What strategies can teachers use to support children with organisational and executive functioning difficulties?

Children and young people (CYP) with executive function difficulties typically experience challenges with organisation and planning; skills that are needed for organising themselves for learning, prioritising academic demands, pacing themselves, and predicting how long tasks will take. Difficulties with executive function can lead to frustration and anxiety, which can further impact a child/young person’s ability to manage organisational demands, particularly within time constraints.

General considerations:

• When supporting children who struggle with executive function, teaching staff should be aware that children with genuine organisational difficulties are likely to struggle to maintain routine, and therefore that strategies learnt may not be implemented consistently, especially if the child or young person is tired or under pressure.

• Acknowledge that their performance may vary from day to day.

• Aim to engage CYP in meaningful explorative conversation about what strategies they use at present and to be aware of what does and doesn't work.

What are some helpful strategies?

• Provide CYP with regular prompts to check their work and ensure that they are on track and keeping appropriate pace during timed tasks.

• Break down complex information and activities into specific steps, using visual schedules and clear start/finish.

• Provide visual reinforcement of learning routines, for example a task board to support CYP to get started and work sequentially through multi-step activities.

• Using scaffolding for longer tasks.

•  Give examples of completed work where possible so that the outcome is made transparent.

•  Coach CYP to develop effective ‘meta-cognitive’ strategies to become aware of how they learn, works things out, and remember information. Encourage CYP to talk through how they do a task, stage by stage. Begin with tasks in which they feel successful.

• Model adult thinking by explicitly verbalising strategies, i.e. ‘When I do this part of the task, I think XYZ’.

• Support CYP to think through the task – i.e. What is this task asking me to do?, What parts can I do by myself and where might I need help? If I need help, where might I get help from, e.g. a Key Adult, book, classroom resource, asking a peer.

• Support CYP to understand the steps that they will need to do, how many steps there are, how to know that they are finished. Use physical visual cues such as sand timers, a box/out-tray for finished work.  

• Support CYP to set their own targets – i.e. How long will I need to complete this task? Where would I like to be after 30 minutes?

• Provide visual supports, such as an analogue clock on CYP’s desk, to encourage self-monitoring and time management.

• Provide explicit positive feedback when CYP applies strategies that lead to success, e.g. “I see that you thought carefully about putting finger spaces in”. 

• Work with CYP to evaluate past pieces of work, i.e. How well did I understand the instructions, plan my work before starting, check and proof-read, consider the layout, ensure legibility.

• Support CYP through mediated approaches, i.e. I do it, we do it, you do it, so that they feel supported and successful in their learning.

• Teachers and parents can debrief a task with CYP after they have finished, by talking about what worked and what didn’t and how it could be done differently next time.

What about more structured/targeted intervention?

Young people in Key Stage 3 and upwards may benefit from a defined/time-bound block of more structured support to develop their studying, revision and test taking skills. Learning and implementing these skills can be helpful in reducing anxiety when under time pressure.

 Structured support may include the following:

• Teaching CYP how to represent information in different ways such as charts, spider diagrams, charts, graphs, and colour.

• Providing explicit assistance with time management and forward planning for larger projects and examinations, i.e. developing a study timetable.

• Working with CYP to evaluate past pieces of work, i.e. to ask “How well did I understand the instructions, plan my work before starting, check and proof-read, consider the layout, ensure legibility?”.

• Use a resource such as Think it – Say it: Improving Reasoning and Organization Skills” by Luanne Martin (The Psychological Corporation) to develop verbal reasoning and organisational skills. Focus areas might include inferential reasoning, problem solving and generalising.

• Model and practice specific test-taking skills. This would include learning how to:

• Pre-read questions and tasks.

• Skim the questions and decide how long to spend on each one. Work on each section for a time comparable to the mark value.

• Self-monitor and pace oneself.