ORGANIZATION AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL– An Important Life Skill Your Child Needs to Thrive.

 

ORGANIZATION AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL– An Important Life Skill Your Child Needs to Thrive.

Who else agrees with me that walking into a space or environment where everything is well arranged and in its proper place, has a soothing effect? For some people, all it takes to rile them up is messing up their personal space. However as much as it is desirable to have a well-arranged space and lifestyle, not everyone can just keep things together.

The ability to be orderly and tidy is a learned skill known as organization and it is one of the skills that make up the executive functional skill. You can read our post on executive functional skills here.

 

What is Organization:

This involves the ability of a person to keep things orderly, neat, and tidy. This skill helps a child to excel in other skills like goal setting, task initiation, time management, and planning, and this ultimately boosts efficiency in all areas of the child’s life. Organizational skill is not only required of students, every other group of individual requires them too. A housewife cooking in her kitchen, A CEO running a company, A teacher teaching in a classroom: they all need organizational skills to achieve tasks promptly and effectively too.

 

I remember how I would always yell and complain that my kids were always late for school until I devised the strategy of getting them to bring out all that they would need for school, the night before and lay it out. This practice helped because the time usually spent looking for various items on school days was greatly reduced and lateness was curbed. This practice truly reflects the quote by Benjamin Franklin which says that “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned”

A child who has acquired organizational skills will always stand out in any establishment and will most likely be chosen to function as team lead, project coordinator, etc.

 

The Importance of Organizational Skills:

a.       It promotes academic success. This is so because learning materials are organized, notes are properly taken and organized for easy assimilation, assignments are done promptly and academic performance is improved.

b.      Organizational skill ensures that the child does not lose his personal belongings, especially his school/learning items

c.       This skill is also important for social interaction as it helps children organize their thoughts, and communicate amongst their peers and even with older persons

d.      It helps children initiate and complete projects efficiently.

e.      It also promotes self-care, personal grooming, and independence in a child. A child with healthy organizational skills knows how to care for himself and doesn’t need to be told what to do all the time.

Children with low organizational skills struggle with poor academic performance, low self-esteem, and behavioural problems all of which can impact negatively the overall mental health of the child.

 

How Can You Boost Your Child’s Organizational skills?

1.       Planning helps kids stay organized. If a child is taught to lay out his clothes, shoes, and other accessories, which he will be using for school a day before, it helps him stay organized in the morning while getting set for school because he had already brought out everything he would be needing.

2.       Encourage your older children to make a list of activities they need to carry out and check it off when they have done it.

3.       Establish routines for the younger ones. Make a list of what they are supposed to do per time in the order in which it is to be done. A list of all the activities a child is supposed to engage in before they go to school or after they get back from school can help them stay organized. E.g. wake up in the morning by ---, make your bed, say your prayers, brush your teeth, take your bath, dress up. Comb your hair eat breakfast, pack your lunch, get your backpack, and get set for school. This orderly arrangement helps the child not to forget any task.

4.       Encourage them to use calendar planners to highlight important tasks. Teaching time management skills is also helpful to achieve organizational skills.

5.       Get backpacks with different pouches and let them know what each pouch should contain.

6.       Create space for keeping things.  E.g. ensure the child has and knows the  specified place  to keep his shoes, bags, personal stuff, etc. the designated spaces should be marked out,

7.       Lay emphasis on the child putting back toys and other items after use.

8.       Break down big tasks into smaller chunks.

9.       Encourage and guide them through regular organizing and arrangement of their stuff and workspace. It could be their bookshelf, their wardrobe, their shoe rack, or even their rooms generally.

10.   For their studies you can get them colour-coded notebooks so that different ideas and thoughts are jotted down in compartments and not mixed up.

Summarily, it doesn’t matter if your kids have executive functional skills or not, what is important is that it is a skill that can be learned, and as long as you are consistent in helping your kids learn it, trust me they will.

Did you get value, if you did please drop a comment, suggestion, or question, I would love to hear from you.