Identification – what you may see in the child or young person
- Has difficulties with starting and completing tasks.
- Has difficulties with time management (they may rush through tasks or take so long over one step that they don’t finish).
- Has difficulties organising themselves and their belongings and often loses things.
- Makes ‘silly mistakes.’
- Older children and young people:
- under performs in tests and exams, due to a lack of preparation
- is late for lessons
- often hands in homework late, or not at all
Planned provision in school
Based on need, some of this provision will be effective.
- Teach and practise using scaffolds (such as task planners, equipment lists and checklists), initially in the context of a familiar task. Provide support to generalise this to the classroom. For some children and young people scaffolds may need to be personalised to provide additional support: for example, by breaking a task down into smaller steps.
- Check in with the child or young person when they move to independent work, and ask ‘What do you need?’ What are the steps? How will you know when you’ve finished?’
- Encourage self-monitoring and celebrate progress, for example, ‘You rated yourself at a 6/10 on this task – that’s great! What’s keeping you above a 5? What would you have to do to get to 7?’
- Provide support for time management (for example sand timers or count-down strips for younger pupils; digital clocks and timer apps for older pupils).
- Provide a clear pencil case to make it easier for the child or young person to find and organise their equipment.
- Provide equipment lists or visuals that show what equipment the child or young person needs each day.
- Use electronic devices, apps and alarms to support organisation (older pupils). For example, Evernote can be used for notetaking and organisation.
- Provide individual mentoring to support with organisation (including for homework and revision planning).