Ask any first-grade classroom full of children what the five senses are, and you should see lots of hands in the air. Like most of us, they learned in kindergarten that they can use the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch to understand their world.
Imagine a typical lesson about how a plant grows from a seed. Students might listen to a story about gardening, they might look at pictures of different types of plants, and they might visit a playground garden to smell the mint and taste the tomatoes! They will probably even get to plant some bean sprout seeds with their own two hands. Engaging all of those senses helps children gain a deeper understanding of the concept.
"As children learn to make the connections between letters and sounds, their brains are actually changing."
When learning to read, engaging as many senses as possible has a slightly different purpose. As children learn to make the connections between letters and sounds, their brains are actually changing. The brain creates what is called a "neural pathway" every time a new connection is made. With enough repetition and the right type of instruction, this information is actually "mapped" onto the areas of the brain responsible for recalling the meaning of visual input. If a child learns that the lowercase letter "a" feels like a curvy shape when she traces it in the air, sounds like /a/ in apple, and she sees the shape her mouth makes when she says its sound, she is simultaneously creating multiple neural pathways to ultimately map this new information onto her brain forever!
This is why multi-sensory instruction is so important when teaching children how to read. While it comes so easily to some children, many others need help making those connections permanent. It takes all of the senses to make sense of reading!
I hope that this post is helpful in clarifying the value of why multi-sensory instruction is so important when teaching children how to read, but please reach out if you have any further questions, I am always happy to connect with parents!
Comments