FAQS

Some of the typical red flags include but are not limited to: dropping grades; missing homework assignments; turning homework assignments in late; waiting until the last minute to work on larger assignments or projects; having messy and/or overloaded backpacks, desks and lockers; using study time inefficiently; showing signs of anxiety, stress, and paralysis; and overall disrupting the family’s quality of life.

While many teachers would prefer their students use the same supplies, Michelle is more than happy to act as a child’s advocate in approaching the teacher(s) and explaining why she feels the child would do better with an alternative system. Once she explains her rationale, this conversation is met with understanding and acceptance.

The Complete Assessment involves garnering data to assess a child’s dominant quadrant of the brain, preferred learning style, sensory preference, degree of introversion/extroversion, and more. In addition to uncovering a student’s innate strengths and qualities, Michelle conducts a comprehensive interview with the parents, familiarizes herself with the family dynamics, tours the student’s homework areas and bedroom, reaches out to the child’s team of teachers, doctors, and tutors, all together in order to create the student’s unique strategies for academic success. The Complete Assessment results in a student guide created by SOA that contains customized solutions that will best meet the student’s needs. Hourly services start from the beginning by learning about the student's current struggles. Rather than analyze the student's dominant way of thinking, the hourly strategy is to diagnose the problem at hand and create a maintainable solution. A combination of the two methods produces the best outcome. By utilizing this combination, the hourly services are specific and follow the suggestions found in the Assessment's customized guide. The hourly services in combination with the Complete Assessment typically focus on one element of organization at a time, i.e., time management.

Michelle has been a Certified Professional Organizer since 2007, meaning she has met a stringent list of qualifications such as understanding the contents of a core of approximately 25 industry books, as deemed necessary by the independent Board of Certified Professional Organizers. In order to sit for the exam, one needs to have had a specific number of paid client hours. In 2007, she had more than met that requirement. Maintaining certification requires 45 hours of relevant education every three years. She takes classes covering brain function, ADHD, OCD, anxiety, chronic disorganization, motivation, executive functions, and other similar specialized subjects. In addition, she has been trained to be a professional ADHD coach. Furthermore, Michelle has a Master’s degree in Psychology from Columbia University.

Each of these professionals brings an area of expertise to the table. SOA considers itself part of a team whose mission is to help the student succeed. SOA adds the dimension of organizing expertise to the team’s professional guidance. In addition, SOA works in the student's home while the other professional members of a student's team do not.

While some of her students do struggle with learning differences, many do not. She often says, “Disorganization does not discriminate based on intelligence, motivation, age, or gender”. One common denominator among her students is that most of them are very bright. However, organization and time management skills are not formally taught by parents or teachers. SOA teaches these concepts in ways that honor each child’s learning style.

Going to school now is a vastly different experience from when many parents were students. In summary, here are just a few of the many changes our students face today making organization that much more challenging for them.

1. Time – it is no longer viewed on analog clocks where time can be seen moving. Rather, time is displayed as a static digital number on microwave ovens, car stereos, cell phones, computers, etc. Therefore, time has become a much more abstract concept.
2. Electronics – consume students for multiple hours each day. Most of us had only a handful of TV channels to choose from, a shared household Bell telephone, and maybe an interest in music heard on the radio. Today kids are being pulled, almost to the point of addiction, into the world of smartphones, texting, social networks, the internet, gaming, and such.
3. Schoolwork and subject matter – have multiplied compared to our generation’s. Studies have shown that our kids have more homework and projects today than we did at their age. Additionally, the material is being taught to our kids at younger ages. Many of us have noted that what we learned in first grade, our children are learning in Kindergarten and what we learned in 4th or 5th, they are learning in 2nd or 3rd.
4. College admissions – include extremely high expectations and require students to be incredibly well-rounded. It is not enough to have good grades and SAT scores. Rather, “Johnny” needs to: have good grades, be a good athlete, be the top of his class, play a musical instrument, be an officer of a club, to name just a few qualifications. With his multiple extracurricular activities, “Johnny” is rarely home after school and must learn to do homework in chunks of time when he can find them, sometimes on the side of a soccer field or in the car on the way to an activity.
5. Two households - this generation of children of divorce typically live in two homes. Keeping track of their belongings alone is a challenge. Add to that their homework materials, lunch bags, water bottles, electronic chargers, etc. Calendar management is necessary to manage the two schedules.

Expecting certain children to study alone in their room is in effect putting them into solitary confinement. Some students need the comfort of others’ presence to be productive and being alone in a room is rarely the best environment in which they can sustain focus. The most enlightening portion of assessing a student through her Assessment is having this information available. She acknowledges that it would be easier for parents to have the ability to send all their children up to their rooms at the same time. However, while one child may flourish being alone, another might need to be near others to do so. One may need music playing to concentrate best, while another needs silence. One may complete all their homework in one marathon effort, while another may need to take frequent breaks. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to designing students’ best homework routines and practices.