I gave a lecture last night to parents of school age children in Westchester, NY. Fter I gave a brief description of the disorganized child and the three organizing styles, the audience broke out into groups according to the grade level of their children. They were instructed to write pertinent questions they may have regarding organizing their child to discuss in the groups.
As I walked around to observe the groups, I was fascinated yet not completely surprised that the underlying theme among all grade levels was motivation. Parents were struggling on how to get their children motivated to complete homework, projects, or any task at hand. Some parents needed help on how to get their child to just start the task.
I take the stance that children who appear unmotivated usually are feeling overwhelmed. In the situations discussed last night, it appeared that the children may be overwhelmed by the amount of homework they have.
Parents need to help their children chunk the homework or projects. For some children, parents may need to chunk the assignments into smaller tasks if their child is very overwhelmed. Keep in mind that the goal is to complete the assignment. Some parents raised the issue of smaller chunks creating more of a visual overload for the child. In these cases, some parents may have to only give the child a only few tasks at a time.
The motivation factor is the feeling of success the child will gain when the task is completed. Sometimes it’s that simple. Test it out. Give a child small chunks of a difficult task and watch the confidence build and a smile appear! Nothing like to feeling of accomplishment.