Executive Skills + Organizing

In this week’s episode, we are covering a topic related to kids and adults alike – executive skills.

Show Notes

Before The Organized Mama came to be and I was still in the classroom, we would have to work on “life skills.” The skills covered various tasks, including organizing your binder, writing in a notebook, making sure you showered, etc. Over the years, these skills started being referred to as executive skills. There are seven executive skills that we focus on for everyone!

The seven executive skills are planning, organizing, cognitive flexibility, working memory, impulse control, social understanding, and time management. Some others may group the skills slightly differently, but this is based on what I have learned in my continuing education programs.

Research shows a link between these skills and kids’ success in school. Kids who display these skills will have stronger reading comprehension, make more cohesive essays, and make more logical connections.

What I’ve found over the years is that adults realize they never learned how actually to perform some of these skills. This is why I believe in teaching, learning, and growing your executive skills.

How does this fit in with organizing?

All of these skills play a role in organizing!

Skills either build on each other or go hand-in-hand with each other. For example, time management and planning go hand-in-hand. You can plan your day perfectly, but your planning will go nowhere if you aren’t managing your time.

Today, we will focus on three big topics: planning, organizing, and time management. Let’s work together with our kids to grow our executive skills!

Organizing: The basis of organizing is grouping and sequencing. You group like items together and sequence them. Start with an easy area. I like to start with clothes! Have your kid group their clothes together and store them in either a drawer or closet.

Planning: Everyone can benefit from better planning! With kids, it is great to list what is being planned. This especially helps those who are neurodivergent.

Time Management: We really want to focus on using the time you set for yourself. Time blocking is a wonderful strategy that I use! The timers are also great. Visual timers are great to use for kids. We have so much technology to help manage our time. Let’s start working smarter to help keep us organized and on time.

I strongly encourage you to try out one of these skills, and let me know how it helps you!

Executive Skills For Kids Workbook

This episode is sponsored by the Executive Skills For Kids Workbook. This workbook walks you through setting up each skill in your home based on how your child could benefit from building on previous skills.

The Executive Skills For Kids Workbook includes everything you need to start the journey to developing the skills your kids need.

Use the strategies to build skills like organization, planning, and time management. Access tools to support impulse control and working memory. Gain insight into supporting social understanding and cognitive flexibility.

Included in the Workbook:

Basic assessment for what executive skills your child already has and where you can support
Strategies for each of the 7 executive skills you can do in your home, right now
Checklists and guides to support you and your child as you build executive skills.