Teaching Children to Follow Directions

Teaching Children to Follow Directions

From Speech and Language Kids Podcast by Carrie Clark, M.A. CCC-SLP

May 12, 2025 · 25 min

About this episode

Carrie Clark provides strategies for teaching children to follow directions effectively.

Teaching Children to Follow Directions Does your child (or student) struggle to follow directions? You’re not alone! In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, Carrie Clark, SLP and founder of SpeechAndLanguageKids.com, walks you through how to teach children to follow directions—step-by-step. Whether you’re working with toddlers just starting to understand basic commands or older kids struggling with multi-step instructions, this episode has got you covered. You’ll learn practical strategies for teaching one-step, two-step, and even complex multi-step directions, plus how to support kids using play, visuals, repetition, and more. We’ll also dig into why following directions is hard for many children (even those without speech or language delays!) and what you can do to help them succeed. Listen to the Podcast Here You can listen to the full podcast episode below: Why Following Directions is Hard for Kids Following directions requires listening, understanding, memory, attention, and execution—sometimes all at once! Carrie explains why even neurotypical kids can struggle and how communication delays, ADHD, or autism can make this even more challenging…

People in this episode

Host: Carrie Clark

Topics covered

  • following directions
  • teaching strategies
  • child development
  • speech therapy
  • play-based learning

Keywords

  • follow directions
  • teaching children
  • speech therapy
  • multi-step instructions
  • play-based therapy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SpeechAndLanguageKids.com

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