It starts as "one missing assignment" and somehow turns into you refreshing the grade portal like it's a slot machine. Your kid looks… fine. Eating chips. Talking about a video game. Meanwhile your nervous system is writing a five-act tragedy. In this episode, Dr. Amy Patenaude breaks down why this is so often not a motivation problem. It's a load problem. A systems problem. An executive function problem. You'll learn what executive function actually is, why middle school and high school can suddenly expose the cracks, what a good evaluation should tell you (beyond a label), and what to ask for so you leave with a real Monday-morning plan.

• What executive function actually is (and why "just be responsible" isn't a plan)
• Why this often shows up in middle school and high school even if elementary seemed "fine"
• How "missing assignments" can be the last stop in a whole chain of breakdown points
• What a good evaluation should answer so it changes what happens on Monday morning
• How to talk about bottlenecks (starting, planning, working memory, turning it in) without blaming your kid
• Simple, copy-paste scripts for meetings and emails when your brain forgets English

• Create a 5-minute after-school landing pad: backpack spot, charger spot, "TURN IN" folder.
• Add two project checkpoints: (1) directions/rubric captured, (2) first tiny step started.
• Try the "one missing assignment" experiment: recover one this week, not twelve.
• Reset before requests: snack, water, ten minutes, then homework talk.
• Externalize time: set a 10-minute timer to start, not finish.

Pick one. One is enough.

• Boredom Buster Guide
• Big Feeling Decoder
• 50 AI Prompts for Tired Parents
• School Psych in Your Back Pocket: The School Testing Toolkit (K–12)

"This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create a provider-client relationship. If you're concerned about your child's mental health, safety, or development, please consult a qualified professional in your area."

It's easy to keep trying to solve the same predictable problem in a crisis—like 7:14 a.m. chaos—then wonder why everyone's melting down. In this episode, Dr. Amy Patenaude shares a 12-minute weekly family meeting that makes the plan visible (so your house stops running on mind-reading and vibes) and gives strong-willed kids a way to use their power in a useful direction. You'll get a simple structure, scripts for the messy moments, and one tiny experiment to try this week.

• Why family meetings work: they move problem-solving to a calmer window so everyone's nervous system has a fighting chance
• How to run a meeting that's not a tiny courtroom (or a "tiny Senate" where bedtime gets filibustered)
• The 12–15 minute structure that keeps it short, doable, and repeatable
• The school-psych lens: treat behavior like data (pattern, skill demand, support), not a moral trial
• A simple home–school bridge for transitions (and a ready-to-use "partnership language" script)
• What "derailing" can really mean for big-feeling kids—and how to keep them on the team without blame

• Start an "Agenda" paper on the fridge so problems go there during the week instead of exploding in the morning rush.
• Run one 12-minute meeting this week—even if it's awkward. Timer on purpose.
• Pick one bottleneck (after school, sports gear, bedtime, homework) and choose one one-week experiment to test.
• Use one structure tool (talking object or jobs like timekeeper/note-taker/idea collector).
• End with a 2-minute light closer so your kid's nervous system remembers: "We're okay."

Pick one. One is enough.

• Boredom Buster Guide — https://psyched2parent.myflodesk.com/boredomebusterguide
• Big Feeling Decoder — https://psyched2parent.myflodesk.com/bigfeelingsdecoder
• 50 AI Prompts for Tired Parents — https://psyched2parent.myflodesk.com/aiprompts4parents

"This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create a provider-client relationship. If you're concerned about your child's mental health, safety, or development, please consult a qualified professional in your area."

If your child can read the words but can't tell you what they just read—and homework turns into a fight—this episode is for you. Dr. Amy Patenaude takes you inside her brain during a psychoeducational evaluation and shows what school psychologists are actually watching for in reading comprehension + recall, especially in 1st–2nd grade. You'll walk away with a simple framework (hello, 813), a Velcro-vs-Teflon way to think about "it didn't stick," and a 7-day experiment you can use to get clearer answers fast.

• Why a psychoeducational evaluation is not a "verdict" (it's translation + detective work)
• The Velcro vs. Teflon reading metaphor for kids who can decode but can't hold onto meaning
• The 813 framework: the 8 silent questions an evaluator is tracking in real time, and the 3 big buckets that explain the pattern
• How to tell the difference between a comprehension issue and a recall/output load issue
• What "We don't see that here" often means—and how to respond without arguing
• Exactly what to ask for at school so support is specific (not "more time" and vibes)

• Run the 7-day reading experiment: compare answering questions with the text available (text-referenced) vs. without looking back (memory-only).
• Use "mastery sampling" for comprehension: fewer questions, same depth (one straightforward, one vocab-in-context, one main idea/inference).
• Try one scaffold one time: preview 1–2 questions before reading or do a one-sentence "gist" after each paragraph.
• Start a tiny clue log: what task, what demand (more language? more output? end-of-day fatigue?), what helped.
• Use this school script: "Can we compare text-referenced vs memory-only answering, reduce question load for 7–10 days, and track accuracy, prompts needed, and independence?"

Pick one. One is enough.

• Boredom Buster Guide — https://psyched2parent.myflodesk.com/boredomebusterguide
• Big Feeling Decoder — https://psyched2parent.myflodesk.com/bigfeelingsdecoder
• 50 AI Prompts for Tired Parents — https://psyched2parent.myflodesk.com/aiprompts4parents

"This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create a provider-client relationship. If you're concerned about your child's mental health, safety, or development, please consult a qualified professional in your area."