Dyslexia and executive function coaching
Dyslexia is most commonly associated with reading and spelling, and while those differences are real, they are only part of the picture. Many dyslexic adults also experience executive function challenges, including difficulties with working memory, organisation, time management, and planning, that can affect every area of daily life, not just tasks that involve written language.
If you have dyslexia and have always assumed that your difficulties with organising, remembering things, or managing your time were just personality traits or bad habits, there is a very good chance that your executive functions are part of the story too.
This might sound familiar if...
You can hold a complex idea in your head but lose it the moment something interrupts you.
You are great at seeing the big picture but struggle to break it down into the steps needed to get there.
Your workspace, bag, or digital files are in a state of organised chaos that only you can navigate, and sometimes not even you.
You consistently underestimate how long things take and arrive late or unprepared despite genuinely trying not to.
You forget what you were doing mid-task, especially if something pulls your attention away.
Multi-step instructions, whether verbal or written, are hard to hold onto and even harder to follow in the right order.
You have brilliant ideas but find it genuinely hard to translate them into a plan you can actually execute.
You work much harder than most people to produce the same output, and it is exhausting.
The strengths that often come with dyslexia
Dyslexia is not only a set of challenges. Many dyslexic people have real and distinctive strengths that are worth understanding and building on. Executive function coaching is strengths-based and takes these seriously as a genuine foundation for building strategies that work.
Big-picture thinking
Seeing patterns, connections, and possibilities that others miss.
Creativity
Approaching problems from unexpected angles and generating original ideas.
Interpersonal insight
Strong empathy and an ability to read people and situations well.
Spatial reasoning
Thinking in three dimensions and visualising ideas in ways others find difficult.
Determination
Having navigated a world not built for your brain, many dyslexic adults are extraordinarily resilient.
Which executive functions can be affected
The executive function challenges most commonly associated with dyslexia include:
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
Working memory is particularly closely linked to dyslexia. When the system that holds and manipulates information in the moment is under strain, it affects far more than reading and writing. It affects how you follow conversations, remember instructions, manage your time, and keep track of what you are doing.
What coaching can open up
Coaching does not hand you a fixed set of answers. The aim is to help you explore what might work for you, drawing on your own insight and ideas first, with input and strategies from me at relevant points in your coaching journey, and all within a neuroscience-based framework. What that looks like is different for everyone, but common areas people explore include:
Working with your memory
Exploring approaches that reduce how much you need to hold in your head at once.
Breaking ideas into steps
Using your big-picture strengths while finding ways to make the detail more manageable.
Managing time more reliably
Exploring what helps you plan and track time in ways that work for how your brain processes it.
Less shame, more self-understanding
Understanding the neurological basis for your challenges can shift how you relate to yourself and your work.
Access to Work may cover your coaching
If you are employed, self employed, or run your own business, and your dyslexia affects your ability to work, you may be able to have your coaching funded through the UK government’s Access to Work scheme.
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What neuroplasticity means for you
For a long time, it was believed that the brain was largely fixed by adulthood. We now know that Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new connections and adapt, continues throughout life.
It does take longer in adults than in children, and it requires consistent, repeated practice rather than a single step. But, it is possible! The strategies we co-create in coaching aren’t just workarounds (although you may choose to make some environmental adaptions) they’re ways of gradually rewiring how your brain approaches the things that have always felt hard.
Understanding your executive functions is where that process begins.
Curious about what executive function coaching could offer you?
A free discovery call is a good place to start. No commitment, just a conversation about where you are and what might help.
