Jepi and I are working with clients who have specific
objectives that involve following multi-step directions with different terms
(e.g. temporal, quantitative, and spatial).
Our
goal is to improve a child's overall receptive language skills by providing
auditory comprehension activities. We can do this by targeting the building
blocks comprising our main goal. “Following Directions” is one of these valuable
therapy objectives. It can be targeted with varying difficulty in terms of
length of directions (i.e. how many words, critical elements included), as well
as specific terms included (e.g. Before
circling three cupcakes, box 4 candies.).
Working
with these students, we made sure that we had these in check:
1. Vocabulary:
words included in the directions are familiar to the student. We would like to
focus on the child being able to retain the instructions and not think about an
unfamiliar word. (M. A. Restrepo, Morgan,
& Thompson, 2012; Maria Adelaida Restrepo, Morgan, & Thompson, 2013)
2. Rate:
how fast we provide the directions is an important factor in this activity. We
wouldn’t want to say it too fast that the child can’t catch any of it or too
slow that it is unnatural – not how directions are provided in a classroom setting
or at home.
3. Intelligibility:
paired with rate of providing the instruction/s, they should be clearly said so
as not to affect the credibility of your activity/ scoring as well as provide
the child with all the necessary details to completely follow the instructions(Norris & Hoffman, 2013).
4. Pause:
providing clients with time to “process” your instructions before actually
doing it will help them follow it properly. This is especially important if
your directions include other terms (e.g. spatial, temporal). Pausing is not
just important for following directions but for responding to questions too (Evans & Kass, 1997).
5. Signal: a simple “Go!” is enough to (a)
provide the child time to process – waiting time, pause, (b) add another layer
of following correct directions – “I will ask you to do this activity but you
need to wait for my “Go!” signal before you do it, okay?” and (c) improve
impulse control especially if the client has a difficult time with turn taking(Torres, n.d.).
There you
have it! Taking these factors into consideration, you can be sure to provide a
FUN activity for your clients!
You can
have these Following Direction activities for FREE!
Thank you
for reading!
There’s
always a way to make it FUN!
References
Evans, J. L., & Kass, R. E. (1997). Response
Latency and Verbal Complexity : Stochastic Models of Individual Differences in
Children, 40, 754–764.
Norris, J. A., & Hoffman, P. R. (2013). Language Intervention within
Naturalistic Environments This article has been cited by 12 HighWire-hosted
article ( s ) which you can access for free at : This information is current as
of September 21, 2013 This article , along with updated information a.
Restrepo, M. A., Morgan, G. P., & Thompson, M. S. (2012). The Efficacy
of a Vocabulary Intervention for Dual-Language Learners With Language
Impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(2),
748–765.
Torres, I. G. (n.d.). Play : Pathway to Improving Language and Literacy
Theory and Practice Irene G Torres Hebrew Academy for Special Children Carol
Westby.
