Reading Methods for Students with LD

By: Learning Disabilities Association of America

Selecting the appropriate method

For the person with learning disabilities, the process of learning to read can break down with
reading mechanics or comprehension, and at any of the specific skill levels.

A significant part of selecting appropriate instructional approaches is understanding the learning

profile of an individual. A diagnostic program is necessary to identify students with learning
disabilities. A cognitive profile is also necessary to determine precisely what students' needs are,
their strengths and weaknesses, whether they have difficulty with working memory, if they have
inadequate language skills, etc.

Students with learning disabilities need to be taught strategic approaches explicitly. They need to
have ideas made conspicuously clear to them.

Multisensory approach
This method assumes that some children learn best when content is presented in several
modalities. Multisensory approaches that employ tracing, hearing, writing, and seeing are often
referred to as VAKT (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile) methods. Multisensory techniques can
be used with both phonics and linguistic approaches.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/reading-methods-students-ld
Language experience approach
The language experience approach uses children's spoken language to develop material for
reading. This approach utilizes each student's oral language level and personal experiences.
Material is written by the child and teacher for reading using each child's experience. This can be
done in small groups and individually.

Familiarity with the content and the vocabulary facilitate reading these stories. Each child can
develop a book to be read and re-read. This approach helps children know what reading is and
that ideas and experiences can be conveyed in print.

 Phonics approach

The phonics approach teaches word recognition through learning grapheme-phoneme (letter-
sound) associations. The student learns vowels, consonants, and blends, and learns to sound out
words by combining sounds and blending them into words. By associating speech sounds with
letters the student learns to recognize new and unfamiliar words.

 Linguistic method

This method uses a "whole word" approach. Words are taught in word families, or similar spelling
patterns, and only as whole words. The student is not directly taught the relationship between
letters and sounds, but learns them through minimal word differences. As the child progresses,
words that have irregular spellings are introduced as sight words.

Conclusions
Persons with learning disabilities will typically require a variety of instructional approaches in
order to make their educational experiences more productive. There is no one best approach to
teach reading to students with learning disabilities. There are many reading methods available
with ongoing debate about which one is preferable.

It is critical that instructors understand both the student and the various reading methods
available if the student is to have the best possible learning experience. The importance of a
comprehensive evaluation that will result in prescription for intervention cannot be over-
emphasized.

As important is the notion that teachers must have the ability to effectively and systematically
alter various methods to meet the needs of individual children with learning disabilities.

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A multi-sensory approach to reading

Traditional approaches to teaching reading rely heavily on visual and auditory

stimuli, including workbooks and phonics activities. However, individuals who
experience difficulties learning how to read may benefit from a multi-sensory
approach that involves physical movements and lets them use their senses to
engage on a deeper level.

In particular, dyslexic students who struggle to split words into their component
sounds may respond positively to the Orton-Gillingham style of learning. It uses
multi-sensory techniques to facilitate acquisition of phonics knowledge, decoding,
and sight-reading skills.

Multi-modal learning takes place when our brains process stimuli in a variety of
channels, from visual to auditory, kinesthetic and tactile (touch-based) learning.
Kinesthetic elements bring in fine and gross motor skills, which can help focus
attention. They can also enhance visual and auditory processing. This leads to
more integrated knowledge and greater retention. For struggling readers,
researchers have observed that input from multiple channels can result in more
robust perception and enhanced processing.

In reading and writing this means seeing words on a page, hearing them read
aloud, tracing letters in the air and even moving the hands along a keyboard
using muscle memory in the fingers to guide spelling. A sensory rich reading
curriculum doesn’t just benefit students with learning difficulties and physical
impairments. Many people learn better from one modality than the other. When
teachers introduce new material using multiple channels, they effectively cater to
a wider audience of learners.
Discover more strategies for teaching children with ADHD, ADD, autism
spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, slow-processing and visual
impairments in these posts.

Developing language skills

Whether it is through sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch, children learn about
their world through sensory exploration. The same is true when it comes to
mastering their mother tongue. Language acquisition happens in context when a
child sees water, feels it running over his or her fingertips and hears a parent
saying the word. The connection between a word’s meaning and label is deeply
entrenched in our first language thanks to this repeat exposure to rich and
stimulating experiences.

Learning how to read

Written language is based on spoken language which is composed of different
phonemes. These sounds need to be translated into letters during writing and
converted from letters back into sounds in reading.

The emphasis on accurate decoding means that oral reading ability has been
used to explain 80% of the difference in comprehension rates of a given text. In
other words, for a student to understand what they are reading they need to be
able to map sounds to letters and decode words.

Visit our posts on teaching children to read, common reading

difficulties and phonemic awareness to learn more.

Orton-Gillingham
The Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction was developed in the
1930s for students who experienced difficulties in reading and writing tasks yet
performed well on intelligence measures. Dr. Orton put together a series of
teaching activities that utilized both left and right-brain functions.

The left-brain is traditionally associated with verbal, auditory and sequential

learning whereas the right brain holds more creative, artistic and emotional
knowledge (read about the connection between handedness and dyslexia). Dr.
Gillingham added a focus on teaching common English morphemes and phonics
training.
The approach was multi-sensory in that students would see a letter, trace it with
their fingers and say the sound at the same time. Learn more about the Orton-
Gillingham approach.

A multi-sensory approach to reading

Traditional approaches to teaching reading rely heavily on visual and auditory

stimuli, including workbooks and phonics activities. However, individuals who
experience difficulties learning how to read may benefit from a multi-sensory
approach that involves physical movements and lets them use their senses to
engage on a deeper level.

In particular, dyslexic students who struggle to split words into their component
sounds may respond positively to the Orton-Gillingham style of learning. It uses
multi-sensory techniques to facilitate acquisition of phonics knowledge, decoding,
and sight-reading skills.

Multi-modal learning takes place when our brains process stimuli in a variety of
channels, from visual to auditory, kinesthetic and tactile (touch-based) learning.
Kinesthetic elements bring in fine and gross motor skills, which can help focus
attention. They can also enhance visual and auditory processing. This leads to
more integrated knowledge and greater retention. For struggling readers,
researchers have observed that input from multiple channels can result in more
robust perception and enhanced processing.

In reading and writing this means seeing words on a page, hearing them read
aloud, tracing letters in the air and even moving the hands along a keyboard
using muscle memory in the fingers to guide spelling. A sensory rich reading
curriculum doesn’t just benefit students with learning difficulties and physical
impairments. Many people learn better from one modality than the other. When
teachers introduce new material using multiple channels, they effectively cater to
a wider audience of learners.

Discover more strategies for teaching children with ADHD, ADD, autism
spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, slow-processing and visual
impairments in these posts. https://www.readandspell.com/multi-sensory-
approach-to-reading Meredith Cicerchia
 3 Multi-sensory reading activities
1. Visually stimulating alphabet activities Alphabet books sometimes present letters
using illustrated shapes. For example if the name of an animal begins with a
particular letter, there may be an ‘s’ designed as a snake. This makes it easier for
the child to connect the sound with the letter and remember it. Many children
have their names spelled out in this visually engaging way but there is no reason
why teachers can’t create posters or rearrange a set of illustrated letters to form
more words and reinforce basic vocabulary learning.

For students who are visual learners, seeing a colourful and semantically loaded
display can be a great aid for spelling. Teachers might also want to get a set of
magnetic or felt letters. You could even try alphabet cereal to involve taste and
smell in the activity!

TIP: Wondering which set of letters you should be teaching? Many parents and
teachers struggle with the question of whether or not to teach capital or lower-
case letters first. There are actually measurable differences in the way humans
perceive each type of letter.

2. Tactile and kinesthetic letter shaping Some struggling readers have difficulty forming
associations between letters and the sounds they represent. This is further
complicated by the fact that English letters and letter combinations often map to
more than one sound. In order to reinforce grapheme (letter) and phoneme
(sound) mapping teachers can have students practice forming letters using
materials that engage their sense of touch.

Get them to trace a letter in sand, water or finger-paint. You can also try having
them trace letters in the air or on the palms of their hands. Students should say
the sound(s) the letter stands for at the same time. Another option is teaching
students how to sign the alphabet. An additional learning strategy which helps
some students is for them to be able to bounce a knee or dance around the room
while learning.

3. Rhythm and pace-setting audio components Teachers can help students with
decoding by tapping out the syllables in words with their fingers or using a pencil.
For reading fluency issues, setting up a metronome to encourage students to
read at a consistent pace may be helpful. This is up to the individual reader
however, as some students find this very distracting and some will not respond
well to the pressure this may impose. You may also try playing classical music
while teaching. This has been used to facilitate foreign language learning and
retention.

What is Multisensory Teaching Techniques?

“If a child is not learning in the way you teach, change your teaching strategy and
teach the child in the way he learns!”
Multisensory techniques are frequently used for children with learning differences.
Studies from the National Institute of Child Health and Human development (United
States of America) have shown that for children with difficulties in learning to read, a
multisensory teaching method is the most effective teaching method.
Multisensory teaching techniques and strategies stimulate learning by engaging
students on multiple levels. They encourage students to use some or all their senses to:
 Gather information about a task
 Link information to ideas they already know and understand
 Perceive the logic involved in solving problems
 Learn problem solving tasks
 Tap into nonverbal reasoning skills
 Understand relationships between concepts
 Store information and store it for later recall
Using a multisensory teaching technique means helping a child to learn through more
than one sense. Most teaching techniques are done using either sight or hearing (visual
or auditory). The child’s sight is used in reading information, looking at text, pictures or
reading information based from the board. The hearing sense is used to listen to what
the teacher says. The child’s vision may be affected by difficulties with tracking or visual
processing. Sometimes the child’s auditory processing may be weak. The solution for
these difficulties is to involve the use of more of the child’s senses, especially the use of
touch (tactile) and movement (kinetic). This will help the child’s brain to develop tactile
and kinetic memories to hang on to, as well as the auditory and visual ones.
Students with learning difficulties typically have difficulties in one or more areas of
reading, spelling, writing, math, listening comprehension and expressive language.
Multisensory techniques enable students to use their personal areas of strength to help
them learn. They can range from simple to complex, depending on the needs of the
student and the task at hand.
Learning Style
Some researchers theorize that many students have an area of sensory learning
strength, sometimes called a learning style. These researchers suggests that when
students are taught using techniques consistent with their learning styles, they learn
more easily, faster and can retain and apply concepts more readily to future learning.
Most students, with a difficulty or not, enjoy the variety that multisensory techniques can
offer.
Now we can go through some of the multisensory techniques which could be used to
assist a student in his / her learning.
I. To stimulate visual reasoning and learning
 Text and/or pictures on paper, posters, models, projection screens, computers or flash cards
 Use of color for highlighting, organizing information or imagery
 Graphic organizers, outlining passages
 Student created art, images, text, pictures and video
 The above mentioned techniques often include visual teaching methods and strategies.
II. Auditory techniques
 Books on tape, peer assisted reading, paired reading and computerized text readers
 Video or film with accompanying audio
 Music, song, instruments, speaking, rhymes, chants and language games
III. Tactile teaching methods
Multi sensory techniques that involve using the sense of touch are called tactile
methods. Tactile methods include strategies such as:
 Sand trays, raised line paper, textured objects, finger paints and puzzles to improve fine
motor skills
 Modeling materials such as clay and sculpting materials
 Using small materials called manipulatives to represent number values to teach math skills
IV. Kinesthetic methods
Multi sensory methods using body movements are called kinesthetic methods. These
involve fine and gross motor movements.
 Games involving jumping rope, clapping or other movements paired with activities while
counting and singing songs related to concepts.
 Any large movement activity for students involving dancing, bean bag tossing or other
activities involving concepts, rhythmic recall and academic competition such as quizzes,
flash card races and other learning games.
By:
Praveen A.V https://www.lexiconreadingcenter.org/what-is-multisensory-teaching-
techniques/

Phonics Instruction: the Value of a Multi-sensory

Approach
By: Center for Effective Reading Instruction, International Dyslexia Association

Teaching experience supports a multi-sensory instruction approach in the early grades to

improve phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading comprehension skills. Multi-sensory
instruction combines listening, speaking, reading, and a tactile or kinesthetic activity.

Teaching experience supports a multi-sensory instruction approach in the early grades to

improve phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading comprehension skills. Multi-sensory
instruction combines listening, speaking, reading, and a tactile or kinesthetic activity.

Phonics instruction lends itself to multi-sensory teaching techniques, because these techniques
can be used to focus children’s attention on the sequence of letters in printed words. As such,
including manipulatives, gestures, and speaking and auditory cues increases students’ acquisition
of phonics skills. An added benefit is that multisensory techniques are quite motivating and
engaging to many children.
 Multi-sensory activities provide needed scaffolding to beginning and struggling readers and
include visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile activities to enhance learning and memory. As
students practice a learned concept, reduce the multi-sensory scaffolds until the student is using
only the visual for reading. Employ the multi-sensory techniques to fix errors and then practice
without the scaffold.

Examples of multi-sensory phonics activities

1. Dictate a word using say, touch, and spell. Students say each sound in the word and place
a manipulative (e.g., a tile with a letter or letter pattern on it, such as sh, ch, ck) to represent
each sound in the word.

For example, when the teacher says fin, students move the letter tiles for f, i, and n, to spell
the word, while at the same time saying and stretching the sounds orally. If the teacher then
says fish, students replace the tile with n on it with one that has an sh.

Subsequent examples of words in the chain could be wish, wig, wag, bag, brag, and so on.
The activity should use only letter sounds/pattern sounds that children have been taught.

Letter tiles also should represent sounds at the phoneme level. For example, fish would be
spelled with three tiles (f, i, sh), because it has three phonemes, whereas brag would be
spelled with four tiles (b, r, a, g), reflecting four phonemes.

Place ending spelling patterns and beginning consonants (or consonant blends) on
cards. Have students work in pairs and arrange as many words as they can on a table. Do a
table walk and have each pair read the words they created. Give other teams an opportunity
to create a new word.

2. Organize spelling around the vowel letter. Assign a gesture to each vowel sound. Dictate
a word and have students make the gesture for the vowel sound in the word.

3. Assign a gesture to /sh/ and /ch/. Dictate words. Ask students to individually make the
gesture associated with /sh/ or /ch/ when they hear those sounds in a word.

4. Paddle pop: Teach letter clusters such as ing and ink. Write these clusters on card stock and
staple to popsicle sticks. Dictate words and ask students to pop up the paddle containing the
letter cluster in the word.

5. Sounding out words:

 Single syllable "touch and read": Students touch each letter with a finger or pencil point
and say the letter sound, then sweep left to right below the word and read the word.

 Multisyllable touch and read: Students touch each syllable with a finger or pencil point
and say the syllable, then sweep left to right below the word and read the word.

Include two or three of these multi-sensory activities in each lesson: speaking, listening, moving,
touching, reading, and writing. They fully engage the brain and make learning more memorable.
These activities can be fun games or part of a daily practice routine.

Multi-sensory activities are the scaffold for early practice. As students become proficient in the
new skill or concept, reduce and then remove the multi-sensory scaffolds.
Center for Effective Reading Instruction, International Dyslexia Association (2016)