What is multi-sensory instruction?
Multi-sensory instruction is hands-on teaching that allows you to address more than one learning pathway to the brain at the same time. For example, if you wanted to use multi-sensory instruction to teach a child about the letter b, you could show the child a card on which you’d written the letter b (sight), you could say the sound (hearing), and you could have the child repeat the sound (voice and movement) and have him write the letter (movement). Involving your child’s body in this way would enable him or her to take in facts by way of his or her strongest learning pathway. It would also strengthen the other pathways. This is a unified way of teaching and learning — a way by which all students can succeed. It’s what is described more fully in Myrna McCulloch’s Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking (our foundational text). It’s what we use at the Willamette Center.
