When Testing Is a Snapshot, What Happens Next?

Two weeks ago in this newsletter, I briefly mentioned sitting in a paper quilling class and suddenly finding myself back in the learner seat.

Even though I spend most of my time teaching executive function, I found myself experiencing something many of our students feel every day. Ideas were forming in my head, but getting them onto the paper felt slower than I expected.

It made me pause and think:

Is this processing speed?
Is it working memory?
Is it something else entirely?

That experience stayed with me.

Then last week I spent several days at SXSW EDU, attending session after session. Once again, I was sitting in the learner seat. I wanted to capture everything the speakers were saying, but sometimes getting my ideas onto my phone quickly enough felt challenging.

Luckily, I was using Notability, one of my favorite tools. I could record the sessions and generate transcripts later so I wouldn’t lose information while I was still processing it.

But the experience reminded me of something important.

Even when you understand executive function deeply, you can still feel the friction between thinking and producing.

And unless someone goes through formal testing, they may never know exactly why.

Pause for a Brain Science Moment

Psychological assessments can give us incredibly valuable information about how the brain processes information.

Testing can measure things like:

• working memory
• processing speed
• attention patterns
• cognitive flexibility

These results can help us understand how a learner performs under structured testing conditions. But testing is still a snapshot.

A score cannot tell us what happens:

• in a noisy classroom
• during the last class of the day
• when motivation drops
• when emotions run high

Executive function does not live only in test scores. It shows up in the moment-to-moment demands of real life.

Testing can give us the map.

But coaching helps us understand the terrain.

What Happens When There Is No Testing?

Not every learner has access to psychological testing. Many families cannot afford it. Some students never meet the criteria for evaluation. Others simply never get referred.

Yet the executive function challenges are still there.

Over the past year I began using the Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory more often in my work with students and families. Many of the strategists in our community have started using it as well.

And one question keeps coming up:

What do we actually do with the information once we have it?

How do we interpret the patterns?
How do we translate the results into coaching goals?
How do we help parents understand what the numbers actually mean for their child?

Because the goal is never just to collect data. The goal is to turn insight into meaningful support.

A Thought I Keep Coming Back To

One thing I think about often is how fortunate we are as coaches.

We get to sit with students one on one.
We get to observe their thinking in real time.
We get to support the executive functions we see unfolding in front of us.

But many students sitting in classrooms will never have that opportunity. Their challenges may remain invisible. And no one may ever explain why learning feels harder for them than it seems to for everyone else.

That question continues to drive so much of the work I do:

How do we reach the students who need support but may never be formally assessed?

An Invitation

Because of these conversations, I decided to create a workshop focused on exactly this question. Mark your calendar - more details coming soon!

On April 16 at 7 PM Eastern, I will be hosting a session where we will explore:

• how to use the Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory
• how to find patterns within the results
• how to translate psychological testing into coaching insights
• how to help parents truly understand what the results mean for their child.

Because the goal is not to react to a score. The goal is to understand what that score is signaling about how a learner experiences the world.

And when we learn how to interpret those signals, we can begin to provide the support students actually need.