by Sarah Major, M.Ed
Here’s a riddle for you! How do you teach in a way that ensures that all your children with their different learning strengths are reached? It is possible to teach the same multisensory curriculum to multiple children who learn most easily in a variety of ways.
Children who are non-traditional learners will be reached as well as those who would naturally thrive in the traditional classroom. I want to clarify that when I say “non-traditional learners,” I am not implying that something is wrong with the kids or with their natural method of learning. Some children just naturally gravitate to visuals, need movement in learning, or learn best through story or humor. And I use the word “traditional” only to mean "how we usually teach.”
Some of the key elements of a multisensory approach to teaching reading are laid out in the next few paragraphs.
Snowball New Concepts When Teaching Reading
Rather than teaching concepts in isolation, snowball them. For instance, teaching a child to recite her ABC’s and learn the sounds is like giving her a box of puzzle pieces to memorize. The facts are just a collection of facts with little to tie them together or give them meaning or relevance. If you snowball teach, you start with one little concept and then tie every new concept directly to the previous one. If you teach a child one little fact – the sound of short A related to the symbol A, you are starting with the first handful of snow packed tightly in your hands. When you teach the sound of T and tie it directly to the A to make AT, you have just added the second handful of snow to the first one. The ball is getting bigger. As you teach the sound of F, you are add it to AT to make FAT. Third handful of snow. It is really hard for a child to lose details when they are stuck together!
Use Images for Sight Word Acquisition and Comprehension
Use images for children who learn best via visuals, who have attention challenges, who are kinesthetic, who cannot memorize, etc. Images not only help with sight word acquisition by snapping pictures which are stored in the brain, but they instantly lend meaning to the word. If you use an image, children are not going to just be mindlessly naming a word without thinking about what it means; instead, they will grasp the meaning of the word because of the visual.
Show Relevance
For children who need to understand why they are learning various concepts, understand how what they are learning will work, and what they are going to do with the concepts, show relevance very early. For instance, if you snowball teach eight sounds, let the child move right into reading text that uses those eight sounds only. He will be able to fully understand why he is learning the sounds and relating them to his letter symbols.
Provide Successful Learning Experiences
There is little that is more effective in encouraging a child to want to learn than experiencing success in learning. If a child works to learn and blend initial sounds and then finds that she can successfully read actual books with those tools she has gained, she will feel so empowered by the fact that she can read, that all subsequent learning will be eagerly absorbed.
Teach Phonics and Sight Word Recognition Simultaneously
Obviously, no one could memorize all the words in our vocabulary! Kids need to learn phonics or sound spelling patterns in order to decipher new words they encounter while reading. However, it's very important to enable children to quickly gain a solid sight word base while they are learning sound spellings. Having that solid base of words they can quickly recognize makes reading much easier for them and helps keep them from viewing learning to read as a chore. If they come to see it that way, they will certainly not want to study reading and will ultimately avoid it.
Teach Whole to Part
Some children have a difficult time dealing first with all the little bits that go into reading (letters, sounds, etc.). They do much better if they can see and understand whole words first and then learn to pick them apart into their components. Combine systematic phonics instruction with sight word acquisition to allow both left and right brain learners to learn in the way that's easiest for them. Left brainers are able to acquire all the little bits and place them into order, while the right brainers are able to see the finished product and then discover all the little bits that go into making up the whole. It really is a beautiful idea!
Provide Tactile Helps
Learners who need visuals and tactile elements tremendously benefit from fingermapping and the use of whiteboards. Fingermapping provides a tangible, visible map of the words that keep visual and kinesthetic learners from becoming confused about the construction of a word. They use the fingermap very much like we use roadmaps on a trip to a new place.
Teach Phonics Concepts in Real World Situations
Rather than sharing phonics rules for the kids to learn, embed them in text that is engaging and funny so that the children can see the rules play out in the stories. What is more fun for a kid after all? Memorizing rules and drills or reading a funny book as a means to learning? Um, I think number two!
Rely on Visualization in Learning
Lead children into the practice of visualization. This practice is hugely important for all students in learning across the curriculum, but it is vital for visual learners. Begin day one teaching the child to rely on the pictures he makes in his imagination for learning and for remembering what he has learned. With our society’s emphasis on giving constant images to kids via computer games, TV, movies, etc., many children are out of the habit of visualizing. This is a real detriment to them when they read and are expected to understand and remember. Visualization is critical to solving math problems – visualizing the problem and using that visual to create a solution to the problem. Visualization also helps tremendously with understanding consequences to choices a child makes. Whatever we can do to encourage a child to make mental images is going to enhance his school experience at the very least.
Use a Teaching Approach That Prompts the Child to Work Out Meaning for Himself
Much of traditional education is designed in a way that allows the teacher to tell the students what he or she wants the students to know. Far too often there is not enough time spent with kids creating and working to discover how things work, too little that is hands-on and learner driven. Children in the teacher-driven environment are allowed to remain very passive, letting the teacher’s words wash over them, but not being required to engage their brain in the act of learning. We need our children to be actively involved in working out meaning for the material they are learning.
Final Thoughts
Take time to talk to each child about his/her learning strengths. Ask questions like "How did you remember that?" to discover how they learn most naturally. The true value of a multisensory curriculum is that you don't have to start from scratch with each child in order to effectively reach each type of learner. Once you ask those questions and notice what each child gravitates to, you can highlight those parts of the same curriculum to strengthen varying natural bents.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director & program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. where she received a B.A. in art. Sarah then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from full-time teaching in order to devote more of her time to Child1st. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
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