A Messy Room Is Not the Same as a Disorganized Mind.

Child's bedroom with scattered toys, child sitting calmly nearby

My daughter’s room looks like a small storm passed through it most days. I assumed that meant something about her ability to organize her life overall. It doesn’t. Organization in children splits into physical tidiness and mental sequencing, two different skills entirely, and mixing them up means misjudging a child based on nothing more than the state of her floor.