What this tutoring can help with
Executive function means the skills used to plan, start, organize and finish work, keep track of time and hold directions in mind. When those skills are hard, a capable child can spend hours on a short assignment. Tutoring can work on:
- Starting: understanding the directions and finding a manageable first step.
- Planning: breaking an assignment or project into parts and deciding what comes first.
- Following through: keeping track of finished steps and getting back to the task after a pause.
- Checking work: rereading the directions and explaining how an answer was reached.
- Materials and time: keeping track of assignments and estimating how long things take.
- The subject itself: reading, writing, math and other subjects your child is working on.
Describe the task that gets stuck
“Homework takes too long” can mean several things. Your child may understand the material but find it hard to begin, lose their place in a multi-step problem, or need help understanding the assignment itself. Telling us what happens before, during and after the hard task keeps the conversation specific:
- What can your child do without help?
- Where do reminders or explanations become necessary?
- What makes it easier to come back to the task?
- Which subject or type of assignment is hardest?
Good grades don’t tell us how much support went into the work. A child can earn strong grades and still need a lot of help to manage it, and that is worth addressing too.
How our teachers approach ADHD and executive function
All of our tutors are certified in special education. The teacher uses the first sessions to understand the subject knowledge your child has and the steps that get in the way of using it. That work shapes a written starting plan that we review with you. Depending on the plan, sessions may include:
- shorter blocks of work with varied activities, so a session doesn’t become one long stretch of the same task;
- directions given clearly, tasks divided into manageable steps, and understanding checked along the way;
- organization strategies that break assignments into clear, repeatable steps, practiced until your child can use them on their own;
- practice on your child’s actual homework and projects, so the strategies are useful right away;
- connecting a required topic to something your child already cares about;
- room to move, fidget or take a short break, and patience to rebuild momentum after a frustrating moment.
Example (for illustration): a family might discuss whether a student can find the first step of a short assignment with a written checklist instead of repeated spoken reminders. This is an example of a goal to talk about, not a reported result or a promised outcome.
A child who stops partway through a word problem may need help with the reading, the math idea, organizing the steps or more than one of those. We look at the actual task so that “get organized” never stands in for teaching a missing skill. For subject help, see reading and dyslexia tutoring or math tutoring.
You get a summary after each tutoring session, and your child’s teacher can provide a quarterly progress report if you ask for one. Use them to talk with us about what your child now does with fewer reminders, where support is still needed and whether the approach should change.
Using your child’s IEP or 504 goals
If your child has an IEP (individualized education program) or a 504 plan, now or from a previous school, tell us about its goals and the accommodations that helped, such as extra time or checklists. You can describe them in your own words. The teacher uses that information, along with your observations and the first sessions, to shape academic goals for tutoring. A tutoring plan is not an IEP or a 504 plan, and it doesn’t replace school services.
If you are considering Utah Fits All, read how the law describes the effect on special education services. Utah Code 53F-6-402(4)(b) requires the application to include the acknowledgment that “A qualifying provider may not provide the same level of disability services that are provided in a public school” and that agreeing to establish the account “has the same effect as a parental refusal to consent to services as described in 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.300.” Our guide to Utah Fits All and your child’s IEP explains more, and your school district or the Utah Parent Center can answer questions about your child.
What we don’t do
We provide academic tutoring only. We don’t diagnose ADHD, evaluate children, provide counseling, behavior therapy or medical treatment, or advise on medication. Online tutoring also isn’t right for every child, so we discuss screens, attention and the adult help your child may need to get started before tutoring begins.
Paying with Utah Fits All
Special Education Resource LLC is an approved provider in the Utah Fits All Odyssey Marketplace. We are not Odyssey, the Utah State Board of Education or the State of Utah. Odyssey’s Eligible Expense Guide lists “Tutoring Services” as an eligible service, and in the Marketplace, Odyssey says it “pays vendors directly—you don’t have to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursement.” Utah Fits All covers K-12 students. Our guide to paying for tutoring with Utah Fits All compares the Marketplace with reimbursement, and our tutoring overview covers the other subjects we teach.
Program status: In April 2025, Utah’s Third District Court ruled Utah Fits All unconstitutional, and the State appealed to the Utah Supreme Court. As of October 1, 2026, the Utah Supreme Court has not ruled, and the program is operating for the 2026-27 school year. Read about the court case.