Multisensory teaching is an essential component of instruction for students with dyslexia, which is implemented by trained tutors. Effective instruction for dyslexic children is also intensive, cumulative, and direct, and focuses on the structure of language. Students with dyslexia need a different approach to learning language. They need to be taught thoroughly and slowly. Read this blog post to learn more about the importance of multisensory teaching for dyslexic students.
What to Expect from Tutoring Services for Dyslexic Students?
Dyslexia is a learning disability, but there are a few ways to support children with dyslexia to learn to read, write, and spell effectively. Dyslexia tutoring can be effective for supporting children to work through the challenges in their own way. Tutors at Class in Session use the Orton-Gillingham method and multisensory teaching. Our Orton-Gillingham Tutors know every trick to support children in overcoming their learning challenges.
Multi-Sensory Tutoring in Toronto for Dyslexic Students
Multisensory learning is a technique that involves the process of using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways to improve memory and learning of written language. Tutors who use this approach help students understand the sounds of speech in words (phonemes). Students learn to connect speech sounds (phonemes) to letters or letter patterns by saying sounds for letters they see or writing letters for sounds they hear.
When students learn a new letter or pattern (like “s” or “th”), tutors may dictate a few words containing the sound of the new letter or pattern. The students will repeat these words to discover the sound that is the same in all of them. After that, they will look at the words written on a piece of paper or the chalkboard to discover the new letter or pattern. Following this technique, students will first listen to the sound of the letter(s), then see it written and practice writing it while saying the corresponding sound. Toronto Tutors may dictate the sound and the letter name(s) given by the student.
Students then use these patterns to build their reading fluency. They read and spell words, phrases, and sentences using these patterns, relying on all three pathways for learning instead of focusing on a ‘whole word memory method,’ a ‘tracing method,’ or a ‘phonetic method’ alone.
Is Multi-Sensory Teaching Beneficial for Dyslexic Students?
In short, it can be said that multisensory teaching is effective for students with dyslexia. This structured and explicit language teaching method has proven to be effective for all students, especially those with dyslexia. Effective instructional approaches involve direct and explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships, syllable patterns, and meaningful word parts, which are then followed up with lots of successful practice. Fluency-building exercises, vocabulary instruction, language comprehension, and writing are all important components of a comprehensive program of instruction and intervention.
To help students improve their word recognition and spelling skills, it’s crucial that they apply these skills in meaningful reading and writing activities. Immediate feedback on any mistakes they make is also important. Guessing at words and skipping words will be discouraged, and students should instead learn how to analyze and read unknown words.
- Multisensory teaching uses auditory, visual and kinesthetic-tactile aspects to improve learning.
- Connections are established between the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways in learning to spell and read.
- This approach is commonly known as the Orton-Gillingham approach, which refers to the sequential multisensory technique established by Dr Samuel Orton, Ms Anna Gillingham, and their colleagues.
- Orton-Gillingham’s approach uses multisensory techniques with teaching structures of written English, common spelling rules, meaning units (prefixes, suffixes, roots), and sounds (phonemes).
Now that you know the importance of the multisensory approach and the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching children with dyslexia. If your child is diagnosed with dyslexia, then you don’t need to worry about it as you can receive support from our tutors to support them improve their learning abilities.