Organizing the Disorganized Child: Simple Strategies to Succeed in School
Parents often ask me how to help their child become more organized (and responsible).
Some children are organized. Some are not. How do some become so disorganized? How do we fix it? If your child is organized, read this book -- It will help you understand why your child is unorganized. And really, he (she) isn't doing it on purpose. He is not being lazy -- he just cannot figure out the steps to complete the tasks.
Organizational skills come from the frontal lobes of our brains. Our frontal lobes help us reduce distractions, and allow us to have have foresight, hindsight, to plan ahead, and alter our plans. We expect children to have much "higher level" executive function before their brains are fully developed. They know what they need to do --
but they cannot do it.
If you have a disorganized child, your child likely already knows that something is "wrong". There might be arguments over doing homework, returning homework to school, returning library books (Thursday folders). If possible, you, the parent, needs to stay positive, calm and listen to your child. Remind the child that you are a team (and, when it comes to school work, the teacher is part of that team!)
This book will help you to determine the organizational style of your child, then set up an environment and develop strategies and a routine to help support your child.
Organizational skills are key to a successful educational experience. If you read this book -- and need me to do anything to help support your child at school (to provide consistence between school and home), please let me know.
This book is available
Chapters/ Indigo and the online price is about $12. It is also available at the Toronto Public Library, which is my favourite source of books, next to Earl Beatty's own library!
