How do I help a learning disabled preschooler who has difficulty following spoken directions?

Answer 1

Preschoolers are often diagnosed with disabilities, but not usually learning disabilities. It is very difficult to accurately diagnose learning disabilities in preschool children as it is almost impossible to differentiate between a true learning disability and what could be a developmental delay. So my first question would be, "What is the diagnosis?" The diagnosis can dictate appropriate interventions.

You need to determine that the child actually understands the directions. Make sure you have the child's attention before you start. Make sure you keep each direction to one step at a time. Any children can have trouble following directions of two or three steps. Use simple clear instructions, with as few words as possible. Make sure the words you use are ones the child understands.

There are so many other facets to your question. Perhaps this child needs a visual stimulus to understand the direction. Pictures showing the routines that the child must follow, arranged in order in a chart format may help. The child may need real pictures, or line drawings may be adequate.

Some children understand signing better than oral langauge. You may want to consider teaching the child simple signs or signals for some directions to see if that is helpful.

Do you have access to the services of a speech langage pathologist? An SLP could offer many suggestions that would be helpful.

These sites have some good information. I hope this is helpful. Best of luck.

Answer 2

odd, I didn't think they would ever label a preschooler with a learning disability. What the 'disability' actually is is that the child doesn't learn by the way he is being taught. First, try simple one-step questions, next, two-step (up to three steps at age Pre-K 5). Another solution is to give visual pix of what is expected to do. (visual learners), another solution is to have the child repeat the directions before going off to do them (auditory learner). I've also had child pick from activities in a picture . (do you want the bike,ball, hoops, ect?, circle the one you want to play with and lets take this paper with us) the real goal was getting the child to go to gym. if you said anything about gym he wouldn't go, but if he got to choose an activity (and I never said in the gym), the boy went to the gym no problems. Same with going to the lunchroom, I put a star on the in the class doorway, and another in the lunchroom doorway. He had to start at the star in the class, and find the other star. (sometimes I changed the color or spot of the star to keep him guessing) . Yeh, it should be simple, we all go to the lunchroom, but for him it was a major ordeal. He wouldn't go out the door till we started the star system. The following school year all these picture prompts were not needed, he was fine. What I am syaing is that it takes some creativity to find what works, time to help the preschooler through this, and the willingness to be a professional and not say this kid is getting 'special treatment'.

Answer 3

Use visual strategies, ie. pictures. I work with children with language impairments. Receptive language is the words others speak to them, if they have delays or processing problems, pictures can really help them. I use visual strategies in my classroom. It's amazing the way it helps kids understand what to expect or what's going on. You can take pictures with a camera or you can cut pictures out of a magazine or take them off the internet and glue them onto construction paper. Be patient and use short sentences, usually no more than 3 or 4 words when giving directions and pair those directions with the pictures. These strategies work well with children who are learning disabled, in the autistic spectrum, language impaired, or mentally handicapped. Good luck. Try googling for more info.

Answer 4

Try making a game out of it and getting him/her to physically engage their senses in what you are trying to get them to understand. Studies show that we are quicker to understand something and retain it when we do something interactive as part of the learning process. As they are able, have them repeat the directions back to you. Also, get down on their level and look them in the eye as you speak to them. Try not to show that you are feeling impatient and just be prepared to spend longer doing an activity by planning a longer period of time for it so you don't have to be rushed, and thus end up feeling more annoyed. If they feel that you are mad or impatient the learning process will shut down. Let them know that you think they are terribly special, and set the bar high for their progress. Best wishes to you and your special preschooler.

Answer 5

I have two toddlers with learning disablities. They both have severe speech, developmental, disabilities. Both with diagnoses of ADHD, one with Autism, and ODD too. I have discovered they were able to communicate and follow directions with the use of a kitchen timer for them to understand time, and sign lanuage. I can communicate to them what they need to do, and they can communicate their needs to me. I have also introduced picture clues to help with them understand also. They are more hands and eyes on then verbal language. There is so many resorces online that offer basic sign language clues and pictures clues that you can print out, cut and laminate. and post on boards or just use them individually to show them what directions you want them to understand. Hope that helps, email me if you have any other questions. I have been dealing, struggling and coping with this for over 4 years, Good Luck

Answer 6

My first question would be how in the world do you know a pre-schooler is disabled? Can we let the kid grow a bit before we put this kind of negative label on him/her? Some children take more time to develop than others. Geez let the kid be a kid awhile. Sorry, I don't know all the circumstances but it seems we really expect a lot of our children. Being children is a great learning experience in and of itself. Peace.

Answer 7

D R A W T H E M P I C T U R E S , :) ;) :0 ;0

Answer 8

Do you have a diagnosis of the said learning disability? Go to a psychiatrist who specializes in this type of thing and try to get a feel for what the child's comprehension is.

Answer 9

The best way to teach any child is to give them plenty of modeling and one step directions. The children may actually need repeated help completing a task.

Answer 10

There are plenty of devices that will help the child. There are plenty of devices that you can look up on line, they are mainly for children with learning and motor disabilities.You can make the lesson more interesting by explaining things with pictures. Give positive reinforcement...never get frustrated with the child, it shows them that they are wrong and in turn will get frustrated with you and not want to listen. Good luck