Introduction -- Part I: What makes your child smart but scattered -- How did such a smart kid end up so scattered? -- Identifying your child's strengths and weaknesses -- How your own executive skill strengths and weaknesses matter -- Matching the child to the task -- Part II: Laying a foundation that can help -- Ten principles for improving your child's executive skills -- Modifying the environment : A is for antecedent -- Teaching executive skills directly : B is for behavior -- Motivating your child to learn and use executive skills : C is for consequence -- Part III: Putting it all together -- Advance organizer -- Ready-made plans for teaching your child to complete daily routines -- Building response inhibition -- Enhancing working memory -- Improving emotional control -- Strengthening sustained attention -- Teaching task initiation -- Promoting planning and prioritizing -- Fostering organization -- Instilling time management -- Encouraging flexibility -- Increasing goal-directed persistence -- Cultivating metacognition -- When what you do is not enough -- Working with the school -- What's ahead?