I get calls from frustrated parents almost every day, who are at their wits end because their kids are doing poorly in classes because they are “throwing away free points” they could be earning for doing nothing more than homework assignments. Is the student being willful, simply refusing? Do they not understand the material? Did they forget about it? All of those might be the correct answer (and there could be more reasons). To begin to solve the problem, help your child break the process of getting a homework assignment done into the smallest possible steps. It might look something like this:

 

• Be in class
• Hear the teacher give the homework assignment
• Make sure you understand the assignment clearly, and if you have questions, ask them
• Write the homework assignment in your planner
• Put the planner back in backpack
• Identify any needed materials or information to successfully complete the homework assignment
• Attain those materials and information
• Bring backpack, with planner, and needed materials, home
• Once home, take out planner, and plan when the assignment will be done
• Decide to start homework assignment at appointed time
• Sit at desk, take out materials
• Work through assignment to best of your ability
• Deal with difficulties that come up while working on the assignment (distractions, confusion, etc)
• Put homework assignment back in its place (binder/notebook)
• Gather up school materials, put them back in backpack (including homework assignment)
• In the morning, pick up backpack and bring it to school
• Make sure you have needed materials in backpack when you go to class
• Hand the assignment in when the teacher asks for it.

Now, you might look at this list of steps and think that most of them are trivial. They are only trivial for people who have mastered the skill of accomplishing multi-step tasks. For someone who is learning the skill of executive function, this list can seem overwhelming! A student who is having trouble getting homework turned in may be tripping up on any one of these (or some other!) step in this process.Once you’ve identified where the student mis-fired, it’s time to go through a problem solving process to figure out:

1. Why the mistake happened and
2. What behavior needs to change so that the mistake doesn’t happen next time.