The advice sounds smart. Train executive function like a muscle, and the backpack will follow. You tried the app and the brain games, and the games got easier. The backpack still came home with the permission slip crushed at the bottom. To us, that gap is no failure of yours, and it has a reason.
Common questions from parents
Do executive function apps help my child get organized?
What is near practice?
How do I teach my child to organize their backpack?
Is my child messy because they don’t care?
The executive function games got easier. The backpack didn't. An idea from 1901 explains why, and what to practice instead.
Why did the games get easier when the backpack didn’t?
You did the work. You found the app and kept the streak going. The games got easier for a real reason. Your child got better at the games because the games were what they practiced. That part worked. It stayed where it was learned.
In 1901, two psychologists named Thorndike and Woodworth studied how practice spreads. Their idea was simple. Practice at one task helps another only as far as the two share parts. They called those shared parts “identical elements.” The idea is more than a century old.
Now set a memory game beside a backpack. The game has cards on a screen. The backpack has a math sheet, a teacher’s note, and a lunch bag. The two share almost nothing, so the skill has little to cross over on. We made the same point about focus and brain-training games. Organizing follows the same rule.
Your child got better at the games because the games were what they practiced.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
What does practice close to the backpack look like?
Barnett and Ceci (2002) offer a way to measure the gap. Near and far is not one switch. They look at things like the subject, the place, the time, and the purpose. Check the app against the backpack on each one. The stuff is different. The place is different. The time of day is different too. And the goal is different. A game aims at a high score. A backpack aims at getting the right paper home and back. Now take sorting the real bag after school, to find the slip due tomorrow. That is near on every count.
The evidence for near practice comes from reading, not backpacks. Practice with sounds and letters tends to reach word reading (Hulme et al., 2012). It is built from the same parts. So we are borrowing a principle for the backpack. We are not quoting a backpack study.
So what does it look like tonight? Sit with your child and empty the backpack together. Go one paper at a time. Ask, “Do you need this?” Then ask, “Why?” If the answer is thin, say, “Tell me more.” Your child makes each call, and you ask. Our guide to taming the paper pile walks through it step by step. Over time, you ask less and your child sorts more.
Key takeaways
- Skill stays near its practice: Practice helps another task only as far as the two share parts.
- The app sits far away: Its stuff, place, time and purpose differ from your child's real backpack.
- Teach it in the real bag: Sort tonight's papers together, one at a time, while your child decides.
Why does a messy backpack get treated like a flaw?
Some children pick up organizing by watching the adults around them. Others are never shown how. Then adults start calling the mess careless, or not trying. To us, a crumpled backpack does not look like a child who doesn’t care. It looks like a skill nobody has taught yet. Our infographic on teaching organization lays out that skill in small steps.
That old story points straight at a tool. If organizing is a trait your child lacks, you buy something to supply it. So an app or a drill gets handed over, and the teaching never happens. We see it the other way. Your child isn’t broken. Their brain is learning differently. And this skill needs teaching, like any other.
We have nothing against the planner. A planner filled in with tonight’s real homework is near practice. The gap is the distance, not the tool. So bring the planner close. Fill it in with the real assignments, when they are given. Then check it against the real bag that night.
A planner filled in with tonight’s real homework is near practice.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want your child to leave for school with the right papers. You want them to know they did it themselves. The old story calls the mess a trait and skips the teaching. You need no credential to teach this; you already teach your child every day. For the nightly homework fight, start with Focus Foundations, our free PDF guide.
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