Multisensory Techniques Enhance Reading Acquisition

The following blog post was written by special education advocate Allison Meyerson.

Do you remember learning to read? For most people, the answer is probably “no.” You might remember a favorite book or the first book you read alone, but we usually don’t remember the act of learning to match the letters with the sounds and sounding out unknown words. For about 80 percent of the population, learning to read comes very naturally. The adult shows you a letter, or group of letters (grapheme) and tells you the corresponding sound (phoneme), then you apply it to the letters on the page and voila you read. However, for nearly 20 percent of the population, learning to read is insanely difficult and often seems impossible. For over 15 years, I utilized the Orton Gillingham techniques to help children learn how to read.

Phonemes, Graphemes, OH MY!

Did you know that there are 44 sounds (phonemes) in the English language, but about 250 different ways to write (graphemes) those sounds? For example, the phoneme /or/ is written using multiple graphemes including /or/ as in fork, /au/ as in haunted, /oar/ as in board, /our/ as in four, and /oor/ as in door. Each grapheme has a rule attached to it for when and where it makes a particular sound. For people without a learning issue, generalizations are automatically made, connected, and applied. However, for children with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, this generalization is not made. Instead, these children need to be explicitly taught, in other word, they need clear explanations and examples from the teacher, with concise and specific language. The instruction needs to incorporate multisensory techniques, a teaching method that involves engaging more than one sense at a time to help students learn. Only then can they master the rules that govern the English language

Learning to Read by Engaging All Five Senses

Children with dyslexia need to utilize different modalities to help their brain connect the grapheme with the phoneme. Using the sense of smell, taste, sight, sound, and touch helps rewire the brain by stimulating multiple senses at once, which activates different parts of the brain. This process helps organize and reorganize neural pathways, which are the connections in the brain. In addition, muscle movement stimulates learning and memory, making it easier to absorb information and form long-term memories. The goal is to use multisensory teaching to help dyslexic children learn all 250 graphemes. An arduous task? Absolutely! Rewarding? ABSOLUTELY!

During the first 17 years of my career, I was a classroom teacher. For ten of those years, I was a first-grade teacher. The most important skill first graders learn is how to read. Since I was schooled in the Orton Gillingham techniques, I had much success teaching my students to read. Based on this success, I was asked to be the building’s literacy specialist. Whether I was in a classroom of 25 first graders or a reading room comprised of three children, multisensory instruction was my go-to method. Unmade Jello and shaving cream were the favorites for tracing graphemes and writing words with practiced graphemes and phonemes. While Jello allowed the children to taste, shaving cream was favored for the use of a forbidden “grownup” item. Another favorite activity was using gross motor skills. Using a Twister board, each colored circle was labeled with a grapheme. For example, let’s say we are practicing these five graphemes: ee, ay, ck, ff, and ai. Mixed up on the board are these five graphemes. On the spinner, I put the rules for each grapheme. I would spin the dial and land on the rule “makes the long /a/ sound at the end of a word.” The child would need to jump to ay, repeat the rule, and say the grapheme and phoneme.

Three Benefits of the Multi-Sensory Approach

Here are three benefits to utilizing this approach and engaging the children with multisensory techniques:

1. Children have fun - They are motivated to participate because it’s enjoyable.

2. Children learn - Positivity breeds positivity and learning to read breeds learning to read! Once the ball gets rolling, the children are so excited, they want to learn, and they want to practice what they have learned. They are proud of their success.

3. Reading improves - Children feel more confident about themselves and reading, and then are motivated to learn more.

So, while you might not remember learning to read, if you struggled to learn, I guarantee you that the person who taught you to read remembers. I know that as a teacher, one of my favorite experiences was to witness a child who, two months earlier. couldn’t read a two-letter word and now could read a book. The joy and pride continuously inspired my work.

Allison Meyerson is a non-attorney special education advocate serving clients in New York’s Orange and Rockland counties and New Jersey’s Union and Bergen counties as well as surrounding areas.


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