Multi-Sensory Teaching

Initially the alphabet sounds needs to be fully mastered and slowly linked together to make words so that there is a seamless understanding that putting individual sounds together make words. Spelling rules need to be taught until they are understood, for example: the letter ‘W’ changes the sound of the vowel ‘a’ after it to ‘o’ that is why ‘was’ is spelt this way as opposed to ‘wos’ which is far more logical! Homophones, which are words sounding the same but spelt differently, present problems for everybody, but are a Dyslexic’s nightmare. They need to be taught very carefully and thoroughly again in a fun but thorough way. Obvious homophones such as ‘right’ and ‘write’ and ‘there’ and ‘their’ and ‘see’ and ‘sea’ are so frequent in reading and writing that they just need to be overlearned and assimilated as soon as possible. Take every opportunity as a parent to support this even on holiday; ask your child to write ‘sea’ in the sand, it is about as multi-sensory as you can get, especially if the ‘sea’ rolls over it… and ‘beach’ in shells, to reinforce the fact that ‘beech’ the tree has nothing to do with shells on a ‘beach’. More seaside homophones: ‘sail’, as opposed to, ‘sale’, ‘shore’ as opposed to ‘sure’, ‘tide’ as opposed to ‘tied’, ‘current’ as opposed to ‘currant’ and let’s not forget ‘sun’ and ‘son’ and ‘rain’ and ‘rein’ and ‘reign’ and ‘weather’ as opposed to ‘whether’…