Focus, Organization, Initiation issues

Does your child have:

Trouble organizing themselves?
Trouble prioritizing tasks or even starting them?
A hard time regulating their alertness, and staying focused?
Trouble with frustration and keeping emotions in check?
Trouble recalling information even though it was just given to them?
A hard time controlling his or her impulses?

If you answered yes to several of the questions above your son or daughter may have an Executive Functioning disorder. According to Understood.org Executive Functioning is a set of mental skills that help you get things done. The ability to recall the steps needed and in what order, to get the job done. These skills are controlled by the frontal lobe of your brain. Executive function helps you manage time, pay attention, get things started, switch focus, plan, organize, remember details, avoid doing or saying the wrong things, do things based on your experience and multi task. Now that we know what it is, let’s look at some ways to help your child recall and organize the information correctly.

Chore chart

Make sure you put the chores in order that the child will do them each morning to get ready for school, after school, and before bed. You can make your own or buy them at the dollar store, or go all out and buy a Melissa and Doug chore chart.

Before School	After school	Before Bed
Go to the bathroom Make and eat breakfast Brush teeth Comb hair Get dressed Make bed Pack lunch Pack books and items for school in bag Screen time until time to go	Unload back pack Snack 15 free time Home work Any chores they might have free time until dinner	Pajama’s Snack Read for 20 minutes Guided meditation app 10 minutes Go to bed

Color Code Everything

I mean everything from their tooth brush, electrical cords and water bottles to their underwear. The most important thing about color coding is it has to stay consistent to help.

At Home

Having a color coded calendar will help your child be prepared for the week, day, and month. Each person has a different color for their activities, and has a separate color for things the whole family does together
Different colored boxes or bags for seasonal stuff like flip flops, winter gloves, snow suites, sunglasses helps everyone find and put away things easily.
Tooth brush, and holder spot, tooth paste, shampoo if it is different than yours.
Underwear, socks for example growing up I had solid colors and my sister had prints.
Put fancy tape or electrical tape on electronic charges so there is no mistaking whom it belongs to. I have even gone as far as putting matching tape on the electronic that goes with the cord in my own collection.

At School

School subjects should be different colors and the color code the stuff that goes with the subject ie, math – calculator, eraser, pencil, geometry set. You could go even as far as getting matching colored bracelets to the subjects and when homework is assigned put that bracelet on and then have them write the homework in his or her agenda.
Another good idea is to have what the teacher said in the agenda in one color and what parents said in another.
Using color coding system for notes can be very helpful also for all children. Having the main topic highlighted one color, sub topics another, terms and vocabulary each different colors from the rest.
Having a color coded to do list for your child and separate them into to do today, this week, this month or do first, second, third.
If there is more than one thing on your child’s to do list let them take it with them to help them remember what they were to do next.
Having a two sided luggage tag on the zipper of their back pack with one side with the stuff that goes in the bag written on it and the stuff that comes home on the other, each written in different colors.
The “to home and to school” folders for all their work, newsletters, permission forms, and lunch order forms, which many elementary schools are already using.
Having two sets of text books one for home and one for school because your child most likely will forget to bring the text book or bring the wrong one home.

Check out my post where I look at some tips to help build executive functioning skills by working on short term memory boosters.