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.