I am a special education teacher working with 1st and 3rd grade students at Ryerson School. I work in collaboration with classroom teachers to support the unique needs of students. You may find me working with small groups, with individual students or co-teaching with the classroom teacher. One of my roles is to provide students with strategies for organization and work completion. You may find these strategies to be helpful at home.

Nancy Finch M.S. Learning Disabilities
finchn@madison.k12.ct.us

ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS

Children with attention difficulties often have tough time organizing themselves to accomplish specific tasks, and often need direct instruction in these skills to complete homework assignments. Children will at first need a good bit of assistance and supervision in accomplishing the following activities; the goal should be to teach the child gradually to be able to accomplish these things on his or her own. For example:

• Help your child develop a daily schedule. Discuss each day’s activities. Long term scheduling for assignments is appropriate to help with planning projects. Check your child’s assignment pad and make sure that he / she using it.

• Have your child prioritize his / her assignments.

• Help your child make a list of the steps or activities involved for a lesson, and check off each as it is completed.

• Be specific when redirecting a child’s attention. Instead of “get back to work”, try “you should be filling in the answers at the bottom of page 2.”

• Have your child outline and assemble the necessary materials for a task.

• Teach your child to gauge the amount of time he has for a given task and to pace himself accordingly. At first he may need frequent reminders: “you have 10 minutes left to complete ---.” Timers can also be used.

• Each day review what the child has accomplished and gently review what areas you think might need to be improved.

•  Teach your child ways of modifying her own environment; for example, clearing one’s desk of all but the necessary materials, or organizing materials by subject matter into different notebooks or working in a quiet area.

• Remember that you are initially providing the structure for your child, but your goal is to teach him to provide his own structure. The child should be as actively involved as possible in creating his own schedule, outline, or goals.