Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

What is the price of your childs executive function skills development? Does that price increase or decrease according to deficits and disabilities that they may have? How do you go about best empowering them without breaking the bank? How do you know if the abstract and concrete interventions being employed will bear fruit?  How frustrated are you with your child’s progress? Do you feel the school is not getting your child to ‘the promised land?’ That is to say, do you feel that if you just rely on school support,  the instructional approach and their instructional execution that your child will exceed your expectations of their overall executive function skill and hemispheric connectivity development? Experience tells me as a Private Special Educator of over 12 years across Massachussetts, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and Puerto Rico that relying on just the schools to catapult the mental/ emotional development of a child with ADHD or autism is as naive as th...

The brain' synaptic growth and pruning, or  the generation, and self-trimming of synaptic connections in a humans brain is in rampant activity between in-utero, and young adulthood (late 20's). A dual integration of effective instructional delivery, couples with an focused activity curriculum that is novel, emotionally engaging, and sustains the learner's attention is the best way to strengthen these synaptic linkages. In other words, this kind of development has to be on-going, fun, challenging, and practical, all at the same time. This can be made to look easy by a seasoned professional also. But it is not easy. In my own 'Coach Bill' executive functioning skills coaching program novelty and challenge can be found in my integration of EF skill refinement activities like metabolic interval training, isometric muscle training, long board surfing, small boat sailing, skiing, ice skating, paddleboarding, swimming, playing tennis, playing chess, role-playing, ...

One thing that Coach Bill is well-known for amongst the families and individuals he works with is 'pushing the envelope.' In order to be sought out for my skill as a coach for kids and adults with Learning Disabilities, Executive Function Skill deficits, or Autism, rendering results on an on-going basis is essential.  That means that I have to be keen on identifying that fine and shifting line of just how far past a learner's comfort zone I should push them.  If we are doing muscular exercise, the ideal goal would be to do high-quality resistance training repetitions until muscle failure. The coach guides the learner to the right resistance and acceptable movement arcs so as to limit doing a large quantity of reps before the muscle begins to tremble and fail. When muscle failure is reached, it is in that moment we have left the comfort zone, and are breaking new ground. As a life-long longboarder, while living on the North Shore of O'ahu, Hawaii, I sometimes su...

Are you a parent of a child who fly's off the handle easily? Have you been making unprofitable attempts to modify your child's behavior? Try a back-door approach next time. Put on a mindset of "small beginnings." Introduce some new activities, like meditation (start at 10 seconds if that is what they can endure  (with a sleep mask to keep their eyes closed, and you holding their hand in a comforting way) Other Executive Function/ brain balancing activities and sports to put into your arsenal are  ping pong, role-playing, yoga, tennis, swimming, paddleboarding, hiking, or working with coaching cards (parentcoachcards.com). Likewise, introducing acceleration interval training (30 seconds speed burst, 1minute rest, repeat 8x's), and chess, teaches kids social skills, and refines their frontal lobe self-management activities. Through the context of these very engaging activities, parents and coaches directly facilitate executive function skill development, but...

Does a Teacher/ Coach's mindset and expectations drive a program? Can it mean the difference between great, lackluster, and a dismal educative outcome? To say that in any field or industry one's mindset and expectations don't have a direct impact on performance level would probably be very naive. So the time before a coaching session, or the Teacher entering the classroom, is as important as during the actual instruction. Being a routine reader of Sun Tzu's, 'The Art of War,' I find it useful to consider the current chemistry and existant rapport that I as a parent or coach may have with the child. From a diplomatic perspective, and with a focus on keeping the experience positive an able-bodied parent or teacher can be able to begin establishing new, sturdier framework from which to launch varied initiatives inversely focused on toning executive function skills, like mental flexibility. Reading up on Sun Tzu helps push the mind to consider and extrapola...