Dyslexia, A Multi-sensory Approach

What does a Multi-sensory Approach mean in regards to teaching students with Dyslexia?  Take a look at the diagram below:

Based on this resource, Dyslexia can affect, depending on the severity, multiple areas of learning.  This is why students who have Dyslexia will need to learn the structure of the English Language through a Multi-sensory Structured Learning Program.  The structure of the English Language includes the following:

• Phonology and Phonological Awareness
• Sound-Symbol Association: visual to auditory, auditory to visual, blending, segmenting
• Syllables: types and patterns for division
• Morphology: base words, roots, affixes
• Syntax: grammar, sentence variation, mechanics of language
• Semantics: meaning

In order to teach these areas of the English Language instruction should include the following:

• Simultaneous multi-sensory : visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile
• Systematic and cumulative
• Direct Instruction
• Diagnostic teaching and automaticity
• Synthetic and Analytic Instruction

In order for a Multi-Sensory Structured Learning Program to be effective, instruction should be in small groups, no more than five, and should be taught by a trained Dyslexia Instructor.  In addition, instructors use structured lesson planning and ongoing monitoring of progress to organize instruction and chart the growth of the skills.  Also, an added benefit to this type of instruction is that it helps students with executive function difficulties deal with them in the classroom while learning the basic skills of reading.