![]() Strategies can be taught, practiced, and used the very same day - that kind of success can be really motivating for our students when they’re starting out! Over time, using rehearsal/visualization techniques has also been found to improve students’ abilities to follow directions (Gill et al., 2003). When helping students strengthen skills in an area, it takes time and practice. Here are some of my favorite visuals to use with complex instructions: This is because many of our students are already challenged by auditory or written comprehension (Law et al., 2017), so we can use this teaching phase as an opportunity to play to any strengths! This might involve using pictures, symbols, photos, or other visual supports when teaching a skill. When teaching a new skill, it can be helpful to use visual aids to represent a concept. ![]() How do you feel about using anchor charts, visuals, and compensatory strategies in therapy? From kindergarten through high school, I’ve found that these kinds of support make a huge difference for students. Teaching Multi-Step Directions in Therapy The more concepts embedded into a set of instructions, the higher the demands placed on language and working memory will be.įor a deeper dive into assessing these skills, check out the prequel to this blog post and browse through the assessment materials available through the SLP Now membership! There’s a Smart Deck to quickly probe students’ accuracy in following 1, 2, and 3-step directions. Multiple Actions, Multiple Objects: Pick out a book, bring it to the checkout counter, and present your student ID card to the librarian. Multiple Actions, One Object: With your pen, circle the word you don’t know, then underline any clues that will help you figure out what the word means. One Action, Multiple Objects: Grab a packet, glue stick, and a pair of scissors from the table. Temporal Concepts: Before you sit down, hang up your bag on the wall. Spatial Concepts: Take a seat at the nearest table and face your chair towards the front of the room. Here are a couple examples:Ĭonditional Directions: If you ride the bus after school, line up here. Not all directions are equally complex - that’s why it’s important to figure out what strengths and challenges are impacting a student’s ability to follow along with instructions. Now we’re taking it a step further by teaching how to follow multi-step, sequential directions! We’ll review different types of complex directions, plus how to teach and strengthen this skill in therapy. In a previous post on following simple directions, we outlined the process of assessing this skill, selecting meaningful targets, using visuals and strategies, plus designing structured and contextualized intervention. (Imagine your first day at a new job! There are countless tutorials to follow and procedures that you’re expected to get the hang of!) So how can we support our students no matter what level they’re working at? These skills are also incredibly valuable for students working on vocational skills and transition plans. Whether you work at an elementary, middle, or high school, following instructions serves as a major foundation for learning. We know, of course, that the importance and complexity of instructions don’t end at age 5. ![]() – Around 4-5 years old, kids typically understand sequential terms (e.g., first, next, last) and respond to three-step directions at home or school (ASHA) – Between 2-3 years, children can follow two-step commands (Linguisystem, 2014) – Between 1-2 years of age, kids generally follow familiar one-step directions with support (Linguisystem, 2014) ![]() Like many domains of communication, the milestones related to following directions are geared towards younger children: These areas were reviewed in further depth in a previous post on following simple directions - a lot of that info applies here, too!Ĭomplex instructions are relevant for students across the grade-span. If that’s the case for you and your students, you’re not alone! There are plenty of factors that influence the ability to follow complex directions: hearing/vision, executive function skills, language comprehension, grammar, student level of interest, task complexity, and sequencing, just to name a few. This is a guest blog post by Holly, a school-based SLP, all about teaching how to follow 2 and 3-step sequential directions! Teaching Sequential Directionsĭo you have students on your caseload that can follow one-step directions pretty well, but–as soon as the complexity increases–that accuracy goes out the window? ![]()
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