The Behaviour Coach Podcast

Homework and After-School Executive Function

The Behaviour Coach Podcast

Show Notes

If homework in your house is a nightly battle, if the 20 minute assignment somehow takes 3 hours, if your kid was fine at school and is now falling apart at the kitchen table, this episode is for you.

Erica shares what restraint collapse is and why homework at the kitchen table can be a place of meltdowns and frustration, the after-school sequence that actually helps, her real opinions on homework in elementary school, and the exact phrase to use with teachers when advocating for accommodations ("reduce quantity, not content"). She also gets into body doubling, task initiation, and scaffolding for teens, plus a full section on preventing the assignment pile before it becomes an avoidance spiral.

Plus one of her own homework stories from childhood, involving Grimms Fairytales, a reading log, and a C in elementary school reading that made no sense until you looked closely.

FREE RESOURCE Grab the Support Profile here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sOhSMxXwJSzk4uMHgXbj6pz5_47iXxNv/view?usp=sharing

Or head to Instagram @behaviourcoach and comment THRIVE on any post for the same resource, plus ADHD and autism info sheets.

Never miss an episode: Get on the weekly newsletter!

AUDIO COURSES (Pay what you can)

If homework battles are tipping into meltdowns, check out my Meltdowns Mastery audio course.

If friendships are the harder piece this school year, The Belonging Blueprint course is for you!

More from The Behaviour Coach Podcast

Sep 15, 2026

Advocating for your ADHD kid at school is one of the most important jobs you have as their parent, and one of the most emotionally exhausting. In this episode, Erica reframes advocacy as bridging, not fighting. She shares the story of a high school student whose grade jumped two full letter grades from one small accommodation (his science teacher started emailing the lesson slides one day before class). She walks through a quick primer on IEPs, 504 plans, and informal support plans, plus her favourite categories of accommodations for the classroom environment, learning and instruction, transitions, emotional and behavioural support, and home-school communication. And she shares what to do when the school pushes back on an accommodation.

Sep 1, 2026

If your ADHD kid is coming home from the first weeks of school completely fried, melting down over things that seem small, unable to do basic tasks they were handling fine in June, this episode is for you.

Jul 7, 2026

For years, I thought I was just an anxious parent around water and cars. I now know I was not anxious. My neurodivergent kids were baseline less safe. That knowing changes everything.

Jun 30, 2026

Summer is harder for ADHD families than we are told to expect. The structure just left. Your kid is burnt out from a school year of holding it together. You are too. Now it's two depleted nervous systems trying to navigate 10 weeks together without the scaffolding of school. If summer is hard in your house, you're not failing. This season is genuinely harder for our families. This week's episode walks through the five things that actually help: decoding what "I'm bored" really means, building boredom infrastructure that quietly does the work all summer, a real summer screen plan, how to prep summer camp counsellors so your kid can succeed, and downtime, for your kids and for you. Next week: travel with neurodivergent kids.

Jun 23, 2026

I'm joined by Fayth Caruso, who has spent 15 years working with rebounding as a tool for the body, with people of all ages and abilities, including a lot of neurodivergent kids and adults.

See all episodes →