Skills

Following Directions
Following Directions requires a child to pay attention, remember, and fully understand spoken information.
For example, an examiner might say, "Look at these four figures over here. Now, point to the square that is
inside of a rectangle with a striped circle on top of it." This isn't easy. To make matters even more
challenging, formal test examiners are specifically instructed NOT to repeat some of the questions. That
some questions cannot be repeated underscores that your child must be familiar and comfortable with
listening to and understanding spoken information. Because it's so basic to success, Following Directions is
the most heavily emphasized skill in KTSS.

Classification
If you've watched Sesame Street, you might have seen a segment where a character sings, "one of these
things is not like the others," and shows some things, asking the child to figure out which one doesn't
belong. What children are doing (without realizing it) is deciding what similar details comprise the category
and classifying which thing doesn't belong. KTSS helps children to understand similarities and classify
pictures by focusing on relevant details and ignoring what's irrelevant. The adult's script in KTSS encourages
children to explain WHY the thing they've chosen doesn't belong and gives them a format to do this
logically. When your child goes through this process, he or she will become more likely to carefully evaluate
choices, distinguish between relevant and irrelevant details, and answer with care.

Reasoning
Reasoning is the ability to make sense of a concept that has been described verbally. This is another skill,
like Following Directions, where listening to and remembering spoken information is critical to success.
With KTSS, your child will become accustomed to spoken logic puzzles and common sense questions that
might seem confusing at first, but with practice, will make more sense.

Analogies
For children this age, analogies appear in picture form. There are 5 common types of picture analogies that
should be practiced in order to be well-prepared. These analogies deal with: 1) changes in relative degree,
such as size or number, 2) parts of a whole, 3) changes in position and knowledge of typical locations (e.g.,
a cow is typically found on a farm), 4) knowledge of typical functions or categories (e.g., boats are for water
transportation and cars are for ground transportation), and 5) cause/effect relationships. KTSS helps
children understand and explain analogies so that they can correctly approach analogies and other abstract
reasoning problems upon formal testing.

Arithmetic
Although your child may be too young to be formally taught arithmetic, he or she has an implicit
understanding of basic concepts and so can reason arithmetically. For example, if you show your child four
cookies, and say that you and your child will share them equally, you child will be sure to get his or her
share. If your child makes a mistake on this one, you can bet that the "mistake" is on purpose and that
your child is the one with the most cookies. To prepare for testing, children should practice the reasoning
that underlies the following basic arithmetic functions: counting and relative amounts, addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, and fractions. KTSS reviews and teaches the reasoning that underlies each of these
concepts and instructs adults in what to do and say if a child is having difficulty.

Sequencing
A sequence is a series of pictures or figures that follows a logical order where the task is to predict what
comes next. There are 6 common types of sequences that should be reviewed in order to be well-prepared.
These are sequences of pictures that: 1) fit a rhythmic pattern (first black, then white, then black, and so
on), 2) show movement (e.g., a square rotating position), 3) increase or decrease in size, number, or some
other characteristic, 4) make a complete visual image, 5) are a matrix (i.e., fit into a grid that shows a
pattern), and 6) tell a story. KTSS helps children to understand and appropriately think about these types of
visual problems that they may see upon formal testing.