plan does is accommodate the students in school language disability. Now we could talk for a long time about disability versus a typical and how much of a disability but that's the school language, right? It's a disability. And so, typical accommodations for kiddos with ADHD might be extended time might be private testing might be additional
Unknown Speaker
resources around note taking,
Dr. Norrene Russell
but quite honestly, there are not a lot of school accommodations that do a great job that are useful, right? I mean, there just aren't, you know, what they mostly are is a workaround for a student who is still having a tremendous amount of symptoms. If you Get the symptoms under control and you build the skills that they need. The school accommodations can become nearly irrelevant, but a lot of people because they get that evaluation background and pages and pages of school accommodations, and IP, on the other hand, and again, this is sort of a rough generalization because now, many people are trying to cram services into 504 plans but an IEP is called an individual education.
Unknown Speaker
Plan and that does come from
Dr. Norrene Russell
special education law. And what it does is provide additional services for your child. So let's say for example that your ADHD or has a
Unknown Speaker
specific learning
Dr. Norrene Russell
disability in reading or math, the IEP could provide services for that. So tutoring would be one of the services or specialized instruction, right. We've all kind of been around the block about dyslexia and you know, schools kind of doing the same old thing. with dyslexia and now really it's moms across the country who are coming to say, you know what, ah, no way not anymore. I want evidence based interventions for my kiddo with a specific learning disability in reading Now, what would we ideally want for a kid with ADHD? We'd want an IEP with services. To help build executive functioning skills, this same way you would with a kid with SL D but most schools don't Have someone
Unknown Speaker
who does that. Most schools
Dr. Norrene Russell
Speaking frankly, most schools don't want to add more IDPs right. Most schools don't have someone who's trained in how to teach executive functioning skills. And so while kids with ADHD would benefit From being taught those skills and receiving them as services under their IEP He that doesn't help did happen in my experience has been that many schools don't get that there's that belief. There's that problem of like, the old Yeah, they're just lazy or not Trying hard enough to grow so why why bother? Maybe it's a parenting problem. You're probably Just not providing enough supervision and you know others all those incredibly inaccurate. Try harder. You know? When Johnny fo cusses when Mason gives It is all you know if somebody would do a National Training about the fact that performance is uneven for kids with ADHD and that is the norm and stop assuming that
Unknown Speaker
what they do one
Dr. Norrene Russell
day is what they can do every day. We would be leaps of ahead of where we are right now.
Unknown Speaker
My husband is cheering as you say
Unknown Speaker
that over there.
Unknown Speaker
You know I think you're right.
Unknown Speaker
Exactly.
Dr. Norrene Russell
It's just the nature of the beast. You know that The neurotypical brain is a little bit more wired for consistency and the neuro atypical brain is a little bit more wired to be in consistent and then when it's stressed right when we're looking at anxiety We're looking at sensory overload and we're looking at some depression.
Unknown Speaker
Then the system shuts down and our executive functioning
Dr. Norrene Russell
goes down. The window and people like but but last year He had a good teacher. Maybe last year wasn't as stressful or maybe last year as well. A good teacher makes it less stressful right? It's just like having a good boss. We've all been there. Right? Exactly. Yeah, it does. That does impact your stress level and the only consistent thing about ADHD is that it's been consistent consistently expected to consistent and once you wrap your mind around that as a parent that this is normal This is to be expected. Okay, you're still living in crazy town sometimes. But it does do To make sense later this I always say to parents, if you can understand the lens right if you can But on those ADHD glasses, all this behavior, it actually does Make sense, especially when we talk about the motivation pathway in the brain, right and parents are like Why? Isn't he motivated? I'm like, What have you read anything about the neurobiology motivation and ADHD. Like
Unknown Speaker
if I didn't feel
Dr. Norrene Russell
motivated like tonight To get up and drive out to see you to wonderful people was I wasn't motivated to come on your podcast right? I'd be sitting at home Because my neural pathways wouldn't have been lighting up with Yeah this is important oh yeah I want to do this therefore I have to use my executive functioning skills up organization. Okay, what are the kids going to do? What do I need to get done at home before I come task initiation to I need to get glammed up to go Do I just need to find my keys? Right? And what do I need to take with me? Right? If I didn't have some motivation, none of that would happen. Well and it has to be, you know, the core of motivation is that things are personally meaningful Right like they are personally meaningful and let's face it, right who kids go to school. Like if they got to choose what they did all day
Unknown Speaker
would they be going to
Unknown Speaker
I don't think so many of them,
Unknown Speaker
right, right, right. And so
Unknown Speaker
They're in is one of the problems right there. Like, you know that that's not what they want to be doing. And so it's really, really hard to be motivated to do something that you don't I really care about and I think in
Unknown Speaker
my experience,
Unknown Speaker
we underestimate
Unknown Speaker
how difficult ADHD is
Unknown Speaker
for the child right? And the two of you, I know see a lot of kids who have more than one diagnosis right? So for listeners out there who are thinking that my kid has ADHD but they also have anxiety or my kid Also has depression or my kid has sensory issues right over half the time ADHD comes with a buddy.
Unknown Speaker
And so
Dr. Norrene Russell
then you're stuck. Figure all of that stuff that's hard for your kid you know? That is really tough. ADHD is not easy for the kid. It looks Right, if we're looking at it through one lens like, Oh, they don't care, they're just doing what they want their pulses. They're having a good time. I don't know that it's necessarily The way that lived experience actually feels on the inside. You know, I think that the personal relationships are what really makes all the difference in that experience. I'm always talking to have how to create a positive sensory stream. So how can we think about it in a different kind of way? How can we surround ourselves with people who are nice to us, not necessarily the best teacher or the you know, the most prestigious school, but like the goal, we need to kind of look at how the relationship piece The kinship piece of it is so important for kids with ADHD because again, I'm reading this book, my son and I are reading a book. It's called big potential. I can't think of the author right now but it's all about how You know the one metric that is gives us the best prediction of future success. Right is resilience it's being able to recover from a mistake to bounce back from setbacks and it's connected to being able to get along with other people like like being Able to be flexible enough to work in a group and
Unknown Speaker
Anyway, there's a lot of science
Unknown Speaker
that says that our kids who have these struggles in their academic career are actually really well situated to become some of the most successful For people as adults because
Unknown Speaker
they're learning these important
Dr. Norrene Russell
skills of how to recover How to find your way even though it's hard, right? So, but again, like Nobody does that in a vacuum. Right? You know it takes it takes saw the support it takes The parent you know, being able to understand what's going on Finding a community of others like minded parents To and, and get ideas from enlisting the services of the academic coach when That you know, because we can't. There's there's only so much available effort for anyone. Right well I think part of what you're saying that's so important is When we can have our children in relationships with people who see their strengths Right and who can help them build that resume. See by kind of staying with it They're like, zoned out. What They can do and what they can learn right a long time ago we used to call this the zone of proximal development. Kind of what can the child do right? If you're always To above, the child feels defeated if you're always too bold Their zone, then the child is sort of checked out. Yes. All right, right. So if you Have a relationship as a teacher as it counts. As a therapist as a special ed teacher at the learning therapists as educational therapists as the academic coach and you know exactly where that zone is where the child can learn experience a little bit of failure, bounced back, learn and have some success. And failed resiliency, right? Because resiliency is not you know Bubble Wrap from failure. resiliency is experiencing things that you can successfully bounce back from right and so I think your point about relationships is so vital. Because the more you are in relationship, the more you see That student no matter whether they're 510 or 15, right Then the strikes.
Unknown Speaker
I mean
Unknown Speaker
Gosh, I don't know that anything is more true but this drinks have The ADHD are really become visible
Unknown Speaker
in adulthood
Dr. Norrene Russell
with good treatment and support Yes, the weaknesses can also become very, very visible. But I'm telling the two Have you I look around at people who have ADHD in middle age and I'm like, sign me up now. That amount of energy.
Unknown Speaker
Like, this is great,
Unknown Speaker
you know,
Unknown Speaker
the creativity the out of the box thinking
Dr. Norrene Russell
the you know what can look like such odd Or disobedience, you know that becomes really goal directed persistence in adulthood. There are a lot of rakes of ADHD that are so incredibly helpful in adulthood. We have to make sure they stay on the right path, right?
Unknown Speaker
Because ADHD is can be at risk of short
Unknown Speaker
negative life outcomes. But when managed well, gosh, like, what
Unknown Speaker
great strengths they have and what
Unknown Speaker
a great take on them. And what gifts the art of the world?
Unknown Speaker
Well, and you know, I think everyone has it gift, you know everyone, all of us I mean, and but finding the gift, right and sometimes it doesn't look the same as everybody else gift so That sort of attention to detail like I can tell you right now my daughter's got wonderful attention to detail that I'm sure will result in something wonderful when she's older. It is really, really hard to get homework assignments. When you haven't Who's paying attention to every you know, to too many things right? And you can't kind of get past that and get on to doing the assignment. So, but but again, doing the work, you know, I know what that looks like when she's in it. And it'll be wonderful. Absolutely. It will be kind of hard to parent. But you know, that's where having an academic coach come right because it's not a comprehension problems for her. It's a getting out of your own way. Kind of problem for her. And so coaching is probably a good service for her and if We encounter you know, who knows what the school year is going to hold? We're going to be doing the elearning Option, okay, so she'll be home 100% of the time and I work from home. Well, and I think too, you know, and I have this conversation all the time with parents because they get used
Unknown Speaker
to In elementary school,
Dr. Norrene Russell
being the executive functioning person, right And the kids are younger than that and it doesn't really create a lot of friction And your parenting role at that time is often more of a manager, you know, so it's all going along swimmingly until we get to middle school and then it all falls out. part right. So we see a lot of people coming into the practice in middle school because all of a sudden the kids are much less Willing or interested to take direction from the parents. The parents are more frustrated because they don't want to be in Middle School right and they also know
Unknown Speaker
that their kid needs them too. Be a parent,
Unknown Speaker
right and so they don't want To be managing school But they don't want their kid to fail either.
Unknown Speaker
And let's face it
Unknown Speaker
We have this idea in America okay? People learn from failure. Let them fail. Fail Right now with our population trees So exactly right like we have good Who would not learn from failure without building their skills? And I think to parents aren't necessarily and I don't know about you,
Unknown Speaker
but
Dr. Norrene Russell
my kids have needed a lot of specialists that I don't have training. You know? Yeah, right. So I think parents are happy to bring them to someone who can release that pressure valve on the relations. And the family and the nagging and Oh did you check campus Did you check as we did to check Schoology I'm getting text. I'm getting text on I'm getting text here behind this you're missing this assignment and to know that, okay, there's someone who is trained in Not just triage illness right like we don't want to put band aids on bullet holes day after day. After dead, right? We want to teach that kid to stay on the line of fire, right? I mean, we don't want to Have all of that dripping blood from school all the time. That's terrible. And so I think One of the benefits that I see of coaching and why become such a huge
Unknown Speaker
proponent
Dr. Norrene Russell
For it for kids that we all tend to work with That it. First of all helps parents realize you don't have to do everything and be everything right. And there are professionals out there who know something about this. And you know what?
Unknown Speaker
Your child only has one
Dr. Norrene Russell
mom or one dads or two moms. To dad, but we can get someone else to help with the school stuff. Right. But if your relationship becomes obsessed with or consumed by, and it really becomes school performance, it's not Learning. It's really school performance then you miss out on these vital years where your child your tween your teen needs you and you wanted to be mom. You didn't want to be this manager that was the biggest thing I noticed when the Copa partying first started. Was that The shift that level of stress Well first of all, there's like everybody's at home and we're trying we're making all these things places, cetera computer and everything. Nobody has their own base, but that school stress whereas maybe it used to go on in school and then There wouldn't be this transition. It carried all the way through the day. By the end of the week, oh man, we were like ticking time bomb around here. Nobody liked it. But, you know, and we couldn't go anywhere. It was remarkable. The I just, you know, observing it and I didn't know what to do. I mean Like It took months to kind of feel like I I have a handle on it but
Unknown Speaker
but I've been
Dr. Norrene Russell
working with lots of other families kind of right going through the same thing again and I think going into the new year we will have some better ideas but in the beginning this that school stress parent Relationship thing, man. No, it was tough. I know as a mom, I was absorbing all of this stress from my kids and I wasn't used to being around there. School stress you know, and I wasn't used to having to worry about is this assignment in or that assignment in and out As someone who excelled in school, I sort of felt like it became I put it on myself as a good mom to be the good didn't have my kids learning and and that was the time I didn't know that We didn't have a frame of reference. I didn't know how to do that. It all kind of got thrown Not us, right? So I think this is, in some ways timely right that we're going Back to School that every state in the nation is trying to figure out. Are we going back In person, if we go back and person how long are we going to be there are we going to go back in April? First
Unknown Speaker
and to know you know what
Dr. Norrene Russell
you do you have options out there if you can find academic coach to work with your child once a week, set up A system set up a schedule, set up a structure someone else who's Looking at that school portal and helping your child Make goals and it becomes manageable bite sized It can make all the difference. In the world, and we're going to go back I think to a very unpredictable situation which is going to cause stress and anxiety anyway, right? Well and I always do encourage parents to look at it this way if you if you suspect that you might be someone who is interested or needing coaching this year? Sooner is gonna be a A lot better accessing the service sooner is better than Waiting, even if like to get the first couple of weeks of school off with a good structure with good understanding of what the requirements are of knowing You know making sure that your child or student has everything in place that they need that that can make or break at my prime desire here. We actually require that families start the week before school starts and we start with a goal setting session. Right We start with what strengths are you bringing forward from last year? What things did you learn? What things are you excited about this year? What things are you dreading? So we're starting that process of really thinking about and preparing mentally for the year. We've got their planners that day we're laying out the classes in the planner right? We're revisiting How does our planner system work? So that they go into that first day, sort of like we used to remember in kindergarten and primary school and you were excited you had your little bag over your shoulder and you're feel confident right you know you got a plan you know what's gonna happen you
Unknown Speaker
you Ready right
Dr. Norrene Russell
you know and You haven't been avoiding it up until 645. If your stomach hurts and you have a headache and Right, exactly, exactly. And so having a plan Having that relationship in place having a supportive person Looking at it, you know, I mean For anxious kiddos isn't half the battle just plan that they have to know ahead of time and that eases so much So every student in our practice starts The week before school starts. We will be doing registration for our false In two weeks on so that we can get all the matches made and get their day in Time set. Oh, so let's start How can people get ahold of you? Sure, absolutely. So The website for my coaching practice is Russ Soul coaching.com My Russell has to SS and two L's so www dot Ru, ss e Ll coaching.com.
Unknown Speaker
And what you'll find on the website
Dr. Norrene Russell
is a description of the services that we offer. So academic coaching, which can be for students who are gifted and achieving at a really high level it can be Students who are over scheduled and overbooked and need help with time management. It can be for students with executive functioning difficulties unrelated to ADHD. And then we do offer, you know, kind of this specialty service of a type of academic coaching that really relates to the ADHD coaching where we are really honing in on making sure the symptoms are controlled as best as possible and then building all those skills So, you'll see on the website the different services that we offer for students as well as what we do for parents in terms of parent education as well. We all know that there is not enough the parents understand to really genuinely understand about ADHD The forms to get started on our online there is a contact form that's online. The easiest thing for
Unknown Speaker
someone who's in For any of your listeners who
Dr. Norrene Russell
are interested is to go to That website and either do the form Contact me or two New Student intake form and that will come to directly to me and then I will get in touch and the first step is to say That's a pretty intensive two hours interviews. I can learn everything Your child's educational experiences so far. and match them with their coach and figure out his any case management that we need to do as well. Wow, that's amazing. We will yes and we're gonna Of course, put a link to your website. in the show notes which are right below this podcast on your player You have offered a special opportunity for podcast parenting balance podcast listeners, and then a super generous $100 off the monthly fees For the first two months of coaching I have and that offer is the only offer that's out there. So it's only For your listeners who reference this, that is a blanket discount that we give. I created that just for your listeners. So I hope they will take advantage of it. I do too. too. I do too. And thank you again for being here today. During a so much impact meishan so valuable Thank you for having me. I really appreciate It's been great fun to sit and talk with all of
Unknown Speaker
you we have so in common, and again, I think
Kelly Williams
all of us are committed to helping parents find the services that they need for their kids. Not just for the Kids but for the family right family well being thank you both Let's what's really fun? Yeah, when I come back thank you for listening to the parenting balanced podcast. To join our mailing list go to parenting balanced.com
Unknown Speaker
slash podcast. When you join
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you will be notified of upcoming live q&a
Teresa Vanpelt
You can help us plan future episodes. We'd love to hear comments and questions. You can reach us by email. Hello at parenting balanced calm and if you You found this information helpful. Please share it with anyone else who can benefit and subscribe and give us a rating on your podcasts. platform and Until then, remember Different isn't wrong
Transcribed by https://otter.ai