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.