Multisensory Teaching for Reading and Spelling

Reading and spelling are two very difficult concepts to teach children. One very powerful method you can use to maximize your child’s learning is the multi-sensory approach- using the three main senses of sight, hearing and touch when teaching. Sight, hearing and touch are three main pathways to the brain, and when you utilize all three pathways in teaching then your child will learn and retain more.

The eyes, ears and hands act as information receptors that gather data and send it to the brain to process and decide it should be stored in it memory. The more information receptors used the better likelihood that that information will be retained in the brain’s memory banks. Author Mary Rippel demonstrates in this article that multi-sensory teaching doesn’t have to be difficult; she even addresses questions many parents may have regarding this technique and explains how it can be used.

Key Takeaways:

The three primary senses we can involve in learning to read and spell are sight, hearing, and touch.

Smell and taste play no factor in learning.

Multisensory teaching is a way to reach every child regardless of how they learn and process information because each learner is different.

Author: Marie Rippel

Author Quote “

Some intuitive learners can just “figure out” the logic of English on their own, but if your child is an auditory or kinesthetic (hands-on) learner, ordinary lessons may not be going quite as well.

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