How do you feel when you walk into your child’s room?
Are there clothes thrown anywhere, toys scattered everywhere, and books piled haphazardly on shelves?
It may seem like your child doesn’t care about being organized, but the truth is, they may be trying their best to organize their room but are struggling to get it done. The planning, organizing, and executing needed to organize their room? Those are executive functioning skills.
Executive functioning skills are not completely developed until our 20s. So, while our children are growing up, we as parents and guardians must be the EF brain for them. And when we begin teaching these skills (including organization, planning, creating a process, reflection, etc.) at a young age, it will help them to carry over and be built upon as our children grow and learn. And who doesn’t want a husband or wife that puts things back after they use them?
Your child’s bedroom is a great starting place for helping to build executive functioning skills. It may have many different moving parts—a play area, a desk area, a sleeping area, a getting ready area—which you can use for helping them build a plan for organization.
Start by creating a “home” for items. Get your child’s guidance—you want them to be in charge (this is how you get them to own the room and take responsibility for it + brainstorm ideas!). You are there to “manage their mind” and help show them how to execute their plan.
As you begin, you can share that there is a difference between being organized and being neat. Sure, you can always stash things under the bed, shove papers in a desk, and throw dirty clothes in the closet and things will look “neat”—but nothing is actually organized. Help point out the difference and support your child in choosing ‘“organized” over “neat.”
Here are some more ideas for helping your child with room organization:
- Bin boxes for waste papers: You can label these yourself or let your child decorate them however they want. This will help your little one know where to put their papers when finished with them and give them a sense of order over their room. Then, you can help your child sort through the papers every Saturday or so and help them get rid of any that they don’t need anymore.
- Hooks on the wall: To help them hang things up, such as coats, bags, bows, or hats, consider putting some hooks on the wall.
- Store stationery, art, and play supplies in see-through containers: Transparent containers are great for storing pens, pencils, crayons, rubber bands, hair clips, Pokémon cards, jewels or rocks, and squishies — those things have a home and your child can easily see what is where. Tip: Screwing the lid to the bottom of a shelf also gives the mason jar a home. When finished, your kiddo just screws it right back into place!
- Use a shoe rack: Hanging shoe racks on the back of doors are for way more than shoes. Do a quick internet search to get some ideas!
If you find your child begins to fall back into old habits, that’s okay. Because now you have the opportunity to practice reflecting and recognizing what we can change with them. You can help practice recommitting to their goal (an organized room) and trying again. Yes—it’s a chance for another learning experience to help them build their executive functioning skills!
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Photo by Robin Battison on Unsplash