Executive Functioning Skills 101: The Basics of Planning Skills

Before beginning any conversation about strengthening planning skills—for yourself, your child, or anyone you support, spend a few minutes considering how many tools we use during the day to plan our lives. Our environment is filled with devices to keep us on time (watches, smartphones, calendars, etc.) and on-track (folders, labels, checklists, etc.) with the demands of daily life. We use dozens of different planning and organization tools, many of them without us considering how they keep our behaviors in check.

Among all the different executive functioning skills to teach teens and young adults with unique learning needs, those related to planning and organization are also among the most valued by parents, self-advocating adults, and classroom teachers. As parents, we want our children to recognize and perform daily tasks efficiently, without a lot of challenges or disruptions. As teachers, we see value in how planning ties directly into problem-solving and academic achievement. When our children struggle with planning, we see the breakdowns, frustrations, escape, and avoidance behaviors, and in some cases, even severe challenging behaviors like aggression and self-harm.

Therefore, it’s essential that parents, teachers, and supportive adults not only understand the ins and outs of planning but also understand how deficiencies in these and other executive functioning skills might be causing broader behavioral challenges for the person they are supporting.

The Basics of Planning Skills

According to The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), planning falls into a group of skills related to an individual’s ability to identify and manage future-orientated tasks. Planning behaviors involve how someone identifies future responsibilities and events, sets goals to complete them, and analyzes the steps needed to complete the task ahead of time.

Planning skills are often closely tied to the executive functioning skills of organizing and prioritizing. We use planning along with these other skills to gather information or resources and assemble it into main ideas and processes. When we use planning with organization, we not only have the right information and tools, we also know what to do with them to solve a problem.

Examples of Planning Skills

While executive functioning skills vary widely across the lifespan (see milestones in our Executive Functioning Skills by Age Guide), some examples of behaviors related to planning include:

• Identifying the order and sequence to complete a task or activity.
• Identifying a designated place for materials needed to complete a task.
• Creating a structure or order around frequently performed tasks.
• Creating an orderly plan to complete multiple tasks.
• Using an organization tool like a calendar, timeline, planner, or datebook.

Why Are Planning and Organization Skills Necessary?

Once you understand the basics of planning skills, it quickly becomes apparent why parents, teachers, and adults themselves highly value them and why they tie to the success of children, teens, and young adults.

Studies show that executive functioning skills like planning and organization directly correlate to a variety of different performance indicators, including:

• Increased academic performance and thoughts about one’s own academic achievement.
• Successful social engagement with family members and peers.
• Employment and occupational success later in life.

How Planning Deficits Impact Challenging Behavior

Deficits in executive functioning skills like planning can also influence problem behaviors and how others perceive a person’s problem behavior. Can you or your child identify with any of these scenarios?

• You or your child can complete tasks fully, but only if there’s a clear, step-by-step organization.
• You or your child experience meltdowns or have problem behaviors when tasks don’t go smoothly, when things feel out of control, or there are bumps in the middle of a task.
• You frequently find yourself or your child missing the right materials at the right time, including leaving for school or work without all the required materials, leaving behind personal belongings at friends and family members, etc.
• Creating and following daily schedules creates conflicts for you and your child.
• You are responsible for planning, coordinating, and following through with social events with your child’s friends and family.
• You or your child can identify the end steps of a goal but struggle to determine the initial point to get started or intermediate steps that need to happen first.

Alan Lakein, a well-known author and personal time management guru, famously said, “A failure to plan is a plan to fail.” When a teen or young adult has well-developed planning skills, many of the scenarios above resolve.

Planning skills result in less frustration and a reduced need to use problem behaviors to recruit adult help or escape a disordered task. Planning also creates a sense of control, which can be a positive reinforcer for individuals with unique learning needs. When tasks finish more quickly and efficiently, it leads to more time to engage in preferred activities or social activities with friends and family.

3 Ways to Evaluate Planning Skills

Based on the information above, you may decide that you—or someone you support—could benefit from improvements in planning skills. Depending on the learner, you may evaluate that one of these options will work well as a starting point to greater independence:

1. Conduct a skills assessment. There are many different tools, checklists, and workbooks (get 20% off our executive functioning workbook with coupon code LSA20) available to evaluate and create goals around executive functioning skills like planning. Many of these assessments and evaluation tools can also be valuable in helping brainstorm and write goals to target down the road. Download our planning skills pre-assessment below and complete it together.
2. Coordinate with the person’s existing care team. Given that executive functioning skills like planning span a wide variety of skill areas, other people on the care team may be noticing the same things. Individuals who also receive speech, OT, PT, or IEP services may already have goals related to planning skills. By reaching out to the care team, you can coordinate on which planning skills to target first and build in teaching tools across different parts of the day.
3. Contact a professional executive function coach. Not every parent, teacher, or adult comes equipped to assess and evaluate planning skills. That’s okay. Working with a trained professional with experience in helping individuals develop and enhance executive functioning skills like planning means you’re taking the best steps possible to help them succeed.

Download Our Free Executive Functioning Assessment

Further Reading

• Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention by Peg Dawson
• Bailey, B. A., Andrzejewski, S. K., Greif, S. M., Svingos, A. M., & Heaton, S. C. (2018). The Role of Executive Functioning and Academic Achievement in the Academic Self-Concept of Children and Adolescents Referred for Neuropsychological Assessment. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 5(7), 83.
• Barkley, R. A., & Fischer, M. (2011). Predicting impairment in major life activities and occupational functioning in hyperactive children as adults: Self-reported executive function (EF) deficits versus EF tests. Developmental neuropsychology, 36(2), 137-161.
• Diamond, A., & Lee, K. (2011). Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old. Science (New York, N.Y.), 333(6045), 959–964. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1204529
• Jacob, R., & Parkinson, J. (2015). The potential for school-based interventions that target executive function to improve academic achievement: A review. Review of educational research, 85(4), 512-552.
• The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF)