Nancy Nichols Licensed Specialist in School Psychology Educational Diagnostician Firelight Books SEE IT, HEAR IT, FEEL IT! ACCOMMODATING THROUGH MULTISENSORY TEACHING Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results. John Dewey

Anxiety impairs performance. Attention and learning increases when there is relaxed awareness. Use anxiety-reduction techniques or "anxiety zappers" to increase awareness. Anxiety zappers use positive emotions to enhance learning and motivation. Other ways to use positive emotions to enhance learning and motivation include: something fun, exciting, happy, loving, or even a bit frightening!

GOAL  increase student learning How?  improve attention  relaxed awareness  increase motivation  multisensory teaching Positive results include  fewer discipline problems  higher test scores  more high school graduates  young adults with more skills  happier, healthier teachers with fewer gray hairs

What Are Learning Styles? Learning styles are the way we perceive, process, and retain information. There is no right or wrong learning style. Learning styles have nothing to do with intelligence. Most people have one or two main learning styles. SIX MAIN LEARNING STYLES VISUAL/LINGUISTIC  use of written language. THE BOOKWORM! VISUAL/SPATIAL  able to perceive the visual. THE DREAMER! VERBAL/LINGUISTIC  use of written and spoken language. THE CHATTERBOX! AURAL  understands auditory stimuli. THE MUSICIAN! TACTILE  learns through touch. THE HUGGER! KINESTHETIC  learns through large, whole-body movements. THE ATHLETE! What is your learning style?

Common Phrases... Visual, Aural, Verbal/Linguistic, or Tactile/kinesthetic? It’s coming through loud and clear. Let’s look at it differently. I have good feelings about this. Let me spell it out for you. That sounds about right. Tell me word for word… That’s music to my ears. I can’t get a grip on this… I see what you are talking aboutThat rings a bell. In other words… That feels right to me. Stay in touch. I can’t quite picture it. My gut is telling me…

Experienced, effective teachers know this: Different students learn differently. Each student is an individual, a real person with his or her own strengths and stressors. Research indicates that "all students [have] significantly better achievements with multisensory approaches" (Martini, 1986). Maximize the learning experience by incorporating sight, sound, touch, and movement into daily lessons. Memory training and executive functioning opportunities are easy ways to offer differentiated instruction.

Why? Students are more attentive and lessons are more meaningful. Students have a more positive attitude towards learning. Behavior improves and student achievement increases. Students learn more! Effective teachers use a multisensory teaching approach.

What does a multisensory classroom feel like? It feels good! It is a safe place. Anxiety is minimized by letting students know what to expect. Daily schedules and classroom rules are posted. Students are respected as individuals. They have choices. Eliminate fears. Immediate feedback fosters feelings of security and trust. It also allows students to immediately correct mistakes. As in sports, mistakes are a natural part of practice.

A nurturing environment allows students’ brains to work better. Make your classroom a comfort zone!

Busting the Myth What are teachers required to teach? The standards. The materials and the methods that a teacher uses to teach the standards is a professional decision.

What else? Differentiated instruction! Accommodations! Intervention! Multisensory Integration! Response to Intervention! All teachers are required to meet the student at his or her level and teach the standards.

Response To Intervention prevents academic failure through 1. early intervention 2. frequent progress measurement 3. intensive research-based instructional interventions Students who do not show a response to effective interventions are likely to have learning disabilities and to be in need of special education.

THE MULTISENSORY LESSON The more styles you address, the easier the instruction will be received by the learners. Be enthusiastic! Model respect. Be consistent. Praise often!

Employing pictorial objects and trademarked TouchPoints, TouchMath teaches children to associate numerals with real values (number quantities). BRIDGING QUANTITIES WITH SYMBOLS By third grade and beyond, children having difficulty with math usually have the same two basic problems: 1.They are not connecting number quantities with abstract symbols. They can count five apples, and they usually identify numerals such as 5. But they have not grasped the connections between the two concepts. The numeral 5 is just a squiggly line on paper. 2.Many have memorized facts, but they do not yet understand how they get the answers. Thus, they forget time and time again and, they guess at answers. TouchMath

CHISENBOP is a ancient method of doing basic arithmetic using your fingers. Soooo easy! © Andy Harris Indiana University / Purdue University, Indianapolis

Busting the Myth Most teachers think that they must teach the textbook. Let’s think about teaching about flowers. High school biology standards typically include a standard requiring students to learn about the parts of a flower.

How can we accommodate and still use this text? What about previewing vocabulary before reading? What about paired reading? What about providing an outline?

What about your seriously at-risk, high school students who really can’t read the regular curriculum?

“The Parts of Flowers”“Structure of a flower” Both texts address the standard.

What do you see?

“Flowers” “The Parts of Flowers” “Structure of a flower” Each address the standard. What do you see?

Use pictures and words that catch their attention. Phrases: dead things “kissing” plant The Game Repeat main ideas.

Employing pictorial objects and trademarked TouchPoints, TouchMath teaches children to associate numerals with real values (number quantities). BRIDGING QUANTITIES WITH SYMBOLS By third grade and beyond, children having difficulty with math usually have the same two basic problems: 1.They are not connecting number quantities with abstract symbols. They can count five apples, and they usually identify numerals such as 5. But they have not grasped the connections between the two concepts. The numeral 5 is just a squiggly line on paper. 2.Many have memorized facts, but they do not yet understand how they get the answers. Thus, they forget time and time again and, they guess at answers. TouchMath

CHISENBOP is a ancient method of doing basic arithmetic using your fingers. Soooo easy! © Andy Harris Indiana University / Purdue University, Indianapolis