Responding to Oral Directions
Subtitle: Teaching Self-Monitoring and Repair Strategies to Students With Auditory Comprehension Difficulties
Edition: Book and CD edition (Audio Cassette edition has now been replaced with an Audio CD edition)
Publisher: Pro Ed
Published: June 30, 2003
Format: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9789990904963
Subjects: Education
Description: "Responding to Oral Directions" was written in response to all of the programs on the market used in special and general education with elementary school students that attempt to improve listening skills in children (attention, memory, comprehension) by having them practice listening to and following orally presented directions.  In realizing that such programs have limitations and are sometimes unsuccessful (i.e., for many children, these skills are not easily "fixed"), I discovered that there were no programs on the market that taught children the necessary compensatory strategies to work "around" their listening weaknesses by asserting themselves verbally in situations when their listening skills "break down."  This program teaches children crucial survival skills to not only recognize in themselves when they did not fully hear, cannot fully remember, or cannot fully comprehend information they hear, but also to pro-actively respond in such situations as an attempt to repair communication breakdowns during episodes of listening failure.  Most often, formally teaching students a more effective way of responding (instead of either remaining clueless or, at best,  "pretending" to understand while missing vital information spoken to them), results in improved listening competence which can translate to better academic success in the classroom and in better social communication in outside settings.  This skill has been termed by  reading and oral language researchers as "comprehension monitoring."  

This program requires only short (but preferrably frequent) lessons and can be administered in one-on-one (with slight modifications) or in small-group and classroom settings.  It requires no visual or reading skills of students beyond picture, letter, and number recognition.  Further, it requires little to no preparation time from teachers, and is quite enjoyable for both students and teachers alike!  These quick lessons can be modified by users to suit individual needs.  Also, training lessons build on one another as they address the various causes of  breakdowns in listening comprehension (i.e., when a listener could not hear a speaker due to either competing noises or due to a speaker's failure to speak loud or clearly enough; when a listener cannot remember all that is said; when a listener does not understand certain vocabulary contained in what was said; when a listener cannot comprehend sentences with overly complex grammar; when a listener has not been paying attention; when a listener is simply confused due to ambiguity or uncertainty and does not know what to do).  

This program is truly an effective way to turn young passive or poor listeners into successful and active listeners!  Consequently, it can result in significant improvements in classroom achievement as students monitor their own listening skills in a more assertive and active way and as they are armed with the tools to assure that they better understand the important information spoken to them on a daily basis.  

The program includes (1)  a user booklet with printed lessons and worksheets and (2) an audio CD (this is an upgrade from the former edition that included an audio-tape cassette) that contains both an audio-presented pre-test and post-test (to measure and document student progress) and also auditorily presented stimuli used in one of the training units involving how to respond when listening to "distorted directions."

"Responding to Oral Directions" is published by ProEd, Inc., (www.proedinc.com) a reputable publisher of materials for speech-language pathologists and other special educators.  However, this program is also very appropriate for teachers and parents of students in grades K through 5 who are in general education classrooms.  It may be used in either a school or a home setting.

Robert A. Mancuso, MS, CCC-SLP (Author)


email: rmanc@comcast.net