Tidy bedrooms and school performance

The instruction ‘Tidy your room!’ is the bane of most children’s lives. But there’s so much more to keeping bedrooms tidy than maintaining a positive environment. In fact, the very act of regular tidying can actually help children in other areas of their life too, including at school. It’s all part of building certain processes and routines that are important to their overall development. Nurturing a sense of tidiness By the age of four, children can usually hold just one notion in their active memory, for instance, immediate instructions such as picking up certain toys or doing one tidying job. Young children often struggle with being given too much to do all at once simply because their active memory is quickly drained. However, by the time they are sixteen, they can hold six or even seven notions in their active memory at a time.

If you want your child to more easily absorb a sequence of instructions, you can try habit stacking, with tidying their bedroom a perfect example of how to nurture it. Habit stacking is achieved by linking an existing habit with a new one you want to create.

How a tidy bedroom can help with working memory How easily can your child find something in their bedroom? To recall where a particular item is, children first need to retrieve the information from their long-term memory storage and bring it forward to their active thinking. The more items they have to put away, the more working memory is used to remember where each one is located.

Working memory is a critical cognitive function for everyday activities from learning to reading, remembering spellings, maths and mathematical tasks. By encouraging your child to start small and create the tidying habit and then retrieve the items, you are exercising that same part of the brain. It’s impossible to overstate just how important working memory is in every aspect of your child’s life. In fact, Dr Tracy Packiam Alloway states it is a more significant indicator of academic success than IQ.

So, there’s no need to feel like you are being a nag when you ask your child to tidy their room; it really is good for them. There’s a direct line from toybox to brainbox - just don’t expect them to thank you for it yet!

Habit stacking to improve bedroom tidying Beds take up a large portion of any bedroom, and having a made-up bed can contribute to a ninety percent tidier room if your child's room is tiny. Using a habit stack to instruct your child to make their bed could be worded like this:

After your feet touch the floor in the morning, plump up your pillow and pull the cover straight to make your bed. After making your bed, head straight to the bathroom.

A room tidying habit stack might sound like this: Pick up your cars and put them in the blue crate. Then sit your soft toys next to each other on the shelf.

Habit stacking becomes a routine that can be easily adapted and made more complex with age. It creates a series of sequential steps that leave no gaps for distraction. Importantly, it does not drain active memory. If you want to find out more, Habit Stacking creator Dr BJ Fogg’s book Tiny Habits is an excellent guide to the science of behaviour change.

West Berkshire’s Family Placement Team are seeking new foster carers for children of all ages, but specifically teenagers currently.

If you are warm, patient and resilient, and have a spare room, you could care for a teenager needing love and support during their vital years.

Get in touch today to see if you could #WriteTheNextChapter Phone: 01635 503429 Email@ fostering@westberks.gov.uk Website: westberks.gov.uk/fosternow

Tips for improving tidying and working memory

Introduce and start using habit stacking from a young age.

Celebrate the implementation of each new habit with plenty of praise and encouragement. Comment on how much better your child’s room looks and how pleased you are with their efforts; Dr BJ Fogg says happiness helps behaviour change!

Creating and ingraining a new habit usually takes around twenty-one days. Once the habit is in place, add another and keep going. Gradually build the chain of habits to achieve the right result.

Exercise your four-year-old child’s working memory by asking them to retrieve one item. Build up to four items by age nine and seven by age sixteen.

Every child develops at their own pace. Bear this in mind and support or reduce when needed at every stage. When you deem them old enough, explain the science behind what they are learning and how clever they are making their brains!

Usha Patel (www.ravivpracticelondon.co.uk) is a neurocognitive therapist and an expert in special educational needs.