Descriptions of Standard Instruments in Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment

Organization of Dots
Organization of Dots is the first instrument in the Standard IE curriculum. The pages are built around analyzing the geometric shapes of a model and then finding and drawing the same figures within a cloud of dots. The nature of the task is particularly engaging and students must learn to restrain their impulsivity in order to take in data carefully and make a plan, using systematic search strategies. With this instrument, students begin to develop habits of taking in data carefully in order to proceed with completing the work. In addition to the actual work on the page, class discussions focus on how we organize our lives in terms of space, time, people and objects. Because the modality is primarily shapes, this instrument is accessible to persons who have limited literacy skills.

Orientation in Space I
Orientation in Space I is taught in tandem with Organization of Dots in order to balance the non-verbal instrument with a verbal one. OS I is built around the concepts of front, back, right and left. It is designed to help students understand that these directions are fluid rather than stable and that they are dependent on a point of view. As work progresses in this instrument, students deal with increasingly abstract concepts. They move from pictures and words to symbols. Work with OS I helps students not only with directions, but also with egocentricity. They must learn to think things through from viewpoints other than their own.

Comparisons
Comparisons is a key instrument in Level One. It begins with pictures, and then progresses to geometric shapes and words, challenging students to move from concrete to abstract representations. They are presented with tasks where they note similarities as well as differences. This is often difficult initially. A bicycle and a car are obviously quite different; however we see that they are both means of transportation. When students are just beginning to work with these concepts, they often repeatedly and adamantly state that the two are different. It's only with guidance that they can note the similarities while holding the differences in mind as well. As tasks become more complex, students have to identify, and later create, figures that are like a given model in number and size but unlike it in shape and direction. Or like the model in color, number and shape but unlike it in orientation. They are dealing with several sources of information simultaneously, an excellent exercise for the brain. More importantly, learning to see similarities among unlike things is the basis for categorization, a process that is critical to every school subject as well as a skill we use in daily living.

Analytic Perception
Also a Level I instrument, Analytic Perception requires students to develop skills of precision and accuracy as they analyze figures. They are learning that everything is made up of parts and that these parts can be joined together in various ways to create new wholes. They are also learning that when we have a complex task to solve, it is often helpful to break it down into smaller and more manageable portions.

Categorization
Categorization is the final instrument in Level I. Students learn the basic skill of grouping like objects and concepts into categories in order to deal more efficiently with growing complexity. There are several tasks that mimic real world problems of categorization. In one instance, students are given a list of zoo animals and are told to devise a plan that would group these animals in ways conducive to their native habitat and at the same time provide for their safety. This is a challenging task that requires a thoughtful approach and much hypothesizing and hypothesis testing.

Numerical Progressions
In this instrument, students work analyzing given progressions of numbers to determine the formula and also create progressions following given formulas. They begin with simple progressions and move to more complex ones. The emphasis is on understanding patterns and seeking to find the rule that governs things. Although the work is almost entirely with numbers, the instrument is not designed to teach math. It involves cause and effect and there are excellent bridging opportunities to science and history, as we learn about cycles and both ascending and descending progressions.

Temporal Relations
Perhaps because many students depend on visual cues, they often tend to be more oriented to the present. They may have difficulty mentally projecting the past and future. Among other things, this causes problems with sequencing in problem solving. Temporal Relations is an instrument usually taught in the second year of the IE sequence. It is designed to help students understand the abstract nature of time. Students first learn the labels for different measures of time and relationships between these. We then talk about how the past influences the present and how both past and present help determine the future. We continue to work on planning, connecting a task to our timetable for completing it. We talk about how to follow a sequence of events. This is useful in completing a science project, in making sense of the events in a story, and in understanding history. And we discuss cause and effect relationships--how what we do at a particular time has consequences. Obviously, this is important in social and work situations as well as at school!

Family Relations
While it uses the language of family relationships and the structure of family tree diagrams, this instrument is not limited to explanations of these types of relationships. It helps students understand organizational structures that we encounter in our families, in work situations, and in government. We discuss hierarchal arrangements and peer relations, symmetrical and asymmetrical relationships, as well as the responsibilities these relationships entail. Students learn correct labels and definitions for the terms. This instrument builds on what was learned in Categorization.

Illustrations
This is a pictorial instrument that is accessible to students who have no written language proficiency. The instrument can be taught at any point and pages can be taught in any sequence. Each page depicts a situation with a problem. Students analyze situations the frames by taking in data carefully and sequentially, looking for cause and effect and using inferential thinking and hypothesis testing. It is often possible to guide students toward developing a lesson or moral around the stories presented on these pages.

Instructions
This is a highly verbal instrument. Students work with lines and shapes learning to follow written directions and to give clear directions themselves in writing. They must use a high degree of precision in order to complete the tasks accurately. They move from simple tasks of decoding and encoding, to using these skills in increasingly complex ways.

Orientation in Space II
While Orientation in Space I dealt with directions that change depending on the referent, this instrument focuses on stable, unchanging directions. It introduces points of the compass and students learn to give directions using the terms north, south, east, west and the points between.

Transitive Relations
In this instrument, students problem solve by making inferences based on given information. They learn to translate written problems using letters and symbols. They learn to determine when further deductions are possible, and when they may not have enough information to proceed. These tasks develop logical thinking skills that are helpful in preparing students for a variety of academic areas. They connect particularly well with algebraic thinking.

Syllogisms
In Syllogisms, students learn formal logical thinking in a more verbal format. This instrument builds on Comparisons and Categorization. Initially, tasks are simple. Using Venn diagrams, students learn to work a variety of exercises in logic. They begin with content that is familiar, progressing to tasks where the items are completely abstract and are presented as shapes or letters only. This move to abstraction tests the ability of the student to use the process on unfamiliar material.

Representational Stencil Design
This instrument is quite different from others in the program. In addition to the standard task pages, there is a page with colored stencils and four pages of colored designs. The tasks required the student to analyze the designs and determine how to create them, using the stencils. Because these are all presented in a two dimensional format, they must be mentally, rather than physically, manipulated. While we often tout hands-on learning, this task requires hypothesizing and testing hypotheses without the luxury of rearranging the stencils with our hands. This is brains-on learning.