Following Directions

This post will deal with the importance of teaching children to follow directions and how specific that needs to be.  In today's society, we almost expect children not to follow directions well.  In fact, many experts will tell you not to push following directions especially in early childhood.  They say that it is more important for children to explore and discover than it is for them to follow a specific set of directions.  That would be okay if all of our brains only had the right hemisphere.  Exploring and discovering are very important for right brain development.  However, we have a left hemisphere of the brain that is being totally ignored in today's early childhood educational circles.

The Right Hemisphere of the Brain
Let me delve into the hemispheres of the brain for just a moment.  Our right hemisphere is our creative hemisphere.  Artistic ability and musical ability especially the ability to create flows from this hemisphere.  The ability to generate original ideas flows from this hemisphere.  In early childhood, development of this hemisphere happens when children explore, create, and discover their world.  Today's culture puts great emphasis on the ability to create and "think outside the box."  Therefore, it seems only natural that we would put such strong emphasis on developing that side of the brain during those crucial early childhood years where the brain is most pliable.

The Left Hemisphere of the Brain
The left hemisphere of the brain can be thought of as the manager.  It is where logical thinking derives. Basically the left brain is what helps the ideas of the right brain to come into existence.  It deals with all the sticky details that must be accomplished to bring the dreams of the right brain to fruition.  In early childhood, the left side of the brain is developed through learning to sequence, patterns, following directions, and learning specifics such as the names of things, etc.  Verbal knowledge and mathematical knowledge fall on the left hemisphere.  Whereas right brain development happens through exploration and discovery, left brain development comes mostly through direct instruction.  Children have to be taught to sequence, to see patterns, to follow directions, to learn the specifics of the world, etc.  Direct instruction in the early childhood world has been demonized as overbearing and stifling.  Yet you really can't have one without the other.  Without the right brain nothing new would ever come into existence.  Without the left brain all those great ideas would never come into being.  We cannot afford as a society to ignore either hemisphere of the brain.

The Importance of Following Directions
This brings me back to the skill of following directions.  How much emphasis should be placed on children under five years old being able to follow a specific set of directions?  That depends on how well you want that child to do in math and science when that child reaches school-age.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that our decline as a nation in our children's math and science abilities has coincided with our lack of emphasis on following directions.  Math, engineering, and science fields absolutely depend on precision and being able to follow a logical train of thought.  If a child is allowed to follow directions in their own way and in their own time, they grow up into adults who take shortcuts instead of being precise and who do not see the harm in doing that.  Grave mistakes in many vital fields happen when a nation does not value precision.

Music and Precision
Allow me a little diversion to speak to you not as an early childhood person but as a music teacher.  Experts are almost all in agreement that music lessons help with math and science.  Do you know why that is?  To do music well requires precision.  A child taking especially piano lessons must learn to use an exact finger on an exact note at just the right time.  It is possible to play piano without following the music exactly, but that sort of piano player eventually hits a wall.  Not having the ability to follow the music precisely will limit what that piano player will be able to accomplish.  It is those students who have complete control of their fingers and can make them do precisely what needs to be done every single time that become great musicians.  That type of precision is what is also necessary to excel in math and science fields.

The Vital Years for Brain Development
As early childhood providers we have a vital task.  We have the children at the most crucial time in brain development.  During the first five years of life the brain makes millions of connections.  It also prunes millions of connections.  I'm afraid that as a nation we have been allowing the connections for precision to be pruned from our children because we have put too much emphasis on discovery and exploration and not enough emphasis on those left brain skills such as following directions.

A Left Brain/Right Brain Balance
How can we fix this?  We must begin to put as much emphasis on left brain activities as we do right brain activities.  Teaching the children to follow directions precisely is a good place to start.  Every day take at least one activity and require that it be done in a specific order and in a specific way.  It doesn't have to be anything major.  Washing hands would be a great example of an activity that could be done this way.  Not only would you be insuring that the children wash sufficiently, but you would also be tackling following directions at the same time.  However, I must say that consistency on this is imperative.  Whatever you choose to do, make sure it is something you can stick to without fail.  I will also warn you that this will be met with great resistance in the beginning.  American children are not used to having to do anything on someone else's terms.  We have allowed them to fulfill the basic jest of something instead of doing it exactly as instructed in order to avoid hissy fits.  Shame on us!  We will never turn around our sagging math and science performance as a nation until we fix this problem.

I hope that you have enjoyed this post!  Goodbye and God bless! Check out Natalie's children's books at:  https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457