Students who are learning a new language often use many skills to understand what to do in the classroom. They listen and try to get the main ideas. They look at any pictures or materials that are put up. They watch what other students are doing. These are all important skills. It is very difficult to listen to a multi-step instruction and hold the information in your head, in the correct order. When you add movement (when they follow the instructions), it is easy for them to forget parts of what was said, or the order it was said in. We often see students leaping out of their seats to follow the first instruction before the teacher is finished. They know they can do that one thing, but if they wait, they might not remember. However, it is expected that students sit and listen to all of the instructions first. It benefits students to work on trying to retain information.
Yes! You can work on this with your child either in your first language or in English. Just ask them to do a series of steps. For example:
I want you to put a bowl in front of every chair at the table, then I want you to go get the spoons and put one beside every bowl.
You can make it more difficult by adding more instructions or by telling them what to do, but then saying, "But first...." This is something that commonly happens in the classroom. For example:
Go get your pencil and some paper, bring it to the table and sit down, but first put your toy away.