Susan in TN Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Just wondering what kind of planners or organizational tools your teens with aspergers have had success with. We are hoping to try as many suggestions as possible until we find the one that works for ds! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 A few random thoughts and ideas for you. First the caveats. There is no such thing as the perfect organizing tool, and it is unlikely that anything suggested by mom will be readily adopted and used successfully by her teen. Part of it is just typical teen attitude. Part of it the difficulty an Aspie has in grasping how to best use an organizer in all sorts of circumstances or in adopting the use of an organizer to keep track of mundane stuff (school assignments) that they just don't really care about. It can come across as just another tedious (boring, stupid, and pointless was the mantra I always heard) thing to have to learn how to do. I'm writing this as I think about my own adult Aspie son who is remarkably organized amidst his scatterbrained approach to life. He got through college and is successfully employed and even pays his rent on time. The tricks and tools he uses now were the things he got in the habit of doing when he was young and there was something fun or something important to HIM on the line, such as Christmas, packing for a trip, auditioning for a play, getting a driver's permit. Nothing I ever introduced to help him keep track of school ever stuck with him. Ever!! So what does work for him? Check lists. Some lists are on a wipe off board hung someplace prominent like the fridge door or bathroom mirror. Some are kept on his smart phone. He also has a countdown app on his smart phone, which makes organizing more tangible and fun, somehow. It keeps a running countdown of anything you want -- the number of days, minutes and seconds til your birthday, til your rent is due, til your favorite movie comes out or til your application is due. I don't think he uses his calendar app, or any other complicated smart phone or computer apps -- just the simple and straight forward check list and count down. Probably not the kind of suggestions you were hoping for, I'm sure! Think of what would click with your own teen, of what is simple to use and visually straight forward. Think of situations where rewards can be reaped from being organized then show how those same organizational tricks work with mundane stuff. Anything that requires too many steps is just not going to work. Know too that a 14 or 15 yo Aspie will grow, with some patient guidance, into a more organized 17 or 18yo. Staying patient is the hardest part! Physical organization of stuff is a whole other headache... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Thank you, Jennifer, for your thoughts! Sometimes when we are going through a rough patch, I need to take a deep breath and realize my teen is still growing and learning. And will continue to do so for a long time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 My ds17 just uses Excel to plan out his daily/weekly schedule. He does one week at a time. He looks over the schoolwork with me on Sunday and we try to guess how much he can do in each subject on each day. I encourage him to work at least an hour in each class so if he's scheduled too small an amount of work, he moves on to the next day. What he likes about Excel is he can go in and edit easily. He can move things around or add/subject assignments. It's all on one page so printing out a new weekly schedule for the rest of the week is not a problem. It took me months to get him to be able to do this without too much of my help. I've told him it's part of learning time management which he will really need when he's in college. He has no need for an organizational planner beyond school as he is not involved in anything that has to do with time management. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in CA Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Totally agree with Jenn! My ds 14 will not use anything I introduce to him to help him get organized. He will, however, somehow figure out how to be organized when it really matters to him. This still looks messy to us, but somehow he does it. We do continue to talk about different methods as they arise in the hopes that someday we find one that sticks. The way I see it is that as long as he can pull it all together when he really needs to he'll be fine. It can be very frustrating at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 After looking at the student planner options I bought mine (HFA, 8th grade now) the same Elan teacher planbook I use to keep track of lessons, and told her it was hers to mark up however she pleased. Once a week we'd sit with it and map out another week together as she wrote it down. It had the important details included since I was with her, and she keeps it with her school books. She likes this arrangement much better than sharing a planner with me. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 D/p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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