Disorganized
People who are
Disorganized, who do
Not Complete Assignments at School, and who do
Not Complete Assignments at Home.
These people experience difficulty with
Visual Reception and Sequential Order Difficulty.
People who have difficulty with visual receptive function and ordering seem to be disorganized; one of these problems alone does not seem to create disorganization.
What is Disorganized?
The disorganization so often a part of the Learning Disability pattern may not become obvious in the primary grades, but the beginnings of the difficulty are there. By fourth or fifth grade the signs are unmistakable. Students with organizational problems can produce assignments that are to be done now, with ample time and all the materials at hand. They have far more trouble with projects to be done a little now and some at a later time (or to be done completely at some future time of their own choosing). Since this kind of assignment is more and more frequently found in the primary grades (especially in those schools where "contracts" are prevalent), by third grade most teachers are beginning to provide assignments that require one to select some discretionary time in the future. Students that are disorganized do better with tasks that are well structured. They do better in environments with clear structure. They have trouble when the structure is loose, or when they are expected to provide it themselves. Disorganized people do well with teachers who are highly structured and personally well organized in their teaching style. Structured teachers are often firm disciplinarians. Parents sometimes feel the student did well during a particular school year with the teacher who was a strict disciplinarian, when, in truth, it was the teacher's structure and organization that made the year so successful for the student, not the discipline.
This problem follows the individual into adulthood. The contribution of visual receptive difficulty (the disorganized person seems to miss relevant data, especially in a visually cluttered environment) and ordering difficulty (the arranging of events and abstract concepts in proper order) to this pattern of disorganization is major. Disorganized persons have difficulty with ordering in time space and physical space. This means they are often late. They have trouble with auditory and visual ordering tasks, though visual sequencing may seem easier because the components can be re-evaluated easily. Auditory sequence may even take on an abstract quality. Visual sequencing tasks seem to remain concrete.
A two year delay in these abilities is not unusual. That is, the Learning Disabled, bright, eleven year old student might be as organized as a nine year old. The fifth grader with organizational problems might seem as responsible as the average third grader seems when putting forth maximum effort.
We find students in fourth through eighth grade who have this problem need a great deal of help from their parents to "get their act together." Parents and teachers worry their help will create an emotional cripple who will not be able to cope with life. Mothers worry they will need to go off to college with the Learning Disabled student if they help too much in the grades. It is our experience that without help from the parent, friend, teacher or tutor, the disorganized student's academic and cognitive development will be held back to the level of their organizational ability. What a shame that would be! The student who is helped with organizational challenges (getting the report done, getting the homework to school, etc.) can master concepts that he/she is intellectually capable of, and when maturity develops in the requisite areas, they can fulfill school demands more independently. It is our experience they will stay emotionally healthy while they fulfill their school responsibilities; they will gradually become more responsible as they mature cognitively and learn to be independent. If their learnings are held back to their organizational level, they become depressed, frustrated, angry and upset; this is a very unhealthy pattern.
It is our experience that adults who were disorganized as children mature to a degree that allows them to cope, but they are probably less organized as adults than they would like to be unless they put an enormous amount of effort into the organizational tasks. Helping them know about their organizational problems as children and teaching them ways to offset the pattern is very important.
A favorite client is a young adult who often does yard work. He is devoted, hard working and caring. We know we need to check the premises when he's done. The well raked yard might have the bag of leaves left in the middle of it and the rake somewhere dropped in the yard. We have an extra step in the tasks he must do, a step to "proof" the job (the yard) before he departs. This saves on disappointment, frustration and the possibility the job well done might be ignored. He knows he is disorganized and we know he is disorganized. We accept that fact and have found ways to work around it.
This is an integrative disorder
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