Speech Kids Calgary

Following Directions: Get Moving with a Build-a-Direction Activity

Are you looking for a fun way to get your students engaged in a following directions activity? An activity that targets tuning ears in, basic concepts, and even auditory memory? Try creating a Build-a-Direction activity!

Here’s how to do it…

You will need:

• a set of verbs (movements the students can do) written out
  • e.g., run, walk, wiggle, penguin walk, walk sideways, crab walk, etc.
• a set of prepositions (includes direction concepts, spatial concepts) written out
  • e.g., around, over, beside, under, in front of, between, etc.
• a set of nouns written out (I like to make these theme-based)
  • e.g., duck, dog, horse, cow, sheep, pig, etc. (farm animals)
• a set of pictures matching the nouns – I like to make these large

Set up:

• Place the pictures around the room – usually I use the floor but you can also place them in other locations (based on the prepositions you’ve chosen).

Play:

• Pick a verb (e.g., run)
• Pick a preposition (e.g., around)
• Pick a noun (e.g., the strawberry)
• Get ready to listen (“stop and listen”)
• Read out the direction (e.g., “Run around the strawberry.”)
• Follow the direction (e.g., run around the strawberry)
• Check back – did you remember what to do? (e.g., Did you run around the strawberry?)

You can customize this activity for your students to practice specific targets. For example, if you want to work on the concepts in front and behind, just use those two prepositions. You can use a variety of verbs and nouns but limit the prepositions to the ones you want to focus on. You could set the pictures up so there is a clear “in front” and a clear “behind” (e.g., tape them to chairs).

My students love activities that get them moving! Here are some examples of Build-a-Directions games I’ve created:

• Brown Bear animal theme
• Hungry Caterpillar food theme
• Christmas theme
• Transportation theme

Let me know if you try this activity!

Following Directions: Building Understanding of Basic Concepts

Sometimes my students have difficulty following directions because they are lacking understanding of basic concepts. It is hard to expect a student to follow a direction when they are lacking understanding of the building blocks of directions.

In school, directions are filled with basic concepts (sometimes just one or two but can directions can also contain multiple concepts). Types of concepts used in directions include:

• Spatial concepts – e.g., in front, behind, beside, above, bottom, between
• Quantity concepts – e.g., one, two, few, many
• Sequence concepts – e.g., first, last, second, then, next, before, after, when
• Shape, size, texture, color concepts – e.g., round, large, rough, blue

To teach basic concepts, I love using:

• Barrier games –
  • Can use for all sorts of concepts
  • Spatial concepts – tell where to place an item (beside, on top on, between, close to, in front of, etc.)
  • Quantity concepts – use when telling how many items to place (e.g., two) or when telling where to place the item (e.g., “Put the dog under the table with 2 balls.”)
  • Sequence concepts – give multi-step directions (e.g., First…Then…)
  • Shape/size/texture/color/etc. – describe the item or where to put it
• Bingo games –
  • Concepts bingo targeting specific concepts (spatial concepts, quantity concepts, etc.)
• Hiding games –
  • Spatial concepts – describe where you are looking or where you find the item
  • Shape/size/texture/color/etc. concepts – describe what you hide or find
• Scavenger hunts –
  • Spatial concepts – describe where you are looking or where you find what you are looking for
  • Shape/size/texture/color/etc. concepts – describe what you are looking for
• Toys –
  • Shape/size/texture/color/etc. – describe using these concepts
• Comparing and contrasting activities –
  • Shape/size/texture/color/etc. – compare and contrast two items using describing words

What are your favorite ways to teach basic concepts?

Following Directions: Auditory Memory Board Games

I love playing word memory board games to help my students learn strategies that can help them follow directions. When I play auditory memory board games with my students I get a chance to see how well they can remember words (super important when following directions!), if they have any strategies (e.g., do they repeat back the words before starting), and whether they can remember the words while doing a task (moving around a board).

If you haven’t played an auditory (word) memory board game before, this is what my version looks like. The board has a path with four different (usually theme-based) pictures repeated and a start space and a a finish space. Rather than moving around the board using a dice or spinner, a list of words (corresponding to the game board) is read (2-, 3-, or 4-words). Students can move around the board touching each of the pictures that was read (e.g., “dog – cat” –> move to the next dog space and then the next cat space).

I will often get students who struggle to follow directions in class to try to play an auditory memory board game with me. I usually start with two-word memory. If they can do that successfully, we move to three- and then four-word memory. If they can’t successfully do two-word memory, we either move down to one-word memory or work on strategies for two-word memory.

Some students haven’t had experience playing board games so we also work on organization (how to move around the board).

Some strategies we use to help build word memory skills:

• Stop and Listen – make sure your ears are tuned in before the words are read. If you didn’t listen in the first place, it is hard to know where to move to.
• Repetition – repeat back the words you hear. This allows you to hear the word more than once.
• Rehearsal – rehearse the words before starting. This helps keep brains focused on remembering the words.
• Think aloud – say the words as you go so your brain stays focused.
• Check back – listen to the words again, did you get where you were supposed to go? It’s easy to skip this part but so important to start building self-awareness and self-monitoring skills!

Have you tried Auditory Memory board games? What other ways do you work on auditory memory?

Following Directions: Tuning Ears in Using Music

Some of my students struggle to follow directions because they have difficulty tuning their ears in to listen.

Sometimes they tune their ears in part way through the direction, but miss the beginning. Sometimes they tune their ears in right away and catch the beginning, but then miss the end of the direction because they haven’t persisted in their listening. And sometimes they just don’t tune their ears in at all and miss everything.

One of my favorite ways to help students work on tuning their ears in and building persistence in listening is with music. I love using the song Willoughby Wallaby!

If you have never used Willoughby Wallaby, it’s a super fun and flexible rhyming song about an elephant that sits on anything or anyone.

Willoughby Wallaby wocket,
An elephant sat on a rocket.
Willoughby Wallaby webra,
An elephant sat of a zebra.

You pick your target thing (or person, place, etc.) and replace the first sound with a /w/ for the first line (e.g., TARGET: popsicle “Willoughby Wallaby wopsicle”) and then sing the second line, pausing for the student(s) to fill in the last word (e.g., “An elephant sat of (a)_________”).

If I’m working with a whole class or a group of students I’ll use this with students’ names to get everyone’s ears tuned in. Students can stand up, sit down, go to their desk, etc. when they hear their name rhyme:

Willoughby Wallaby Wasmine,
An elephant sat on <Jasmine>.
Willoughby Wallaby Welias,
An elephant sat on <Elias>.

Students that have a tricky time tuning ears in right away will be more successful if you leave them until later on (challenge them by choosing them earlier on), whereas students that have difficulty with persistence in listening will have more success if you pick them early (challenge them by leaving them until later).

This is an activity teachers can use as a warm up activity to make sure their students’ ears are listening before giving directions.

I also use this song with visuals to work on tuning ears in, with students in small group or individual therapy. I set out a number of pictures (animals, people, objects, etc.) and then sing Willoughby Wallaby using the pictures. Students listen and pick out the picture of the word that rhymes. To start with I will use multisyllabic words (ideally 3-4+ syllables) and I will only set out two pictures. The longer the word, the more time students have to tune their ears in to get information. When students are successful with 3-4+ syllable words I will start adding some two syllable words and then finally some single syllable words. Single syllable words require ears to be tuned in very quickly. I will also start adding more than two pictures at a time.

When students are successful with this Willoughby Wallaby activity using visuals, I will increase the challenge by removing the visuals. I will give a category (e.g., animal) or sub-category (e.g., farm animals). Just like when I use visuals, I will start with multisyllabic words to give more information then move to single syllable words to increase the challenge.

Building in a check-back opportunity allows students to build self-awareness and self-monitoring skills.
“Wow, you heard me rhyme your name! You must have been listening with your ears.”
“Oops, you didn’t stand up when I rhymed your name. Did you forget to turn your ears on and listen?”
“Hmm, listen again…do you think that ‘warrot’ and ‘pumpkin’ rhyme or ‘warrot’ and ‘carrot’ rhyme?

Do you use Willoughby Wallaby with your students? Do you have any other strategies for helping students tune their ears in?

Following Directions: Finding the Point of Breakdown

As a speech-language pathologist, I constantly come across kids who struggle with following directions.  These students often struggle in the classroom, in extracurricular activities, and at home.

When I work with a student who has difficulty following directions, I like to explore the why in order to know how to best support the student.  Here are some of the questions I like to consider:

• Do they have difficulty tuning their ears in?  These students often completely miss directions because they haven’t tuned their ears in to listen.

• Do they tune their ears in part way through the direction?  These students often miss the first part of the direction but will likely follow whatever was said last.

• Do they tune their ears in at the beginning but then tune out part way through the direction?  These students might do the first step given but the rest of the direction because they have tuned their ears out and haven’t listened to the rest of the direction.

• Do they understand basic concepts (spatial concepts, sequencing concepts, quantity concepts, qualitative concepts, etc.)?  These students might listen to the directions but don’t correctly follow because they don’t understand the basic concepts included in the direction.

• Can they remember the information?  These students might listen to and hear the direction but don’t follow because they haven’t held on to/remembered the information.

• Can they remember the information but not in the right order?  These students have listened to the direction and follow but don’t remember which order the steps go in.

• Do they start before hearing the whole direction?  These students will likely do the first step but they get busy doing the task and forget to listen to the rest of the information.

• Do they remember to check back?  These students might follow the direction but don’t self-monitor and check back to see if they have followed correctly.

Once I know the point (or points!) of breakdown, I can better find effective strategies.

I hope you enjoy this series on building foundations for following directions! Please let me know below if you have any favorite following directions activities.