Direct Instruction got its start at the University of Illinois when Siegfried "Zig" Engelmann -- creator of Direct Instruction and Senior Author of the DI programs -- debuted DI, teaching at-risk preschoolers at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children. Students in the preschool learned remarkable skills, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, basic algebra, fractions and how to solve area problems. These students, some who attended the preschool for two years and others who only attended for one year, are shown demonstrating their skills in a video available on Zig's site.

The National Institute for Direct Instruction has developed a guide for the video that is free for download.

The guide is designed to help viewers identify (and leaders to facilitate conversations on) key aspects of DI presented in the video, including:

- The children's knowledge of specific mathematics concepts, rules and processes.  
- The students' ability to solve a wide range of mathematical problems.
- The self-confidence and independence demonstrated by the students.  
- The children's ability to focus their attention for long periods of time. 

See the video for yourself at here, and download the accompanying video guide here.