Learning Abled Kids - Helping Organize Homework for your child with Learning Disabilities

Many children with ADHD, ADD, or Executive functioning difficulties have a horrible time keeping track of their homework. Assignments get completed, but lost. Parents are dismayed about how to help their child become organized.

In order to become organized, your child must have the tools.. A "Trapper Keeper" type of notebook for homework assignments and a checklist listing all subjects with a "completed" and "turned in" check off for each school day. These lists can be made and printed monthly. We have a free, downloadable weekly form at: http://www.learningabledkids.com/DownloadablePDFs/HomeworkOrganizer.pdf

The most helpful way to develop organizational skills is to establish a repeatable routine that is 'enforced' initially, and then applied naturally as your child becomes accustomed to the routine. For example, every day at the conclusion of homework.. The child physically checks off a list of subjects, physically looking to see if he had an assignment, then physically putting the assignment in his Trapper Keeper if he had one. -- Nothing gets checked off until physically verified AND placed into the Trapper Keeper. He canNOT check off something because he "thinks" he didn't have homework or thinks the assignment is in there. He must physically lay eyes on his assignment and it must be in his Trapper Keeper before he makes the check-off. You will have to do this side-by-side with your child for several weeks before he has the process memorized and can handle it independently, and most importantly understand the necessity of physical verification.
(Continued below)..

On the school end is often where you run into the most difficulty. Teachers are sometimes not willing to provide oversight, thinking the child "needs to learn", except the child can't learn without direct instruction and oversight until the routine becomes firmly established. If you can, get the teacher(s) to agree to a daily prompting routine.. (Preferrably they will do it with the WHOLE class to establish good habits).

You can have the teachers ask .. "Check your homework list.. Did you have homework in this class?".. "If you did, it should be in your notebook (Trapper Keeper). You can turn it in now and check it off when you hand it to me". The teacher would have to be willing to take on TEACHING responsibility to prompt your child directly, if needed, until the routine is established. This needs to be done in every subject, EVERY day, whether there is homework or not--to establish a routine of looking for and turning in homework, which is a critical routine to establish in order for the disorganized child to become organized.

The child has to be taught to do the routine everyday in every class in order to be able to do it independently as he grows older. Unfortunately, getting ALL teachers to cooperate in this matter is often more difficult than moving mountains!! There is usually at least one who thinks they shouldn't have to do this, and will outright refuse this area of teaching. (Somehow they expect the child to learn this without teaching!) :-/ If this routine can be started in elementary school when the child generally only has one teacher, it may be possible to establish the routine earlier on. Unfortunately, it doesn't generally become a significant issue until the child starts changing classes & teachers, which leads to the one or two teachers refusing to help teach the child. :-( But, if you can get most of your child's teachers to cooperate, you should be well on the way to helping your child establish good organizational skills in regard to homework.

Homework Management