TEACHING ORGANIZATION SKILLS

Hello, it’s indeed pleasure for me to share with youJJJ

“I don’t want to sit around and hope good things will happen. I want to make them happen.”

thanx to  www.agefotostock.com for the above picture

What is organization mean to you?  For me it’s refers to “assigning things in order and in a designated place”.  Yes it makes completely sense to me; organizing stuff always makes our life easy and saves hell lot of time. Some people have great organizing skills and some don’t have, but it’s essential to incorporate these skills in our routine. Most of our children with autism good in stacking or arranging stuff (beakers, plastic cups) according to color and size and they insist things to be in same order or go crazy when things are not same place they usually be. This is a good sign, and teaching organization skills works best with our children. Some of children are naturally organized while others struggle with basic organizational skills. Teaching organizational skills is an important task every parent needs to focus. Autistic children have difficulty packing their school bag most of the time they does not carry necessary supplies, difficulty completing home work and difficulty to organize them for art and craft activities. There are ways to help an unorganized child become more organized? Yes very much, let’s look in to couple of strategies to make this idea works  

Strategies:

ü  As a parent you need be more organized, and set an example for your kid. Most of our kids needs model and learn effectively by seeing you doing things. Demonstrate clear steps before he masters and do it all by himself.

ü  Having/find place for everything is important; arrange things in storage containers, shelves and big trays. Kids are visually trained to sense organization because they can see where things are placed.

ü  Arrange (assign place) similar things together like puzzles in one place or in one container, flash cards in another place and same as for books/toys.

ü  Make things accessible to the child, where in the child independently reach for things and puts them back after it’s done.

ü  Help the child to become organized by assigning place for ADL stuff. Ex; his clothes can be sorted out like pants together shirts together and underwear’s together, and finding place for his brush soap and shoes. Give opportunity for the child to do it by himself

ü  Labeling is extremely important as most of our children process better when there is written instructions.

ü  In the classroom help the child to create/maintain folder for each subject to carry the paper work and assignments.

ü  Most importantly helping the child to follow routine will ultimately helps in effectively working on organization skills. A daily time table/ schedule help the child in organizing things or himself for the activities.

ü  Checklists /task analysis (some of our children do best when step by step instruction is given) are of a great help to ensure that all the steps are done in order and helps in avoiding clutter.

ü  Initially prompt your child to successfully learn organizing skills.

ü  Make use of organizers:- calendars, folders and graphic organizers(floral diagram, flow chart etc)

ü  Sticking index (list of items) to the school bag and it provides him as a remainder to carry things in the bag.

ü  Using color coding and highlighters for increasing organization

ü  Look for a peer who will help him with organization and provide non judgmental remainders.

ü  Provide clear directions; where things go, how to do.

ü  Some children are best with picture charts and word cues for understanding organization, follow whatever best for your child.

ü  Label the whole environment( in the house label the kitchen cabins, storage bins, closets, medicine racks etc. in the class room label the areas of lunch, circle time activity, place for the bags etc.)

ü   Cleaning up after playing/using is very important. Whatever the mess the child does, he is in charge of arranging back the things. Make sure before he goes to bed he maintained to follow the routine.

Organizing skills becomes increasingly important as child grows, and every child learns in their own pace. Give time; stay patient and consistent with the learning process. I am sure in the end the results are worth to celebrate. A best child is a product of organized environment. Your children are able!!!!!

Take care