Top Tips for Implementing Multisensory Instruction in the Classroom

If you’ve been following along with the multisensory series, you already know that engaging multiple senses during instruction can have a powerful impact on student learning. When students see, hear, touch, move, and talk about content, they build stronger neural connections that support deeper understanding and longer retention.

Multisensory instruction engages visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile pathways, helping students connect language, concepts, and meaning more effectively. Research cited by the National Reading Panel highlights that instructional approaches combining these modalities can help students link language with meaning.  This is particularly impactful for students with learning differences.

Implementing multisensory instruction doesn’t have to mean elaborate activities or complicated setups. In fact, some of the most effective strategies are simple, intentional shifts in how we deliver instruction.

Check out some of these practical tips to help you successfully bring multisensory learning into your classroom:

1. Start with the Learning Objective

One of the biggest misconceptions about multisensory instruction is that it’s simply about making lessons “fun.” While multisensory activities can certainly be engaging, their true purpose is to reinforce academic content through multiple pathways in the brain.

Before planning an activity, ask yourself:

• What state/national standards am I addressing?

• What is the learning objective?

• Which senses would best reinforce this concept?

When multisensory strategies align with the objective, they move from a “fun activity” to an intentional learning tool.

2. Be Intentional with the Modalities You Choose

Different skills benefit from different sensory modalities. Simply rotating through visual, auditory, or kinesthetic activities does not necessarily make a lesson multisensory. Instead, the sensory experience should reinforce the content.

Consider matching modalities to the type of learning:

Visual Strategies

• Graphic organizers

• Anchor charts

• Color coding

• Diagrams and models

Auditory Strategies

• Choral reading

• Think-pair-share discussions

• Songs, chants, or rhymes

Kinesthetic Strategies

• Acting out vocabulary words

• Jumping syllables

• Walking number lines

Tactile Strategies

• Writing in sand, salt, or shaving cream

• Using manipulatives or magnetic letters

• Tracing textured letters

By intentionally selecting modalities that support the concept being taught, instruction becomes more meaningful and memorable for students.

3. Keep It Simple (Avoid Sensory Overload)

While multisensory instruction involves engaging multiple senses, more is not always better. Overloading students with too many visuals, sounds, or movements at once can actually overwhelm the brain and reduce learning.  Often, the most effective lessons combine just two or three complementary modalities.

4. Use Multisensory Strategies Across the Curriculum and Grade Levels

Multisensory instruction is often associated with math or elementary students, but it can be effective in every subject area and with students of every age.

Here are some examples that teachers of all ages and content can try:

Reading

• Act out scenes from a story

• Draw mental images of a passage

• Use sticky notes to annotate text

Vocabulary

• Create visual word maps

• Use gestures to represent word meanings

• Sort words by categories or patterns

Writing

• Sketch ideas before writing

• Build sentences using word strips

• Color-code paragraphs for structure

Math

• Walk a number line taped on the floor

• Use manipulatives to build equations

• Clap or snap while skip counting

When students interact with content through multiple senses, abstract ideas become more concrete and easier to understand.

5. Make Multisensory Instruction Part of Your Routine

Perhaps the most important tip is this: multisensory instruction should not be a special event.

Instead, it should be embedded into everyday teaching routines. When students consistently engage multiple senses during learning, they build stronger connections and develop greater confidence.

Give it a try!!!  Add one intentional multisensory strategy to your instruction, observe how your students respond, and build from there. Over time, these simple shifts can transform learning into an experience that is not only more engaging, but also far more effective.

And as always…

Keep sparking those minds, educators! 💡

Top 5 Mistakes Teachers Make with Multisensory Instruction

We LOVE multisensory learning—but like any powerful teaching tool, it’s only as effective as the intention behind it. When done well, multisensory instruction engages the brain through multiple pathways—visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile—enhancing memory, comprehension, and student engagement. But when done without purpose, it can miss the mark or even backfire.

Let’s break down the Top 5 Mistakes we sometimes make with multisensory instruction—and how to course-correct for more meaningful learning!

1. Confusing Multisensory with “Fun and Cute”

Multisensory instruction is not just about glitter, slime, or classroom theatrics. Yes, it can be fun—but its primary purpose is to engage multiple senses to support memory, understanding, and application of academic content.

🔹 What the research says: According to the National Reading Panel (2000), instructional approaches that include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile elements help students link language with meaning, especially those with learning differences.

🔹 Mistake in action: A teacher has students write sight words in shaving cream (fun!)—but with no pre-teaching or follow-up, the activity becomes a sensory break, not a learning tool.

🔹 How to fix it: Before launching any multisensory task, ask yourself: Does this align with my objective? For example, tracing letters in sand while simultaneously saying the sound targets visual, tactile, and auditory channels—all reinforcing the same skill.

2. Not Being Intentional with the Modality

Different learning goals call for different sensory modalities. Simply rotating through “something visual,” then “something auditory,” doesn’t make it truly multisensory—it must be purposeful.

🔹 Modality defined: A modality is a way information is received and processed—visually (seeing), auditorily (hearing), kinesthetically (moving), or tactually (touching).

🔹 Mistake in action: Asking students to act out vocabulary words when a visual diagram would offer deeper meaning. Or, relying solely on music to teach math facts when hands-on manipulatives would be more effective.

🔹 How to fix it: Consider the content and the student's needs. Use movement for rhythm-based tasks (like syllable counting), visuals for abstract concepts (like fractions), and auditory repetition for fluency tasks. As Dr. Louisa Moats writes, “Teaching that is multisensory, structured, and sequential makes the content more accessible and memorable.”

3. Overstimulating the Environment

More isn't always better. While multisensory learning involves sensory input, overloading students with too many sights, sounds, or movements at once can lead to cognitive fatigue, especially for neurodiverse learners.

🔹 What the research says: According to Jensen (2005), the brain can only effectively process a limited number of stimuli at once. Multisensory experiences should support—not compete with—each other.

🔹 Mistake in action: A lesson includes a video, music, bright anchor charts, scented markers, and a group movement activity—all within 15 minutes.

🔹 How to fix it: Layer modalities strategically. For example, use visuals and movement together (like jumping syllables while pointing to word parts), but avoid mixing unrelated sensory inputs. Think simplicity with impact.

4. Thinking It’s Just for Littles

It’s easy to assume that multisensory methods are for pre-K or early elementary, but older students benefit just as much, especially when tackling abstract or complex content.

🔹 Mistake in action: Removing hands-on or movement-based activities once students reach third or fourth grade—assuming it’s too “babyish.”

🔹 How to fix it: Middle and high school students still benefit from multisensory strategies—just adapt the delivery. Try:

• Graphic organizers for essay planning (visual + kinesthetic)
• Vocabulary sorting with manipulatives (tactile)
• Socratic seminars with verbal rehearsal (auditory)
• Using gestures while solving equations (kinesthetic)

5. Using It as a One-Off

Multisensory instruction isn’t an event—it’s a routine. If we treat it like a “special activity” or once-a-week trick, we miss its power to deepen learning through repetition and consistency.

🔹 Mistake in action: A multisensory lesson appears once during phonics time, but isn’t seen again in comprehension, writing, or math.

🔹 How to fix it: Embed multisensory strategies across the curriculum and throughout the day. This creates a predictable structure and stronger brain connections. For example:

• Use hand motions daily for vowel teams.
• Incorporate movement breaks tied to content review.
• Start each math lesson with a verbal rehearsal of key vocabulary.
• Routine builds fluency, confidence, and mastery.

Multisensory learning works when it’s intentional, targeted, and embedded into instruction. By avoiding these common pitfalls, we can better support all learners, especially those with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning differences.

And remember: you don’t have to do everything at once. Start with one thoughtful, aligned strategy and build from there.

Multisensory Approaches to Teach Math

In this tenth installment of our multisensory series, we’re bringing the magic of multimodal learning to the math block. Yes, math!

Too often, math is reduced to static worksheets and rote procedures. But math isn’t just numbers and symbols—it’s conceptual, spatial, and visual. If we want kids to truly understand math (not just memorize it for the test), we have to make it multisensory.

Why Multisensory Matters--Especially in Math

Multisensory instruction engages more than one sense at a time—movement, touch, sight, sound—and that engagement isn't just about fun. It’s about neural connections. When multiple senses are activated simultaneously, brain imaging studies show increased activity across different regions, especially those responsible for memory and higher-order thinking (Shams & Seitz, 2008). In other words, the more senses involved, the more likely the learning is to stick.

As Dr. Louisa Moats, literacy expert and researcher, explains:

“Multisensory instruction is not just a style of teaching—it is a necessity. It activates multiple pathways in the brain, creating stronger memory traces and deeper understanding.”

When students move their bodies, manipulate objects, vocalize their thinking, and visually represent ideas, they build connections between the abstract and the concrete. This is especially critical in math, where concepts often exist in the abstract and require visualization and modeling to understand.

Even better? Multisensory instruction doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t require expensive tools or elaborate setups. Many of the most powerful strategies are easy, low-prep, and highly effective—you might already be doing them without even labeling them as multisensory.

Math + Multisensory = Meaningful

Here are some simple but powerful ways to turn your math block into a multisensory, brain-friendly zone:

🕹️ Move It!

• Number Line Walks
• Lay down masking tape on the classroom floor to create an interactive number line. Students walk it to add, subtract, or explore place value. Movement builds mental models.
• Hop, Stomp, and Count
• Engage kinesthetic learners by having them hop while skip-counting by 2s, 5s, or 10s. Add claps or stomps to reinforce patterns.

🌿 Touch It

• Use Real Objects
• Manipulatives like base-ten blocks, Unifix cubes, fraction bars, and counters allow students to physically build their understanding. Touching and moving objects makes math tangible.

• Textured Numbers
• Have students trace sandpaper numerals or write math facts in shaving cream or salt trays. These sensory experiences deepen neural encoding.
• Games that use manipulatives 
• Have students play games over previously taught concepts that include manipulatives (i.e. dice, unifex cubes, 3d shapes, etc.)

🎧 Say It Aloud

• Math Talks
• Invite students to explain their thinking out loud. Verbalizing steps helps organize thoughts and clarify misunderstandings.
• The book series, Number Talks by Sherry Parrish, is a great resource for building mathematical thinking in students. These resources introduce what classroom number talk is, how to lead meaningful number talk conversations, and how to build on students' mathematical reasoning.
• Choral Counting & Fact Chants
• Recite math facts in rhythm, with snapping, clapping, or drumming. Rhythm and repetition reinforce memory.

🌈 See It

• Color Code Strategies
• Highlight different parts of a problem in color—each digit in place value, each step in a process. This visual cue helps pattern recognition and reduces cognitive load.
• Anchor Charts & Visual Models
• Make thinking visible. Display number lines, ten frames, part-part-whole diagrams, and models that support concept development.

Multisensory math is about seeing math, hearing math, doing math, and talking math. When we engage the whole child—body, brain, and senses—we unlock deeper comprehension and long-term retention.

And remember, it doesn’t have to be hard. A few strips of masking tape, a handful of cubes, or even just a silly chant can transform your math instruction into something students not only understand but enjoy.

So go ahead—bring the multisensory magic to math. Let kids move, touch, speak, and see their way to mastery.

Multisensory Approaches to Teach Writing

 In our last post, we explored how vocabulary instruction becomes richer and stickier when students experience it with multiple senses. Today, we’re diving into something that often feels like a heavy lift for both students and teachers: writing.

Let’s be honest. Writing can be overwhelming. From thinking of an idea to spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and organization—it’s a lot to juggle. In fact, writing is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks we ask of students. Unlike speaking, which is often automatic and fluid, writing requires students to plan, organize, transcribe, revise, and monitor—all at the same time.  

 And yet, writing is not optional. Writing is how students show what they know, reflect on what they’ve learned, and make their thinking visible. “As Joan Sedita notes in The Writing Rope, writing requires ‘critical thinking and executive function skills,’ drawing on students' ability to think deeply about their subject matter.”

Yes, writing is complex and difficult, and that’s exactly why writing can’t be siloed into just one part of the day. The more opportunities students have to write—about what they’re learning, thinking, and discovering—the stronger and more fluent they become. Writing needs to live in every classroom, because it’s not just a way to demonstrate learning; it is a powerful tool for learning itself.

Whether it’s explaining a science experiment, arguing a historical perspective, or solving a math word problem, writing is central to deep learning in every subject. In fact, the National Commission on Writing once stated that “writing today is not a frill for the few, but an essential skill for the many.” Writing is a skill students need for life. 

Multisensory instruction is a game-changer for writing. It breaks the process into manageable parts and supports our students in creating writing that is both meaningful and confident. When we teach writing through seeing, hearing, touching, and movement, we activate more areas of the brain—and help ideas stick.

Multisensory Strategies to Support Writing

✍️ Pre-Writing with Purpose

• Sketch It Out: Before writing, students draw their ideas. Visual planning helps with sequencing and organization.
• Mind Mapping: Use color-coded graphic organizers to brainstorm. One color for main ideas, another for details.
• Try using the OREO method to help students write a persuasive piece, or the Hamburger method to help students write a complete paragraph. 

🤠 Tactile & Kinesthetic Approaches

• Sandpaper Letters or Tactile Words: Practice high-frequency or transition words using textured materials.
• Air Writing: Practice tricky words or sentence starters by writing them large in the air while saying them aloud.

🎧 Talk Before You Write

• Oral Rehearsal: Students verbally tell a partner what they plan to write. This step supports sentence structure and fluency.
• Echo Sentences: Model a sentence aloud and have students repeat it using sentence stems.
• Use sentence starters (pictured below) to assist students in talking before writing.

🌈 Color Coding for Structure

• Use different colored pens or highlighters for different parts of a paragraph: topic sentence, details, transitions, and conclusion.
• Use a peer editing checklist that assists students with proofreading their own (or a peer's) writing. Clear steps that utilize colors make the editing process easy and beneficial. 

 

🔧 Manipulate & Build Sentences

• Sentence Strips: Have students build sentences with pre-written strips. Mix them up and reconstruct them.
• Word Magnets: Use magnetic words on a board or cookie sheet to form complete thoughts.

When students can see it, say it, touch it, and try it in pieces, writing becomes possible—and even enjoyable. By making the invisible process of writing visible and tangible, we give students the tools and confidence they need to grow as thinkers, creators, and communicators across every subject.

Keep sparking those minds, educators!

Multisensory Approach to Teaching Vocabulary

If you’ve been following this multisensory series, you’ve probably started to see the pattern: when students move, see, feel, hear, and say the content—we spark real, lasting learning. 

This time, we’re unlocking a powerful way to boost student comprehension across all subject areas—through intentional, multisensory vocabulary instruction.

Why Vocabulary Matters (in Every Classroom)

Whether a student is reading a short story, solving a math problem, analyzing a science experiment, or studying a historical event, vocabulary is key. If a student doesn’t understand the words being used, they can’t access the content—plain and simple.

Yet vocabulary instruction often gets boxed into the ELA block, leaving content-specific words in math, science, and social studies not accessible to students (especially if they have a language deficit or limited background knowledge).

But here’s the truth: Vocabulary belongs everywhere—and multisensory strategies can help us teach it anywhere.

Vocabulary that Sticks: Multi-Modal Strategies

Here are practical, brain-friendly strategies you can use in any subject area to help students understand, remember, and use vocabulary with confidence:

🎨 See It

• Visual Word Maps: Use Frayer models, concept webs, or word squares with sections for definition, picture, sentence, and example/non-example. Great for science, math, and ELA! Check out this FREE vocabulary graphic organizer by clicking here, or clicking the picture below!

• Color-Coding: Highlight prefixes, roots, and suffixes in different colors to break down word parts visually. (Ex: “transport”—prefix trans = across.)
• Symbol Drawings: Have students create a visual symbol for the word. For “evaporate,” they might draw a puddle turning into steam.

🎤 Say It

• Echo and Choral Reading: Say the word, then have the class echo it. Try different voices—robot, whisper, opera singer—for added fun. Check out these 24 different silly voice ideas by clicking the image below, or clicking here!

• Use It in a Chant or Song: Turn tricky words into tunes! Math words like commutative or denominator come alive when set to a beat.
• Partner Vocabulary Talks: Pair students to use the word in a sentence or explain it in their own words to each other. Speaking solidifies understanding!

🖐 Touch It / Build It

• Word Building: Use magnetic letters or cut-out roots and affixes to physically build words. Great for teaching morphology across subjects.
• Tactile Vocabulary Writing: Write new words in salt, sand, or shaving cream while saying them aloud. Especially powerful for younger or sensory-seeking learners.
• Act It Out: Have students gesture or act out the meaning of words. (Ex: For “rotate,” spin in place. For “conquer,” strike a victory pose.)  Check out these two free games: Vocabulary Rock & Roll and Vocabulary Quick Draw!

💡 Think It

• Word Associations: Ask students, “What does this word make you think of?” Encourage creative connections. For “erosion,” a student might think of a crumbling sandcastle.
• Analogies & Word Relationships: Link words together through analogies or category sorting. (Ex: “Evaporate is to water as melt is to ice.”)
• Student-Generated Definitions: After hearing and seeing a word in context, have students write their own definitions in kid-friendly language.

📚 Use Vocabulary Across the Day

Let’s make sure vocabulary isn’t just a one-and-done!

• In math, post a “Word of the Week” and use it during problem-solving aloud.
• In science, label diagrams with vocabulary terms and highlight them in lab directions.
• In social studies, have students act out historical terms or create comic strips using key words.
• In PE, review movement verbs or health vocabulary through motion.
• In music, teach terms like tempo, forte, or rhythm using both words and actions.
• Using word banks in every subject area
• Prompting students to “Say it, Show it, Sketch it”
• Including vocabulary goals during small groups or centers

Vocabulary is the gateway to comprehension and academic language—and when we teach it intentionally, students begin to unlock so much more than just definitions. They gain access to ideas, content, and confidence.  If you are interested in an explicit routine for teaching vocabulary, check out this previous blog post.  Or if you are interested in effective ways to practice vocabulary, click here!

Keep sparking those minds, teachers!

Multisensory Approaches to Teach Encoding

If you've been journeying with us through this multisensory series, you already know the magic that happens when we teach with more than just our voices and whiteboards. We’ve explored how movement, sound, texture, and visual cues help young learners build pathways in the brain that stick. 

But today, we’re diving into a skill that’s often misunderstood or even skipped over: encoding. While decoding gets lots of instructional love (as it should!), encoding—the process of hearing a word and writing it down correctly—is equally important.

In fact, students who encode well have a stronger grasp of phonics, a deeper connection to print, and greater writing confidence.

What is Encoding, and Why Does It Matter?

Encoding is not just "spelling." It’s the reverse of decoding. Instead of looking at letters and reading a word aloud, the student hears or thinks of a word, breaks it into sounds (phonemes), and then maps those sounds to letters (graphemes). It requires solid phonemic awareness, an understanding of phonics patterns, and—let’s be honest—a good bit of practice.

Encoding strengthens:

• Sound-letter correspondence
• Phonological memory
• Orthographic mapping
• Writing fluency

Just like we explored in our posts on phoneme-grapheme mapping, multisensory instruction can make all the difference when building encoding skills

Let’s Break it Down: A Multisensory Routine for Spelling Words

Here’s a simple, brain-based routine to help students think through the encoding process—not just guess and go:

1. Say the word aloud. (“Cat”)
2. Segment the sounds using your fingers. Start with the left hand: touch your thumb and say /k/, then your pointer for /a/, and your middle finger for /t/. Slide your finger across the tips to blend the word.
3. Analyze the word: What’s the first sound? What vowel sound do you hear? What’s the last sound?
4. Air-write the letters on your palm while spelling aloud.
5. Write the word on paper while naming each letter.

This engages speech, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, and visual systems—all working together to support encoding.

Fun, Multi-Modal Ways to Practice Encoding

Below are some tried-and-true strategies that go far beyond “write the word three times.”

💥 Move It

• Jump rope, bounce a ball, or jump on a trampoline while spelling aloud.
• Stomp for vowels and thrust arms forward for consonants.
• Snap and clap (snap for vowels, clap for consonants).

🖐 Feel It

• Write in salt, pudding, shaving cream, or sand with fingers.
• Use carpet squares or sandpaper letters for extra texture.
• Skywrite words in the air or trace them on a partner’s back.

🎨 See It

• Highlight vowel teams in one color and consonants in another.
• Illustrate the words or use mnemonics to create mental images.

🧠 Think It

• Break words into patterns (e.g., -at family: cat, bat, sat).
• Use silly mnemonics: “A rat in the house might eat the ice cream” for “arithmetic.”
• Link spelling to meaning: “You hear with your ear” helps with "hear."

🎤 Say It (With Style!)

• Make up songs, cheers, or jingles for tricky words.
• Mispronounce words to highlight spelling patterns (Wed-nes-day).
• Chant words with exaggerated intonation or whisper-shout patterns.
• Try using silly voice cards!  

🧩 Sort It and Solve It

• Categorize by spelling patterns, number of syllables, or word function.
• Put words in ABC order 
• Create riddles, root word puzzles, or sentence challenges using spelling words.
• Use word sorts 

Multisensory instruction doesn’t just make spelling more fun—it makes it more effective. By linking motor movement, visual cues, touch, and sound, we’re helping our students build strong, flexible neural connections that support both reading and writing. In short, we’re giving them the tools to think, spell, and express themselves with confidence.

Keep sparking those minds, educators! 💡

Multisensory Approaches to Teaching Comprehension

Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill that serves as the cornerstone for academic success and lifelong learning. To enhance this skill, educators can use multisensory, also known as multi-modal, techniques that engage multiple senses, creating a more robust and memorable learning experience for their students. 

According to a meta-analysis by Torgesen (2004), multisensory approaches significantly enhance decoding and reading comprehension skills among struggling readers.  What teacher doesn't want that?  

While multisensory approaches are often associated with phonics and decoding skills (read about that here), they are equally valuable in enhancing reading comprehension.  So, how do you make understanding text multi-sensory?  Check out some of the ideas below!

Graphic Organizers

Visual tools like graphic organizers help students map out the structure of a text, identify main ideas, and understand relationships between concepts. For instance, story maps can outline the setting, characters, problem, and solution, providing a clear framework for comprehension.

This bundle includes 75 different graphic organizers that address metacognition, asking questions, inferences, predictions, main ideas and details, facts and opinions, vocabulary, story maps and text structures! 

Read-Alouds with Movement

Incorporate kinesthetic activities during read-aloud sessions. Encourage students to act out scenes or use hand gestures to represent different characters or events. This engagement of the body can deepen understanding and make the reading experience more dynamic.

Check out these five ways, from Brightly, to add movement to  your storytime.   

Sensory Storytelling

Enhance stories by involving the senses. Use sound effects, tactile materials, or scents related to the story's content. For example, if a story takes place in a forest, bring in pine cones or play forest sounds to create an immersive experience.

Check out this post from Paths to Literacy, which gives tips on how to make storytelling multisensory.  

Interactive Discussions

Facilitate discussions that encourage students to verbalize their thoughts and questions about the text. Pairing students for think-pair-share activities allows them to articulate their understanding and hear different perspectives, engaging both auditory and social learning modalities. 

Are you in need of ways to partner your students?  Check out this pack of over 30 different ways to group students!  

Visualization Exercises

Guide students to create mental images of the scenes they read. After reading a passage, ask them to draw what they envision or describe it in detail. This practice strengthens their ability to form vivid mental representations, aiding comprehension.

Quick Draw is a great game to illustrate vocabulary words, but it could easily be adapted for comprehension questions.  For example:

• draw your favorite character
• illustrate the introduction, climax, or resolution of the story
• draw the setting 
• use colors to illustrate the emotions/feelings in the story
• create a symbol that represents the meaning of the story

Tactile Engagement with Text

Encourage students to use sticky notes to jot down thoughts, questions, or summaries as they read. This tactile interaction with the text can help them organize their ideas and monitor their understanding.  According to John Hattie's research, Visible Learning, underlining, and highlighting have the potential to accelerate learning (.44 effect size).  

Overall, implementing multisensory techniques in reading comprehension instruction offers two big advantages:

• Enhanced Engagement: Students are more likely to stay engaged when multiple senses are involved, making learning more enjoyable.

• Improved Retention: Engaging various sensory pathways helps reinforce memory and aids in the retention of information.

Using Multisensory Instruction to Teach Phonics

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).

So, how do you make teaching phonics multisensory? 

Teaching phonics, which involves the relationship between letters (graphemes) and their sounds (phonemes) can be effectively enhanced through multisensory instruction.  When a teacher directly and explicitly teaches phonics, the teacher is focusing a child's attention on the sequence of letters in printed words. This typically involves using manipulatives, gestures, speaking and auditory cues....so phonics instruction is naturally multisensory.  

Check out some some examples below!  Some strategies you may already be using, but others may be new and can be added to your instructional routines.

Sandpaper Letters:

• Create letters using sandpaper or textured materials. Students can trace the letters with their fingers while saying the corresponding sound.
• This activity combines tactile (touch) and auditory (sound) modalities, reinforcing letter-sound associations and kinesthetic memory.

Actions for Short Vowels:

• Help students master the short sounds vowels make by teaching them a quick and simple action to go along the sound.
• Check out the blog post, Mastering Short Vowels, for a free printable anchor chart and step by step directions for each vowel action!
• This activity combines auditory (hearing the sounds), kinesthetic (actions to match vowel), and visual (seeing the vowel grapheme) senses, aiding in phonics skill development.

Letter Tiles or Magnetic Letters:

• Provide students with letter tiles or magnetic letters. They can manipulate these tiles to form words while saying the sounds of each letter.
• This approach integrates visual (seeing the letters), tactile (manipulating the tiles), and auditory (saying the sounds) senses, promoting phonemic awareness and word decoding skills.

Word Building with Phoneme Segmentation:

• Use manipulatives like counters or chips to represent phonemes in words. For example, for the word "cat," place a counter for each sound (/k/ /a/ /t/).
• Students segment the sounds in words using tactile (handling the manipulatives), auditory (saying the sounds), and sometimes visual (seeing the word structure) senses, reinforcing phonemic awareness and decoding skills.

Interactive Whiteboards or Tablets:

• Utilize interactive whiteboards or tablets with touchscreen capabilities. Students can drag and drop letters to form words, listen to audio feedback, and trace letters.
• This method engages visual (seeing the letters and words), tactile (interacting with the touchscreen), and auditory (listening to feedback) senses, enhancing letter-sound correspondence and word recognition.

Phonics Songs and Chants:

• Sing songs or chants that emphasize phonics patterns or letter-sound relationships. For example, chants that focus on specific phoneme blends (e.g., "ch," "sh") or vowel sounds.
• Singing or chanting involves auditory (hearing the sounds), kinesthetic (moving to the rhythm), and sometimes visual (seeing lyrics or gestures) senses, aiding in phonics skill development.

Multi-sensory Games and Activities:

• Play games that involve physical movement and phonics practice with games like Roll, Read and Color,  Slap Words or Color by Codes.
• Games like these incorporate kinesthetic (movement), auditory (saying the sounds or words), and sometimes visual (seeing the game setup) senses, making phonics learning interactive and engaging.

Structured Phonics Lessons with Gestures:

• Incorporate gestures or hand motions that represent phonemes or phonics rules. For example, make a "sh" sound while holding hands in a shushing motion.
• Using gestures adds a kinesthetic (movement), visual (seeing the gestures), and auditory (saying the sounds) component to phonics instruction, reinforcing memory and understanding.

The multisensory techniques listed above not an exhaustive list....there are LOADS more!  However, the strategies do cater to different learning modalities which enhances the effectiveness of phonics instruction by engaging multiple senses simultaneously.  Make it a goal to provide varied sensory experiences in order to support students in developing strong foundational skills in decoding and reading.

If you are looking for some additional ideas, check out the YouTube channel Dyslexic Labs which has a robust library of  Multisensory Monday videos!

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.

Using Multisensory Instruction to Teach Reading

Research studies consistently supports 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 Lessons Learned from Research on Interventions for Students Who Have Difficulty Learning to Read, a meta-analysis by Joseph Torgesen, 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).

So, with all of those AMAZING benefits, teachers who teach students how to read are probably asking the question:

How do you teach reading using a multisensory approach? 

First, we need to understand what multisensory instruction means.

By definition multisensory instruction is when a teacher utilizes different sensory pathways (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) during instructional delivery.  By doing this, the teacher is creating robust and memorable learning experiences for their students.

Keep reading for a list of instructional reading ideas by each sense (visual/sight, auditory/sound, kinesthetic/ large movement and tactile/small movement).  Please note the goal is to engage two or more senses during instruction.   

Visual (sense of sight)

• Word Walls: Create word walls in the classroom where key vocabulary words are prominently displayed with large, clear print and accompanying images or symbols to aid in recognition and memory. This is a print to speech tool

• Sound Walls: Similar to a word wall, but instead of hanging up vocabulary words, this display is comprised of the sounds (phonemes) and letters/letter combinations that beginning readers will encounter as they develop language skills. This is a speech to print tool. 

• Graphic Organizers: Utilize graphic organizers such as story maps, Venn diagrams, or charts to visually represent the structure of a story, compare and contrast characters or events, or outline the main ideas and details of a text.

• Highlighting Text: Teach students to use highlighters or colored pencils to mark important information in the text, such as main ideas, key vocabulary words, or details that support the main idea. This visual coding can aid in comprehension and retention.

• Visual Cues for Phonics: Display posters or charts that illustrate phonics rules, letter-sound relationships, and sight words using color-coded visuals or pictures that correspond to the sounds or letters being taught.

• Interactive Whiteboards: Use interactive whiteboards to display text, where you can highlight words, draw attention to specific sentences or phrases, and annotate directly on the text as you discuss it with students.

• Reading Aloud with Visual Aids: When reading aloud, use props, real objects, or digital images to bring the story to life and help students visualize the events, settings, and characters described in the text.

• Mind Mapping: Encourage students to create mind maps or concept maps to organize and connect ideas from their reading visually. This technique helps them see relationships between different pieces of information.

• Visual Timelines: Construct timelines using pictures or symbols to sequence events in a story or historical events from a text, helping students understand chronological order and the passage of time.

• Textual Analysis with Infographics: Have students create infographics summarizing key information from a text, including main ideas, supporting details, and statistical data, presented in a visually engaging format.

Auditory (sense of sound)

• Read-Alouds: Conduct regular read-aloud sessions where the teacher reads aloud to the students, emphasizing intonation, expression, and pacing to model fluent reading and convey the meaning of the text.

• Audiobooks: Use audiobooks or recordings of texts so students can listen to fluent reading by professional narrators, enhancing their auditory comprehension and ability to follow along with the text. A great FREE resource is Storyline Online!  Professional actors narrate popular books with video!

• Echo Reading: Have students echo or repeat sentences or paragraphs after you, focusing on correct pronunciation, intonation, and expression to improve their fluency and comprehension.

• Listening Centers: Set up listening centers with headphones where students can listen to stories or passages read aloud, following along in the text to strengthen their auditory processing skills.

• Podcasts: Introduce educational podcasts related to literature or informational texts, allowing students to listen to discussions, interviews, or readings that deepen their understanding of the topics. Check out this list of 25 learning podcasts for the classroom by Common Sense Education. 

• Rhyming and Rhythm: Explore poems, nursery rhymes, or songs that emphasize rhyming patterns and rhythmic cadence, helping students develop phonemic awareness and an ear for the flow of language.

• Storytelling: Encourage students to participate in storytelling activities where they orally retell a story they have read, focusing on sequencing, main events, and character development, while practicing oral communication skills.

• Dialogue Practice: Engage students in role-playing activities where they act out dialogues from texts, focusing on tone, emotion, and context to deepen their understanding of characters and plot dynamics.

• Audio Recordings: Have students record themselves reading passages or stories aloud, allowing them to listen back to their own reading to self-assess and improve their fluency and expression.

• Read and Discuss: Facilitate group discussions where students take turns reading passages aloud and discussing their interpretations, predictions, and reactions to the text, promoting active listening and critical thinking skills.

Kinesthetic (sense large body movement)

• Scavenger Hunts: Hide an instructional concepts (high frequency words, phonics pattern, vowel patterns, morphemes, etc.) around the classroom or outdoor space. Students search for the concepts and do an activity with them (read them, define them, generate list of words, etc.) when found, engaging their physical movement.

• Interactive Word Walls: Create a movable word wall where students can physically arrange and rearrange vocabulary words or thematic words to build sentences or make connections.

• Sentence Building with Manipulatives: Use sentence strips or word cards with Velcro backing. Students physically move the words around to construct sentences, focusing on sentence structure and grammar.

• Role-playing and Reader's Theater: Act out scenes from stories or scripts. Students take on the roles of characters and read their lines aloud, emphasizing expression, tone, and understanding of the text.

• Movement-Based Phonics Games: Play games that involve physical movements corresponding to phonics rules or letter sounds. For example, students jump or clap when they hear a certain sound in a word.

• Writing in the Air or on Large Surfaces: Have students practice spelling or writing words and sentences in the air with their finger, using large chalkboards, whiteboards, or paper taped to the wall for large-scale writing practice.

Tactile (sense fine motor movement)

• Word Sorting: Provide students with word cards or magnetic letters that they can physically manipulate to sort into categories such as by phonics pattern, parts of speech, or word families.

• Texture Cards: Create texture cards with different materials (sandpaper, fabric, velvet, etc.) glued onto cards with letters or words. Students can feel the textures while tracing the letters or words to reinforce recognition.

• Tactile Letter Formation: Provide students with materials such as clay, playdough, or tactile letter cards where they can mold or trace letters to learn letter shapes and formations.

• Sensory Storytelling: Use sensory bins filled with items related to a story (e.g., small toys, textured objects). As students read or listen to the story, they can explore the sensory items to enhance comprehension and engagement.

• Raised Line Paper: Provide students with raised line paper where they can feel the lines as they write letters, words, or sentences. This helps students practice letter formation and spacing.

• Tactile Word Building: Use magnetic or textured letters that students can arrange on a tactile board or surface to build words. This reinforces spelling and phonics skills through hands-on manipulation.

• Manipulating Phonics Tiles: Use phonics tiles or letter cards that students can feel and manipulate to build phonetic patterns, blend sounds, and create words.=

• Literacy Centers with Hands-on Activities: Set up literacy centers with activities like building words with letter blocks, creating sentences with puzzle pieces, or using playdough to form letters and words.

• Text Annotation with Symbols: Teach students to annotate texts with physical symbols or gestures (e.g., underlining with different colored pencils, circling unknown words, drawing arrows to indicate connections), which reinforces active reading strategies.

Taste and Smell 

Taste and smell can be a bit more challenging to incorporate into instructional delivery--but not impossible!  

As students are working with manipulatives their sense of smell can be activated by using scented shaving cream, whipping cream or pudding.  Or, as students are writing they can used scented markers!

Engaging the sense of taste is usually a big hit with kids!  Who doesn't love a chance to snack. :)   For this sense you can give students individual portions of letter shaped crackers, cookies, cereal or pudding to spell words.   Or, you can utilize snacks as markers for games.  

The BIG takeaway is multisensory instruction not only enhances engagement but also fosters academic success for students.  When you intentionally plan for sensory integration in your reading  lessons, you are setting your students up for an opportunity to thrive academically! 

References:

International Dyslexia Association (IDA). (2020). Structured Literacy Instruction. Retrieved from https://dyslexiaida.org/structured-literacy/

Torgesen, J. K. (2004). Avoiding the devastating downward spiral: The evidence that early intervention prevents reading failure. American Educator, 28(3), 6-19.