But I don’t know where it is!

I often get referrals regarding children and young people who are described as ‘disorganised’, who constantly lose things, misplace clothes and equipment and have ‘messy’ books. Managing disorganisation can be a real frustration for adults in the classroom and at home. Children and young people I meet can be constantly flustered about where things are, or they may appear not bothered or can present as unaware that they have any difficulties.

Organisation is the ability to sort and systematize information, it is a really important skill as it underpins many academic tasks and daily living activities.

Children with difficulties with organisation can often find themselves overwhelmed by daily living tasks such as getting dressed and collecting equipment needed for school which can then lead to frustration and/or upset and adults doing things for them.

In school, pupils with difficulties with organisation can struggle to manage the equipment of learning before they can even start a task. They can also find themselves having difficulties knowing where to start with learning activities, confused by how to tackle tasks and they can be disorganised in their presentation of tasks; disorganised Maths calculations can lead to errors and disorganised written text can lose coherence and clarity.

An example:

Charlie was referred in part due to concerns about his upcoming Year 6 residential trip and his subsequent transition to secondary school. It was felt his disorganisation was becoming a barrier to him developing his independence and making the progress all adults felt he was capable of. They were concerned he would get lost at secondary school and struggle to manage his timetable, equipment and clothing and get in trouble.

When I met with Charlie’s Gran she described that she puts out his clothes every morning, reminds him about self-care routines everyday and never gets letters that had been sent home from school. His class teacher described that although verbally he can express himself clearly and confidently his books are a ‘mess’ and he is constantly losing them, he makes ‘sloppy’ mistakes in his Maths and is not making much progress in his writing. His desk was described as “always in chaos”.

When I met Charlie he presented as very chatty and described that he enjoyed school but often got in trouble for forgetting or losing things at school and at home. We looked at his books together and Charlie told me he finds writing hard as he often doesn’t know where to start and can get upset in Maths when he makes mistakes. He told me he prefers having the calculations written out for him and he likes it when the class plan stories together and he has a set structure for his writing. Review of his books reflected both Charlie and his Class Teacher’s concerns, his handwriting was legible but messy, the content of his work showed understanding, however, his work lacked structure including lacking punctuation and capitalisation. There were errors in Maths work where he had struggled to lay out the calculations effectively.

Charlie told me he was keen to develop his independence at Secondary School.

Together we developed checklists for both his equipment and his work, we practiced using technology to help him remind himself of tasks and identified examples of Maths work he had done well that he could refer back to. Charlie then developed a ‘My Marvellous Maths Book’ with examples of different approaches that he could refer back to.

Top tips to support the development of organisational skills

Most of the tips described below are generalizable at school and at home - once practiced and embedded the strategies can then become part of daily routines.

Planning and planners

Family plans/calendars can be a helpful start to give an overview of what is happening and going to happen and what we need to be organised and ready for. Alongside family planners children can then have their own individual calendars and planners to support their personal organization.

Within planners/calendars we can then organise, meaning we can plan, sort and prioritise using visual methods such as the use of colour coding, post it notes and highlighters. For example, colour coding different activities, such as green for sports, blue for visits etc. using highlighters for highlighting important tasks such as appointments and post it notes that can list what’s needed for an appointment for example.  

Alongside a planner, organisation boxes can be helpful, which can also be colour coded, for example a schoolbooks box with colour coded dividers/folders for different subjects.

‘To do’ lists and checklists:

To support organisation it can be helpful to break down tasks such as daily routines into sequential steps. Once you have the steps, they can be developed into a checklist that can then be ticked off as completed. As an example, morning routine checklist:

Morning Task	Done	Reminders needed?
Get up
Have a shower
Brush teeth
Get dressed
Brush hair
Eat breakfast
Get school bag
Coat on
Shoes on
Bag on back

Adapted from ‘Smart but Scattered’ by Dawson and Guare, 2009

Some children, find it helpful to have ‘flip over’ tasks, meaning a visual strip of pictures that can be flipped over as completed. As an example a three step ‘tasks before leaving for school’ strip that has pictures, for example of coat, shoes, bag that can be flipped over as completed/done. 

For some routines it can be helpful to have reminders that aren’t just adults! Teach the use of technology to set reminders.

In the same way that colour coding, post it notes and highlighters can be used to organise time and events they can be used in school work. For example highlighting/post it notes to support in finding key learning points/ examples in work, tabbing books so that pages are easy to find and using checklists for work, for example, when proof reading work COPS – Capitalisation, Organisation, Punctuation, Spelling.  Checklists can be developed together, for example an organising myself for learning checklist:

Today	Most of the day	Some of the day	Not at all
I listened to the teacher
I asked myself “what do I need to do?”
I got started straight away
I ticked off each task
I checked over my finished work
I told myself “well done!”

Adapted from Alberta Learning (2006) Focusing on success

It can be helpful to develop strategy cards or social stories about particular areas of difficulty. The strategy cards include strategies that can help and that can be referred to regularly as needed. As an example ‘when I have lost something, I will try to retrace my steps, I will ask adults and friends, I will check the lost property box…’. For further detail regarding social stories refer to: https://carolgraysocialstories.com/.

Plan time to organise and check that routines are working, change the checklists as needed and develop strategy cards.

Adults may find the following books helpful resources:

‘Smart but Scattered’ by Dawson and Guare, 2009 provides example checklists across a range of areas.

Executive Functioning in Education by Metzler, 2007 also provides helpful resources especially for use in school and organising school work

Thank you for reading – I hope the tips are helpful.

If you have concerns about a child/young person struggling with disorganisation it may be helpful to involve an Educational Psychologist.

Do look through the list of services available and contact us for further information.

If you or someone close to you needs urgent help you must contact local services.