Following Directions: Take Time to Teach the Skill

   Following directions or rather the lack or difficulty with being able to follow directions is one of the difficulties I have run across most frequently in my time as a special educator.  I often hear both parent s and educators frustrated with a child’s difficulty with beginning tasks or following through with tasks independently.  When I sit down and talk with them, what I find most confusing is their lack of tools to give the students to assist with learning to follow the directions.  A student with disabilities is not going to magically pick up a skill they are lacking unless tools and direct instruction are given to assist them.

                How can you help a student lacking in the skill to follow directions? One way I have found helpful is to teach the student to write the direction for the assignment on a stickie note and place it next to the assignment.  If the student can only follow two steps at a time, break the work down into the first two steps and once that is complete come back and give the next two steps.  Be sure to give praise along the way for the independent work.  This can be done at any level.  It can be modified to picture cues made by the teacher if need be. As the student masters two steps increase to three and so on.  It is amazing how the student feels after learning to master this independence.

        There are many fun group activities you can do to teach following directions in class where the students do not even realize they are learning.  White board cues are always a class favorite.  I pass out white boards, pens and erasers to everyone and then give simple directions for them to follow: draw a square in the center, write your name in the upper left corner.  As the students get more advanced you can add multiple directions.  Dance parties are another way to teach following directions as well as social skills.  You Tube the Electric  Slide, The Chicken dance or others and everyone has to learn and follow together.  Simon Says is also fun and this is an easy way to add multi step directions.  Be creative but directly teach the skills.

  In life everyone has to follow directions.  This is a skill that is usually taught in Kindergarten and first grade. Many of our students did not pick the skill up at that point thus it it up to us to take the time to directly teach  the skill not just become frustrated that our students do not have it.

Do Not Cross the Enabler Line

     When you are a care giver or teacher of a special needs child, you walk a fine line between facilitator and enabler.  It is important not to cross that line.  It is our job to teach our children how to be as independent as possible for their well being as adults when we are not there all the time.  It may be easier, in the moment, to erase the paper for them, but is that really the best thing for that child in the long run?  Did you just take away the child’s sense of independence? Did you take away an opportunity to exercise that muscle group?  Did you take away the feeling that mistakes are ok, and the child can fix his own mistakes?  Remember every small ripple in the pond radiates outward.

    I do not want to make it sound like I myself have not been guilty of picking up the eraser or cutting the paper for the student for the sake of moving the class along, but I do want to make us all think of what we are doing in the big picture.  There are so many times in the day that we as nurturers do things for our kids that they themselves could and should be doing for themselves.  We need to take a step back and try to encourage them to do as much as possible now while we are there to support them and guide them.  It is so much less awkward for a school age child to learn how to tie their shoes than it is for an adult.  Do we want to send these children to whatever adult living environment having been coddled or do we want to send them with as many skills as possible?    

    When I sit down with parents, I always ask what chores does your child do at home?  Very often the answer is that the child is not able to do chores.  Even a child in a wheel chair can have someone put plates in a basket and be taught to bring them to the table to be a part of the family.  I explain that the chores may need to be assisted and may not be done to the standard the parents are used to, but it is important the children learn to have responsibilities and be a part of the family unit.  Most children can be taught to dust if someone clears off all the items in the way. Pushing a vacuum is simple and fun. Learning to set and clear the table is a life skill everyone needs.  Once I explain this, it is amazing how excited parents are when they come back and tell me how well things are going.  Just start out small with guidance and everyone can come out feeling more ready for the future.

       

Assessing: Take it One Skill At a Time

   Assessing students with special needs can be a difficult task.  It can seem overwhelming when a teacher looks at all the accommodations and IEP goals. A very important thing to remember when assessing our students is to limit what is being assessed at one time and give the proper supports needed during the assessment.

     Let’s look at math because it is the easiest to see how this works.  When a student is learning a basic arithmetic concept you would not give them a calculator or a multiplication chart, but once a child shows you they understand the concept through manipulative and has solved numerous simple problems.  I would do an assessment to document this knowledge and move on to using either a calculator or multiplication chart.   They will learn their facts as much as they can through repetition.  I would still reinforce through computer flashcards, but I would move forward in skill using available tools.  I teach my students multi digit multiplication using a calculator to do the single digit facts, but they have to do all the steps, once they show me understanding of the concepts, through an assessment, they then use a calculator for all multiplication.  When is the last time you did multiplication long hand?  This is a life skill.  It takes our students longer to acquire these skills. In order to move them forward it is essential to move them to a calculator as soon as they show mastery of the skills.  While doing geometry or other math they always use a calculator.  It is they concept not the arithmetic that is being assessed.

     In history and science try to decide what is being assessed and limit it to one thing at a time.  If you need your students to learn vocabulary great, but having them use vocabulary in a sentence is a very different skill.  That is a sentence writing skill. Having them read a selection aloud as a group is wonderful, but then answering questions is a second skill. I would reread the selection to them to be sure they had the information.  Do not forget in these subjects the repetition of information is just as important as in math and reading.  The concepts will need to be repeated many more times for our students to be able to retain the information than what would be needed for a typical student.  Doing many smaller assessments along the way can be easier than expecting them to retain the information or be able to sort through it at the end of a large unit.

  The most important thing to remember is to keep assessment simple and to the point.  What is it you want them to show you they learned?  Do not complicate it by having them try to show you too many skills at one time.  It is much better to take many smaller assessments that to take one large one where you cannot distinguish what it is that really is the problem.  In my own personal opinion, this is the best way to go when you are dealing with students with more complex learning difficulties. 

For more information you may want to start here:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-we-use-them

Letting go of the Apron Strings

         I want you take a minute and imagine that someone took away your power to make any decisions for yourself each day.  They told you what to wear, eat, where to go and what to do at all times. Now, imagine for whatever reason, you could not tell them what you wanted or how you felt about it.  In our society that is what we call prison and punishment.  For our children with the greatest special needs this is their daily life.  As care givers it is important for us to step back and remember this and try to find ways to let them have as much control over their lives as possible.

     With a normally developing child, it can be terrifying to let our children go and spread their wings knowing they will fall and bump as they learn to fly.  When a child has special needs, that fear is magnified. We cannot let our fears hold them back for it will only frustrate them more.  Try to keep in mind both the cognitive age of the child, the developmental age, as well as the chronological age when deciding what kind of control to give them and how to let them have it. Making it a team decision between school, therapists and home can help so that consistency is maintained and independence reinforced.  Everyone’s end goal is the same: to see the child as independent and happy as an adult as possible.

    How can you give the child independence and self-determination?   At home you can let your child choose their clothing and participate in shopping.  You can give them a choice in the order they get things done.  With their bed room, you can ask if they like the color and or decorations and change them.  It does not mean to give them control of the family, but to make them an active rather than passive member.  At school a teacher can do this as well by using a child’s interests in assignments.  Or letting them read a book of choice.  Giving the class a vote on two activities either of which fits the criteria needed also lets them feel empowered.  We sometimes feel it is easier for us to have our students sit together so we can assist them.  Give them a larger section or find peer buddies to help out so they feel less constrained.  When walking in the halls, let go of the notion of a straight line, let them walk and back off a little giving them a feeling of independence and confidence.  All of these small things add up to an individual who is learning to handle themselves confidently in the real world while we are still there to assist if need be.  You would be surprised at how little the assistance is really needed once they get the hang of it.

  If we are ever going to see our children as more than dependent special needs children, we need to start treating them as such.  We need to stop treating them as prisoners of their disability, controlling every aspect of their lives and teach them to make decisions and choices for themselves.  We need to encourage them to make mistakes and learn from them without getting upset before they are adults just as we do with our other children.  Let our little birds fly and they will soar.