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Multisensory Teaching Methods

Studies have shown that a multisensory teaching method is the most effective for children with reading difficulties like dyslexia. This involves using more than one sense, such as sight, hearing, touch, and movement. For example, teachers may have students trace letters with their fingers in sandpaper or write large letters on the carpet to create tactile and kinetic memories in addition to visual and auditory ones. Using multiple senses takes advantage of different areas of the brain to help dyslexic children better remember letters and words.

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1K views2 pages

Multisensory Teaching Methods

Studies have shown that a multisensory teaching method is the most effective for children with reading difficulties like dyslexia. This involves using more than one sense, such as sight, hearing, touch, and movement. For example, teachers may have students trace letters with their fingers in sandpaper or write large letters on the carpet to create tactile and kinetic memories in addition to visual and auditory ones. Using multiple senses takes advantage of different areas of the brain to help dyslexic children better remember letters and words.

Uploaded by

NISHA
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Studies from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development have

shown that for children with difficulties learning to read, a multisensory


teaching method is the most effective teaching method.
This is especially crucial for a dyslexic child. But what does it mean?

Using a multisensory teaching approach means helping a child to learn through more
than one of the senses. Most teaching in schools is done using either sight or
hearing (auditory sensations). The child’s sight is used in reading information,
looking at diagrams or pictures, or reading what is on the teacher’s board. The
sense of hearing is used in listening to what the teacher says. A dyslexic child
may experience difficulties with either or both of these senses. The child’s
vision may be affected by difficulties with tracking, visual processing or seeing
the words become fuzzy or move around. The child’s hearing may be satisfactory on
a hearing test, but auditory memory or auditory processing may be weak.

The answer is to involve the use of more of the child’s senses, especially the use
of touch and movement (kinetic). This will give the child’s brain tactile and
kinetic memories to hang on to, as well as the visual and auditory ones.

An example

An example will make this clear. The majority of dyslexic children experience
confusion over the direction of ‘b’ and ‘d’. They can both be seen as a stick with
a circle at its base. But on which side does the circle sit? A teacher might give
the child a tactile (touchy/feely) experience of the letter ‘b’ by getting the
child to draw the letter really large on the carpet. This will involve the child
using their arms, their sense of balance, their whole body. They will remember the
day their teacher had them 'writing' on the carpet with their hand making this
great big shape, and can use that memory the next time they come to write the
letter.

Some teachers purchase letters made out of sandpaper so that the children can run
their fingers over the letter ‘b’, giving them a strong tactile memory. The
thought of it sends a shiver down my spine!

Writing the letter ‘b’ in cursive handwriting on paper and with a big movement in
the air puts a quite different slant on this letter. The letter starts on the line
and rises to begin the down-stroke: there is nowhere else to put the circular bit
but ahead of the down stroke.

Yet another way to give a strong tactile memory of ‘b’ is to make the letter out
of plasticine, play-dough or clay.

A commonly used ‘trick’ to remember the direction of ‘b’ and ‘d’ is to show the
child the word ‘bed’ on a card. This word begins with ‘b’ and ends with ‘d’, so
that if you draw a bed over the letters, the upright part of ‘b’ will become the
head of the bed, and the upright part of the ‘d’ will become the foot. You can
draw a child lying on the bed to complete the picture. This gives a strong visual
memory for the child to use each time the letter has to be written.

You can also show the child how to hold up their index finger on each hand, with
the thumb and second finger touching, making the word ‘bed’, but without the ‘e’.
If they learn to do this, they can make this shape discretely with their fingers
each time they need a reminder in class.
The net result of these activities will be that a child has a visual memory from
seeing the letter, an auditory memory from hearing the sound it makes, a tactile
memory from writing the letter in cursive handwriting, in the air, and from
touching the sandpaper letter, and a kinetic (body movement) memory from having
drawn the letter really large on the carpet. Altogether a multisensory experience!

This tried and tested method has been used successfully for a long time, and its
success lies in the fact that the dyslexic child is not limited to visual and
auditory experiences but can make use of other areas of the brain in trying to
establish clear memories of letters, words and numbers that are difficult to
remember.

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