How to help children with fetal alcohol understand and think

The Kulp family home schooled for five years and over that time we learned to meet the children we schooled at the level of thinking they were capable of at the moment. Depending on rest, stress, diet and daily schedule abilities fluctuated. We have provided the Hierarchy of Thinking Skills by Benjamin Blom to help you work, live, laugh and love your child. Armed with this information you may be able to take an assignment or project and adapt it to the child's success. This developmental chart and over 30 others are available in our 3rd Edition of Our FAScinating Journey - Keys to Brain Potential Along the Path of Prenatal Brain Injury by Jodee Kulp

Blom’s Taxonomy Hierarchy of Thinking Skills (Benjamin Blom)

LOWER LEVEL THINKING

1. Knowledge — To remember information you have learned. Remembering facts, terms, definitions, 
concepts, principles.


• recognition

• recall

What? Who?  list, name, define, describe, order, recite, list, record, recall, label, reproduce, match, repeat, underline, state, recognize, relate.
  

By  books, facts, events, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, films, tapes, CD’s and movies

2. Comprehension — to understand the meaning of things learned.


• interpretation
• translation
  
• extrapolation


Explain. How? Why? interpret, summarize, give examples, predict, translate, arrange, locate, indicate, describe, restate, sort, classify, translate, express, discuss, extrapolate.

By  diagrams, puzzles, logs. stories, games, journal, reports, task cards, illustrations, drawings

3. Application — Using information in a new way to solve a problem.

• implication

Apply compute, solve, modify, construct, sketch, practice, illustrate, measure, schedule, choose, use, demonstrate, prepare, operate.
By  diagrams, model illustrations, photographs, sculpture, model stories, diorama, scrapbook, puzzles, mobile, collection, map

HIGHER LEVEL THINKING

4. Analysis — to break down knowledge into parts and show relationships among those parts. Physical, historical, functional descriptions 

• elements
• relationship
• organization

Examine. How? What?  analyze, diagram, question, appraise, test, calculate, discriminate, distinguish, categorize, compare, criticize, contrast, experiment, inventory.

By  graphs, charts, surveys, events, diagrams, objects, reports, commercials, puzzles, questionnaires.

5. Synthesis — to produce something original from elements and components of previous knowledge. To bring together.

• unique communicate
• plan or set 
• abstract relations 

Organize. Bring together 
arrange, design, prepare, assemble, formulate, propose, collect, manage, set up, compose, synthesize, create, plan, write, construct, modify, conduct.
By stories, news, articles, poems, games, magazines, TV shows, cartoons, recipes, plays, songs, machines, puppet shows, hypothesis, advertisements

6. Evaluation — to make judgments based on pre-established criteria.

• internal evidence (logical accuracy, consistency)
• external evidence (application of external criteria)

 Support. Why? Why not?  appraise, estimate, select, argue, evaluate, assess, judge, value, attack, predict, score, compare, rate, defend.

By polls, group letters, surveys, recommendations, evaluations, panels, simulations, discussions, news items, court trials.