Your Child Knows What to Do, but Doesn't Turn It In: The Role of Executive Functions
You check your child's notebook and see that the math homework is finished. A few days later, however, the teacher tells you it was never turned in. This happens to many children who seem to constantly forget to hand in their assignments (Rosenthal, 2024). It is easy to assume that they are being lazy or are not interested, but many of these children are very intelligent and still struggle to stay organized and keep up with school demands (Child Mind Institute, 2026). Organizing, remembering what needs to be done, managing time, and finishing what you start all depend on a set of skills known as executive functions (Child Mind Institute, 2026; Rosenthal, 2024). According to the Child Mind Institute (2026), completing and turning in homework is precisely one of the school-related challenges faced by children who have difficulties with these skills.
Executive function difficulties are more common in children with attention - deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), although they can also occur in children who do not have this diagnosis (Child Mind Institute, 2026). Understanding these skills is therefore especially important for families of neurodivergent children—that is, children whose brains function differently from those of most people (Miller, 2025). The good news is that these skills can be practiced and improved, so with support, your child can gradually learn to become more organized (Diamond, 2013). As the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2017) explains, children are not born with these skills; they are born with the potential to develop them, and the quality of the experiences we provide can strengthen or weaken that potential.
What Are Executive Functions?
Executive functions are the skills we use every day to organize our lives and get things done. They help us set goals and priorities, make and follow plans, remember information, manage time, and keep our belongings organized (Child Mind Institute, 2026). They allow us to think before acting, stay focused, and deal with new or unexpected challenges (Diamond, 2013). The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2017) compares them to an airport's air traffic control system, which coordinates dozens of planes arriving and departing at the same time across several runways. This set of skills relies on three core abilities: working memory, which allows us to hold information in mind and work with it—for example, remembering what the teacher asked while looking for a notebook; mental flexibility, which helps us shift gears and adapt to change; and self-control, which allows us to inhibit impulsive responses (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2017; Diamond, 2013). As Diamond (2013) explains, self-control helps us resist temptations and avoid acting on impulse, such as when your child manages to keep working on homework instead of stopping to play.
These skills begin developing shortly after birth, have an especially important period between the ages of 3 and 5, and continue to mature throughout adolescence and the early years of adulthood (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2017). The part of the brain behind the forehead, called the prefrontal cortex, supports skills such as planning and setting priorities, and it is one of the last areas to mature (National Institute of Mental Health, 2023). In fact, the brain continues developing into the mid-to-late twenties, so it is expected that a child will still need help getting organized (National Institute of Mental Health, 2023). According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2017), adults play a very important role in this process because they can show children how to use these skills and practice them together through everyday activities.
Why Your Child “Knows” What to Do but Doesn't Turn It In
Turning in an assignment may seem simple, but it actually requires several steps: writing it down, remembering the materials, organizing time, getting started without putting it off, finishing the work, placing it in the backpack, and remembering to hand it in (Child Mind Institute, 2026; Ehmke, 2025). If any one of these steps breaks down, the work may never reach the teacher, even when the child has understood the subject very well (Child Mind Institute, 2026). Completing all these steps requires executive functions, which help children remember and follow instructions involving several steps (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2017). When these skills are difficult to use, children may struggle to stay organized and meet school expectations. For example, they may forget to write down an assignment, lose their work, or have difficulty following instructions (Rosenthal, 2024). This can even happen because, as Ehmke (2025) explains, some children do not remember that they need to write down the assignment in order to remember it later. That is why it is important to offer support that helps them organize and remember their responsibilities without relying on memory alone.
Before concluding that your child simply does not want to do things, remember that disorganization can have several causes. Children who are distracted by anxiety or depression may also appear disorganized (Rosenthal, 2024). A child who constantly loses assignments may even be trying to prevent the teacher from seeing their work (Rosenthal, 2024). In any of these situations, scolding, shouting, or making a child feel ashamed is unlikely to help in the moment and does not support long-term change (Sege et al., 2018). It is more useful to observe where in the process your child gets stuck and ask the teacher for a detailed account of the tasks that are most difficult for them (Rosenthal, 2024). As Rosenthal (2024) recommends, talking with the teacher helps you find out whether what you see at home also happens at school—valuable information for understanding what your child may be experiencing.
Signs Your Child May Need Help Getting Organized
Some signs that your child may need support with executive functions include frequently losing or forgetting important belongings, being late because organizing or planning is difficult, and struggling to move from one activity to another (Child Mind Institute, 2026). At school, this may also show up as difficulty remembering information, expressing ideas in writing, or completing tasks that require several steps (Child Mind Institute, 2026). In everyday life, your child may forget books, leave a jacket somewhere, or leave home without the homework they completed the day before (Rosenthal, 2024). They may also find it hard to sustain attention and avoid being distracted by what is happening around them, since these abilities are also part of executive functioning (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2017). It is important to remember that these difficulties can occur even in children with strong abilities and good academic performance. As the Child Mind Institute (2026) points out, good grades do not necessarily mean that your child does not need help organizing and meeting responsibilities.
Executive Functions and Neurodivergence
The term neurodiversity is used to describe differences in the way people's brains function. It includes conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and learning disorders (Miller, 2025). Difficulties with impulse inhibition, sustained attention, working memory, and planning are common in ADHD, although not every child with this diagnosis experiences them (Willcutt et al., 2005). In addition, some brain regions in these children take longer to mature, especially areas in the frontal region that help regulate attention and plan actions (Shaw et al., 2007). This does not mean that their brains develop in a completely different way; rather, development follows a similar path to that of other children, but at a slower pace (Shaw et al., 2007). According to Willcutt et al. (2005), executive function difficulties are an important part of ADHD, but they do not explain the condition entirely. Each child therefore needs to be understood as a whole.
Children with autism have also been found to experience difficulties in several executive functions, and these difficulties tend to persist throughout development (Demetriou et al., 2018). From a neurodiversity perspective, these conditions are not viewed as defects, but as variations in how the brain functions (Miller, 2025). This does not mean that support should be overlooked: treatment can reduce difficulties that interfere with a child's goals, and recognizing areas of difficulty can help the child access the therapies and school services they need (Miller, 2025). At the same time, this perspective encourages us to focus on developing children's strengths and talents, rather than only on what they find difficult (Miller, 2025). As Miller (2025) explains, the neurodiversity movement aims to make environments more welcoming and responsive to people who think, process information, and learn differently.
How to Help Your Child at Home
One of the most useful strategies is to take information out of your child's head and make it visible—for example, by using checklists that can be created for almost any activity (Ehmke, 2025). You can place a morning-routine checklist somewhere easy to see and use the evening before to choose clothes, prepare lunch, and leave the backpack ready by the door (Ehmke, 2025). It also helps to teach your child how to use a planner to write down assignments. Many students have this tool, but no one has taught them how to use it (Ehmke, 2025). At school, teachers can help children use checklists, planners, and other tools to organize themselves and manage time, so it is worth agreeing on which strategies will be used both at home and at school (Child Mind Institute, 2026). According to Ehmke (2025), explaining what each strategy is for makes your child much more likely to engage with it, because planning can sometimes seem like a waste of time to them.
For homework, it helps to set a regular start time every day and avoid putting it off, as well as to provide a quiet, well-lit space with all the necessary materials within reach (Ehmke, 2025). The dining room table can work very well, especially if you are nearby to offer support and answer questions (Ehmke, 2025). When an assignment is lengthy, divide it into smaller parts, set a time for each step, and practice together how to approach different types of tasks (Ehmke, 2025). It is also a good idea to work on only one new skill at a time and practice it for at least two weeks before deciding whether it works (Ehmke, 2025). According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2017), the goal is to help your child gradually move from depending entirely on an adult to doing things more independently. Your support can therefore decrease as your child makes progress.
Younger children often need external incentives to value these new strategies, such as a star chart, while older children may respond better when you ask how things are going and offer help (Ehmke, 2025). At any age, it is also important to tell your child that you appreciate the effort they are making (Ehmke, 2025). A study involving third- to fifth-grade children with ADHD found that teaching them organizational, time-management, and planning skills helped them become more organized, complete their assignments, perform better at school, and improve family relationships. These changes were maintained over time (Abikoff et al., 2013). According to Abikoff et al. (2013), children also benefited when parents and teachers rewarded them for reaching specific goals, showing that recognition can be a valuable ally.
Executive functions can also be strengthened outside homework through activities such as certain board or computer games, aerobic exercise, martial arts, yoga, and mindfulness (Diamond & Lee, 2011). What effective programs have in common is that they are practiced repeatedly and gradually become more challenging (Diamond & Lee, 2011). Children who have greater difficulties with these skills are also the ones who benefit most from these activities (Diamond & Lee, 2011). Looking after your child's rest and well-being is part of the support, too, because stress, lack of sleep, loneliness, and insufficient physical activity affect these skills (Diamond, 2013). As Diamond and Lee (2011) explain, strengthening executive functions is not just about training them in isolation; supporting children's emotional, social, and physical development also makes a difference.
From “I Know” to “I Turned It In”
If your child knows what to do but does not turn it in, they may need less pressure and more help getting organized. Many children are capable and intelligent, yet still struggle to keep up with school demands (Child Mind Institute, 2026). Visible checklists, routines, tasks broken into steps, and recognition of their effort are simple supports you can start using today (Ehmke, 2025). With practice and guidance, these skills can be learned, and the changes achieved can last over time (Abikoff et al., 2013). If the difficulties continue, a neuropsychological assessment can help you understand what is happening and what your child needs (Rosenthal, 2024). As Miller (2025) explains, understanding these differences makes it possible to focus on each child's strengths.
References
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