Using Multisensory Instruction to Teach Phonological Awareness

Research studies consistently support the efficacy of multisensory instruction in improving reading outcomes. Multisensory instruction, sometimes called multimodal instruction, is a teaching approach that engages more than one sense, or modality, at a time.   

According to a meta-analysis by Torgesen (2004), multisensory approaches significantly enhance decoding and reading comprehension skills among struggling readers. 

Furthermore, a longitudinal study conducted by the International Dyslexia Association found that students who received structured multisensory literacy instruction consistently outperformed their peers in reading fluency and accuracy (IDA, 2020).

Follow along with my latest blog series as I break down each component of reading and provide ways to make your reading instruction multisensory.  

Let's start with the foundational skill of phonological awareness. 

Phonological awareness is the broad skill that encompasses identifying and manipulating all parts of oral language.  This is a crucial skill teachers need to directly and explicitly teach their students, as it lays the foundation for learning to read. 

Think of phonological awareness as an umbrella which has skills like rhyming, identifying final, medial and initial sounds, syllabication, etc. all housed underneath.  

Phonemic awareness is often confused with phonological awareness.  In fact many people use these two terms interchangeably, yet they are not the same.  Phonemic awareness is one of those sub skills under the phonological awareness umbrella.

Now that we have an understanding of the definition, lets dive into how a teacher makes teaching phonological awareness multisensory. 

Check out these ideas below: 

Phoneme Segmentation with Manipulatives:

• Provide students with small objects (e.g., buttons, counters) and a set of picture cards representing words with different phonemes.
• As students segment the sounds in each word (e.g., cat -> /k/ /a/ /t/), they place a manipulative object for each sound segment.
• This activity combines visual (seeing the objects), tactile (handling the objects), and auditory (saying the sounds) senses, reinforcing phonemic awareness.

Phoneme Blending with Sound Cards:

• Use sound cards or letter tiles representing individual phonemes.
• Ask students to blend the sounds together to form words. For example, with cards for /c/, /a/, /t/, students can blend them to say "cat".
• This approach engages visual (seeing the letters), tactile (manipulating the cards), and auditory (saying the sounds) senses, helping students learn to blend phonemes accurately.

Orthographic Mapping--Resources to Help Students Map Words (Post 4)

We have made it to the end of the All About Orthographic Mapping blog series.  My goal was for readers to know the definition of orthographic mapping, understand its importance and have strategies to promote mapping in your classroom. 

I am hopeful that has been accomplished! :)  

In pervious posts, I gave TWELVE...YES 12...strategies teachers should start using in their classrooms to help students map words, so today... lets talk resources.  

But, wait a minute...what is the difference between strategies and resources? 

Strategies are quick, engaging and easy to implement.  A strategy requires little to no materials and preparation.  Resources, on the other hand, have a bit more meat to them.  Resources are teaching materials that are more comprehensive in nature and might require more time to implement and prepare.  Below are FIVE resources that will help students map words!   

1. Word Sorts

• Word sorting is focused on orthography, specifically identifying the patterns within words.  When students categorize words based on their spelling, sounds or even their meaning they are mapping words.  Using word sorts has NOTHING to do with memorization, but everything to do with orthographic development! 

2. Heart Word Flashcards

• Students need explicit and systematic phonics instruction in order to crack the code of our written language.  With that being said, we NEED to explicitly teach students high frequency words as many of them are used in decodable readers and help make meaningful sentences.  The majority of high frequency words are decodable, and students are able to read them using their decoding strategies.  However, some high frequency words are heart words (irregularly spelled).  These heart words need special attention.  Research has shown that attending to the letter sound correspondences in irregular words (heart words) promotes memory in a similar manner to how we store regular words. (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 58)   This means we point out the predictable AND irregular part of a heart word.  The flashcards below include all of Fry's high frequency words with heart words identified. 

3. Words Their Way

• This research based spelling/phonics program teaches the developmental stages of spelling.  The curriculum ranges from Pre-K all the way to high school and is a wonderful resource for orthographic development. 

4. Rime Magic

• Teaching students rime units will increase their skills in sounding out words and spelling.  Words are stored in our brains by onsets and rimes and if students are directly taught common rime units--they will be able to quickly and efficiently decode unfamiliar words.  Rime Magic, by Sharon Zinke, teaches students to see the rime in each word.  This program can be used as a prevention or intervention. 

5. Equipped for Reading Success 

• I cannot say enough positive things about this book!  Equipped for Reading Success provides teachers with foundational knowledge about what needs to be done to solve word level reading problems AND how to solve them.   

Orthographic Mapping--MORE Strategies to Help Students Map Words (post 3)

In my previous post I shared SIX ways to help students map words.  

BUT.....as teachers we aren't just limited to six ways.  In fact, there are many other techniques you can implement in your instructional routine.  So...I am devoting this post to SIX MORE strategies you can use to promote orthographic mapping with your students.   

1. Phoneme Grapheme Mapping

• When we teach phonics we teach the letter and then the sound, but in order to be skilled in orthographic mapping we need to go from sound to grapheme (letter or letter combination). Mapping 3-5 words per phonics lesson is a great strategy to build up a student's orthographic lexicon.  
• Check out the phoneme to grapheme maps in the resource below--which also includes a word list and instructional routine. 

2. Spell Nonsense Words

• Having students spell nonsense words forces them to be aware of the phonemes she or he is hearing.  When teachers use real words all of the time, we run the risk of a student having prior experience or knowledge of that word.  With nonsense word spelling students must listen for the sound, and then write the correct sound.  This reinforces phoneme awareness and letter to sound skills.  Aiming for 3-5 nonsense words per phonics lesson is a great practice!  

3. Mixed Case

• Used mixed cases for word level reading.  Using this technique disrupts any strategy a student may have for remembering the "look" of the word and keeps students focused on the string of letters. 

4. Space Between Letters

• Much like using mixed case for word level reading, putting space between the letters in a word disrupts a students ability to memorize the "look" of a word. In addition a larger space between a word, makes it easier for students to focus on each letter in the letter sequence.  Viewing words with extra space between the letters is best done at a distance.

5. Reverse Sentence Reading

• The real point of reverse sentence reading is to prevent guessing of the text by using context clues.  Before having students read a sentence the normal way (left to right), have the student read the sentence from the last word to the first word. When a student has correctly read the words in the sentence, he or she may read it the proper way. 

6. Teach Rime Units 

• Teaching students rime units will increase their skills in sounding out words, and spelling.  Words are stored in our brain by onsets and rimes, and if students are directly taught common rime units--they are able to quickly an efficiently decode an unfamiliar word.  Rime units not only show up in single syllable words, but also in multi-syllabic words. 
• Check out the rime unit pack below--which includes flashcards, games and strategies to directly teach students rime units. 

If you are looking for the first six ways I shared to promote orthographic mapping, check out the previous post by clicking here. 

Orthographic Mapping---Strategies to Help Students Map Words (Post 2)

How do you help students map words?  What teaching strategies should you use that promote orthographic mapping?   Those are big questions!  Luckily, I am going to answer them this post. Whoop....get excited!

If you aren't sure what orthographic mapping means, or you aren't sure why it is important...then you need to check out Post 1 in the Orthographic mapping series by clicking here. 

With orthographic mapping it is important to understand the more you know about a word; the more likely you are to have it become part of your orthographic lexicon (sight vocabulary).  To truly map a word we must know its alphabetic principle (connecting letters to their sound), phonology (the speech sounds), letter sound symbols, syllabication, and morphology (meaningful parts).  

Below you will find FIVE tips that will help students with orthographic mapping! Using the below strategies ARE effective and can easily be incorporated into your daily routines.  

1. Introduce words orally first

• Before you introduce a word in print (like in a story, on a spelling list or a vocabulary term) introduce it orally.  Have students notice the syllables, beginning, medial or final sounds, etc.
• Example: 
• Teacher: One of our new spelling words this week is dog.  
• How man sounds in dog? 
• What is the first sound in dog? 
• What is the medial sound?  
• What is the final sound? 
• Now that you know the sounds of the word dog,  lets look at the letters that are used to spell the word......   

2. Backward decoding

• Have students sound out words from back to front.  This activity activates the readers onset-rime skills.  In Equipped for Reading Success, Dr. David Kilpatrick explains this strategy works because words are stored in our brains by first sounds (onset) and rhyming patterns (rime units).  When we use a backward decoding technique we capitalize on both forms of how our words are stored in our brains: first sound and rhyming pattern. 
• Example: 
• Student sees the word "pest"
• The teacher will cover up the onset /p/
• Teacher: What does the rime say?  or  Spot the vowel and blend to the end. 
• Student: est
• Teacher will uncover the onset /p/
• Teacher: What does the whole word say? 
• Student:  pest

3. Highlight Rime Units

• This technique draws students attention to the internal structure of the word and minimizes guessing.  If you don't have a highlighter, you can underline, box or circle the rime unit.  As mentioned words are stored in our brains by onsets and rimes, and having a student focus on a rime aides in word storage.   If you are interested in a handout to help kids categorize words by rime...keep scrolling.  Below this image, you can click and download the resource for free! 

Ready to help your students map words?

Highlighting a rime unit is an easy and quick way to help students store words!

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 4. Oral spelling

• Have students spell a word aloud.  This can be done with the whole class, small reading groups or in pairs.  Oral spelling will reinforce the letter sound relationships of the word and help him or her make the word a familiar string of letters.  This would be a GREAT activity while standing in line or as a quick time filler.

5. Oral decoding

• The teacher will spell a word aloud and have the student determine the word based on the oral spelling. With oral decoding you are saying the letter names of the word, not the sounds.  This reinforces orthography.  Another quick, yet meaningful time filler!

6. Using Nonsense words

• Have students read 5-10 nonsense words per lesson.  This quick activity reinforces letter sound and skill building. If you want more information about why nonsense words are important, check out one of my pervious blog series ALL about nonsense words ! 

Keep in mind implementing these strategies in conjunction with a structured literacy approach is ideal and will help us create a generation of successful readers!

Stay tuned for MORE strategies to help readers orthographically map words!

Orthographic Mapping--what is it and why is it important? (Part 1)

Did you know that literate adults have a library of 30,000 to 70,000 words they can read automatically, accurately and effortlessly? 

These words are considered "sight words," because we instantly recognize them by sight.  This library of sight words is called your "orthographic lexicon" or your "sight word memory" as these words are orthographically mapped in your brain.

What is orthographic mapping? 

The official definition of orthographic mapping is: 

"The mental process we use to store words for immediate, effortless, retrieval. It requires phoneme proficiency and letter sound proficiency, as well as the ability to unconsciously or consciously make connections between the oral sound spoken in words and the letters written in words." -Kilpatrick, 2016

To understand it more simply, orthographic mapping is a filing system for the brain.  When you encounter a word that has already been mapped (meaning it is already stored in your mental filing system) multiple things will occur--the ability to produce the word by decoding it and the ability to understand the meaning.  Orthographic mapping is the process that all successful readers use to become fluent readers.

Lets take the word "bed." When you see "bed" you should be able to associate the string of sounds to the letter order of the word.

In addition to pronouncing the word, you should have some sort of meaning attached to the word. For example when you read the word, "bed" you should be able to associate this word with something that one sleeps on, and some sort of visual imagery should pop into your brain.  

Orthographic mapping is a high processing ability!  The most important thing to remember is that orthographic mapping is an immediate, effortless retrieval.  You see a word, you say it and you know it. 

Why is orthographic mapping important?

The great thing about mapped words is that once a word is mapped, you can't unmap it.  It is mapped forever.  Whoop!  Mapped words are what enables us to be efficient readers.  When we have a large orthographic lexicon, we are able to focus on the meaning of what we read INSTEAD of word reading.

Teachers in grades Prek to first help students with orthographic mapping by teaching students phonological awareness and decoding skills.  This sets the stage for typically developing readers in second grade and beyond to have strong skills to be able to map words. 

Orthographic mapping continues well into adulthood.  As readers we continue to map words and add them to our sight vocabulary, or orthographic lexicon.  As our sight word vocabulary increases, our fluency (accurate and efficient reading of text) also improves. 

Orthographic mapping is vital to become a successful reader. 

How do you help students map words?

Follow along in this three part blog series where we will tackle teaching strategies to help students map words AND resources teachers can use! 

In the meantime if you are looking for more information about orthographic mapping, check out this blog post I wrote earlier by clicking here.  It is full of GREAT information, and a video by David Kilpatrick!

Another great resources is a blog post from Keys to Literacy about orthographic mapping in school.

Nonsense Word Fluency Part 2: Three Stages of Word Reading

Welcome to part two in the three part series about nonsense word fluency.  If you missed part one, make sure you check it out by clicking here.  Part one gives the reason why teachers should be assessing students on nonsense words. 

For this post we will be defining the three stages of word reading-- sound by sound, partial blends and whole word reading.  Using a nonsense word fluency assessment, a teacher is able to determine which of the three stages a reader is at.  It is important to note that all students progress through these stages on their journey to read accurately and fluently. Knowing which stage students are in will help teachers plan their instructional focus.   

The fist stage is sound by sound reading.  Sound by sound reading is exactly as it sounds, the student individually pronounces each phoneme and then blends the sounds together to form the word.  In some cases the child may not blend, or blend incorrectly.  This is the most basic, and very first stage in word reading.

The second stage is partial blends.  This is when students are able to blend the rime together and then blend the rime with the onset.  For example in the word cat the student would say /c/ /at/ and then blend the onset and rime and read cat. In some cases the student may blend the rime first /at/ and then blend the onset with the rime to say the whole word /cat/.   This stage is more advanced than sound by sound reading. 

The final stage of word reading is unitizing the word.  This is the most advanced stage of word reading, and the stage we want all kids to arrive at.  Unitizing is when the student sees the word in text, thinks the word and says the word.  The students brain is able to instantly see the letters, know their sounds and blend the sounds to read the word--their phonological and orthographic processor are working efficiently and simultaneously.

Below is an example of how I record my NWF assessments.  I place a line under each letter if the student is at stage 1: sound by sound.  I place a longer line under the rime and a short line under the onset if the student is at stage 2: partial blends.  I place a long line under the whole word if the student is at stage 3: unitizing.  This is a really easy way to track which stage your students are at.  

Now that we have an understanding of the three stages of word reading, the next logical question is what should the instructional focus be at each stage?

Well.....stay tuned my friends......that will be the third post in this three part series. :) 

Stopping Sound by Sound Reading: Part 3

Welcome to part three in a four part series on how to stop sound by sound reading!

Throughout the series I will be explaining the three lesson components you need to stop sound by sound reading: phonemic awareness, orthographic mapping and decoding. Part 1  detailed what happens inside a sound by sound reader's brain.  You can read it by clicking here.  Part 2 discusses the importance of phonemic awareness.  You can read it by clicking here.

For part 3 we are discussing orthographic mapping.

Orthographic mapping is the process of forming links from sounds to letters or letter combinations.  For example lets take a word such as sit.  "Sit" is most likely already in a our phonological lexicon (we have heard it, we've said it and we most likely know the meaning). When we see the word sit our brain will (very quickly) break apart the word into individual phonemes /s/ /i/ /t/ and then know that sit is made up of three sounds /s/ /i/ /t/.  When a word is orthographically mapped in your brain, you are able to instantly recognize the word.  When that word is instantly recognized it now becomes a sight word--we know it by sight.

One quick item to note is that often teachers talk about "sight words," but they are really reffering to high frequency words.  High frequency words (Dolch or Fry) are important as these words appear frequently in text, but they aren't truly sight words unless they have been orthograpchially mapped.  Distinguishing betwen the two terms is important.....but perhaps that is another blog post. :)

Orthographic mapping requires advanced phonemic awareness (changing, manipulating and deleting sounds from words), letter sound knowledge and phonological long term memory.  So how do we help kids orthographically map???

Firstly, students must have letter sound mastery.  Early childhood educators are amazing at this, and there are tons of great resources to help students remember alphabetic principal.  Check out this list of great tips from Reading Rockets. 

Secondly, students must be systematically and explicitly taught phonics.  This means students should be directly taught phonics in a highly structured and carefully sequenced manner.  Educators should start from the simplest concepts and advance to skills that are more complex.  Direct instruction should comprise of the instructor defining the concept, modeling it, guiding students through applicaiton and then provide extended opportunities for students until mastery is achieved.  The graphic below, from 95% group, illustrates a great sequence of phonics skills. 

Thirdly,  students need direct instruction and practice on common letter confusion (b/d, p/q, was/saw, etc.).  Linda Farrell has a great resource on her website Readsters to help with common letter and common word confusion.  Check out this short video of her modeling it below!


I have to admit devoting time each day to fixing common letter confusions was a big aha for me!  I had always helped students when it happened organically in text (i.e a student would read bad for dad and I would reference the bed visual haning on my markerboard)---but I never did it as a daily intervention.  Now--I have it incorporated into my daily routines to help students rewire their brain!!

Fourthly, students need to to be taught irregular high frequency words to mastery.  Irregular words are words that can't be phonetically decoded.  Linda Farrell calls them "heart words," because you just have to know them by heart. Here are a few examples:

The best way to teach irregular words is to make instruction multi-sensory.  Have students air write,  arm tap, table write, or rainbow write the word as they say the letters and then recite the word. This website has a few video examples of how to do that with your students. Check it out by clicking here.

See you next time for part four: decoding!

Stopping Sound by Sound reading: Part 2

Welcome back!

We are going to explore the first intervention that should be included to stop sound by sound reading.  If you aren't sure how to identify who a sound by sound reader is, and what goes on inside their brain, make sure to check out Part 1 of Stopping Sound by Sound Reading.

The first component (of the three) that should be included is phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual phonemes of spoken words.  Phonemic awareness is often confused with phonological awareness.  In fact many people use these two terms interchangeably, yet they are not the same.  Lets take a moment and distinguish between the two, and really get our understanding solid.

Phonological awareness is the broad skill that encompasses identifying and manipulating all parts of oral language).  Think of phonological awareness as an umbrella which has skills like rhyming, identifying final, medial and initial sounds, syllabication, etc. all housed underneath.  Phonemic awareness is one of those sub skills under  the phonological awareness umbrella.

Phonemic awareness requires students to be able to manipulate the smallest units of speech. Kilpatrick (2015) says that phonemic awareness is an essential part of the process of storing words in one's sight vocabulary.  A reader's sight vocabulary is any group of words that an individual can decode quickly and effortlessly (high frequency or not).  Phonemic awareness is what allows us to anchor the sounds in a word to the sequence of letters that represent those sounds (Kilpatrick 2015).

We want our students to be quick and accurate decoders, so we MUST explicitly instruct in the area of phonemic awareness!!!

So....how do you do that?

The answer: sound chaining!

Sound chaining is where students receive explicit instruction and practice with phoneme manipulation.  Students will substitute, delete, and add sounds orally.  Students will use colored tiles, blocks, chips, paper squares, etc to represent sounds in words. It is important to note that students ARE NOT looking at any text--this is all done in the world of sound.

Follow the steps below in the graphic to complete the sound chaining exercise with students.  You can also download the steps and a sample word list by clicking here.


I would recommend starting with two sound words and progress to 3, 4 and 5 sound words when your students are ready.  Also, start with changing the beginning sound and progress to final and medial.    Keep in mind DO NOT add letters---as this is a phonemic awareness task and we are just working in the world of sound.

If you are looking for some word lists to complete this sound chaining exercise, check out these free resources:

Word list from On Track Reading
Word list from Really Great Reading
Word list from Hanging Around Primary (TPT Freebie)
Word list from Fun with Phonological Awareness

Also make sure you vist my TPT store to download the steps and sample word list by clicking here.  It's free!