Making the Grade Podcast
Making the Grade is a podcast about executive function—how we manage time, energy, emotions, and goals in real life. Hosted by former educators turned executive function coaches, we explore the brain-based skills that drive success both personally and professionally.
Each episode features real stories from entrepreneurs, overwhelmed professionals, parents, and experts in executive function. We dive into the habits, challenges, and strategies that help people build (or rebuild) motivation, focus, organization, and emotional regulation.
Why do so many of us feel stuck, even when we’re trying our best? What does success really look like—and how do we get there on our own terms?
The pressures of modern life are real, but so are the solutions. Making the Grade offers honest conversations, practical tools, and a reminder that success isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up for yourself every day.
Subscribe and leave a review if you like what you hear!
https://makingthegradeproject.com/executive-function-for-educators/
Making the Grade Podcast
Honoring Our Brains: Iris Wong on Executive Function, Neurodivergence, and Growth
S3 EP 42 | Season 3 Episode 42: Honoring Our Brains: Iris Wong on Executive Function, Neurodivergence, and Growth
What does it mean to honor your brain, your body, and your story while raising a family and supporting others? For Iris Wong, it means blending her work as a bilingual SLP, executive function coach, and author with the lived experience of being a neurodivergent adult and parent.
On this episode of Making the Grade, Georgia sits down with Iris Wong, a bilingual Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), Executive Function Coach, author, and storyteller. Iris’s journey has taken her from public schools in the U.S. to expat life overseas, and now into the deeply personal work of supporting others while honoring her own neurodivergence (AuDHD).
Iris shares how rollerblading and breakdancing in her kitchen as a child gave her an early way to meet her sensory needs - and how that thread of self-understanding now runs through everything she teaches and creates. From publishing A Kids Book About Executive Functioning to exploring representation in YA fiction, Iris brings heart, humor, and lived experience to the conversation about accessibility, identity, and growth.
Together, they talk about:
- The realities of being a caregiver while navigating her own late diagnosis
- What working overseas taught her about alternative education and inclusion
- How storytelling - both in children’s nonfiction and YA fiction - can shift representation and belonging
- The connection between sensory needs, creativity, and executive function
- Why executive function is not just about productivity, but about honoring our brains and bodies
💡 Iris also shares practical insights from her coaching practice, and why embracing neurodivergence in both kids and adults can unlock new ways of thriving.
🔗 Learn more about Iris’s work:
- A Kids Book About Executive Functioning: Penguin Random House link
- Instagram: @eftoolkit
Find out more about Making the Grade here
Learn more about Executive Function: https://makingthegradeproject.com/executive-function-for-educators/
Follow Making the Grade!
Website | https://makingthegradeproject.com/blog/category/podcast/
Instagram | Making the Grade IG
Apple Podcasts | Making the Grade Podcast (Listen and give us a rating!)
