Treatment for Dyslexia & Multi-Sensory Teaching Methods

Dyslexia Treatment & Multi-Sensory Teaching

As dyslexia is not a disease, there is no ‘treatment’ for it.  However, you can help a student with dyslexia by using Multi-Sensory Teaching Methods.

What is Multi-Sensory Teaching?

Multi-sensory means using eyes, ears, touch, taste and smell. Teachers use many of these strategies to help their students overcome their problems.

These methods help to improve:

• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills
• Memory
• Sequencing
• Space organisation
• Directional awareness
• Strategies

Multi-Sensory

There are lots of things to help children using multi-sensory methods, just have a look below.

• Using fingers to trace along wooden letters covered with sandpaper uses touch to help to retain the information in the memory.
• This works even better when the eyes are closed.
• When practising writing on a sheet of paper, children may be asked to say the letter at the same time.  This exercise uses eyes, ears, touch and placement.
• Putting an object like a key in a cotton bag and asking the child to guess what the item is, uses touch as well as recalling pictures already stored in their memory.
• Threading beads (or pasta) onto a piece of string, in a particular order, uses eyes, touch, sequencing, space organisation and directional awareness.
• Mazes are excellent because to complete them, you have to use many different strategies, i.e. eyes, touch, strategic planning and directional awareness.
• Using Lego and Technics are excellent ways to develop fine motor skills, visual processing, and creativity.
• Playing with marbles teaches hand-eye coordination, placement, value and counting.

Software Programmes

Furthermore, we are lucky that so many software programmes help us with literacy and numeracy skills.  Touch Typing is beneficial for all students to help them get their thoughts down on paper while not concentrating on handwriting.  Plus, there are some handy handwriting aids, which will also help.

The following list of games etc. can often help.

Dyslexia Treatment – Playing with things Like:

• Practising letter formation in sand/salt trays. (I use cat litter trays. They are very cheap)
• Using chalk or coloured pens to do letter formation on a black/whiteboard
• Shape and pattern copying
• Using ‘Spirograph’ to practice writing – write, shake it, and it goes away
• Tracking objects to their ‘homes’, i.e., tracing along the line back to the rabbit hutch etc
• Colouring in ‘mosaics’ or ‘paint by number’ is excellent for improving fine motor control (much better than merely writing)
• Colouring in old-fashioned ‘doilies’ (for cakes) is another way to enhance fine motor control
• Threading coloured beads
• Jigsaws
• Juggling
• Swimming

Dyslexia – Developing Skills, including:

• Sequencing
• Space organisation
• Directional awareness

It would be an error to think that merely ‘playing’ children do not learn.  A wealth of research shows that playing the right type of game can help tremendously with a child’s particular problem.

List of educational games to help students with dyslexia.