When Organisation Struggles Are Met With Punishment in school

 

A student shows up to class without their books. 

Another forgets their homework on the kitchen table. 

Someone else leaves their reading book at home, for the third time this week. 

 

 

These are common reactions in many schools. But we need to ask: what is the purpose of these consequences? Do they really teach organisation? Or are they punishing something the child doesn’t yet have the tools to manage? 

 

For many students, especially those with executive functioning difficulties, forgetfulness isn’t about being careless or disrespectful. It’s about a brain that struggles to hold onto the dozens of small tasks the school day demands. 

 

What Are Executive Functioning Skills? 

Executive functioning refers to the brain’s ability to plan, prioritise, start tasks, switch focus, remember instructions, and manage time. It’s the internal “manager” that helps us stay on track. 

 

When these skills are underdeveloped or impaired, as is often the case in ADHD, & autism, something as “simple” as remembering to bring a pencil case becomes a daily hurdle. 

 

When a student with weak executive functioning is repeatedly penalised for things they genuinely struggle with, the lesson they internalise isn’t “I need to try harder.” 

It’s “I’m not good enough.” 

Or worse, “I’ll never get it right.” 

 

They don’t learn organisation, they learn anxiety. They learn to dread the classroom. They may even begin to disengage altogether. 

 

These kinds of rules may make a classroom look orderly on the surface, but underneath, they often fail the very students who need the most support. 

 

So instead of asking “How do we discipline this behaviour?”, we should be asking: 

“What’s making it hard for this student to remember, and how can we help?” 

 

Let’s focus on building skills, not delivering consequences.  

 

Here are strategies that work: 

 

 

These aren’t about making things “easier”, they’re about making success possible. 

 

Forgetting something doesn’t mean a child is irresponsible. It often means their brain is still learning how to juggle competing demands. Just like we wouldn’t punish a student for struggling with spelling, we shouldn’t punish them for executive functioning difficulties. 

 

Let’s stop equating forgetfulness with failure. 

Let’s stop calling executive skill struggles “behaviour problems.” 

And most importantly, let’s stop making children feel like they’re broken for struggling with something they were never taught to manage in the first place.