My speech path has been co-teaching with me 2 times per week.
I must say I have learned a great deal from this experience.
One thing I learned is how much my kids don’t understand everyday language. Of course I always knew they had problems, but some of this stuff is so basic, honestly, it was quite shocking that most of my kids couldn not comprehend it.
She has been working on following directions with my group.
“Touch all but one of these 6 tables.”
“Find a marker that is neither brown, nor green.”
“Here are the days of the week listed in order. What day comes after Tuesday?” Before Saturday?
She made the kids fold the paper in 12ths. She said…
“Put a green triangle in the 2nd row, 3rd box.
In the first row, on the 4th box, put a red square.”
We have done lots of Visualizing Verbalizing and use the Stucture Words all the time.
I have been SHOCKED at how most of my kids don’t know this stuff. Its no wonder they have trouble in the general classroom where the pace is even faster. It has helped me even modify my speech and modeling.
I have sat on the teacher assitant committee where kids must go before being referred for special ed.
Many teachers say the kid is a “behavior Problem” The boy is in trouble, won’t listen etc…. I told one teacher that the boy probably isn’t processing the directions. Try doing this paper experiment. Start with one step, then 2 step, and so on to see if he understands the language.
Well, we referred this kid for Language to the speech path etc.. The teacher reported back that WOW, he can’t even do a one step direction.
Here’s my question….
Do anyone of you have a test with multi-step directions that you use to give to kids and or other teachers with things like I’ve mentioned?
Seems like there might be a qucik and dirty type assessment that teachers can use to get information to cover concepts like before/after, neither/nor, all but one, etc….
Please share if you have such a tool.
Michelle AZ
Re: Following Directions Assessment Tool
Thanks Janis. Yes, that is overkill for what I want. I just want a one page list of some easy to do directions that a teacher can whip through during recess. I thought someone might have a page of directions for quick diagnosis but nothing fancy.
Michelle
Michelle,
The Token Test for Children is a test that measures following directions (put the red square behind the blue circle, etc.). You can order it from Super Duper Publications for around $100.
Lindamood Bell uses a subtest of the Detroit to measure this, but unfortunately the test is in the $300 range, so you’d really need to use it for more than the purpose you intend to justify the cost.
If I think of any others, I’ll let you know.
Janis