How Multisensory Learning with Slingerland Helps Kids Read
If you’ve ever watched a child struggle with reading, you know how frustrating it can be—for both the child and the parent. Research shows that a multisensory approach to reading can make a big difference, especially for kids who find reading challenging.
What is Multisensory (Multimodal) Learning?
Simply put, multisensory learning is when children use more than one sense at a time while learning. Instead of just looking at letters on a page, your child might say the sounds out loud, trace the letters with their fingers, or even move their body to reinforce learning. It’s learning that engages sight, sound, and movement all together.
Why Active Learning is Key
Kids don’t just remember what they see—they remember what they do. When children actively participate—talking, writing, or creating their own strategies—they are more focused and retain more information. For example, asking a child to summarize a story out loud or predict what will happen next keeps their brain engaged in a way that silent reading alone cannot.
Connecting Letters, Sounds, and Meaning
Reading is more than recognizing words on a page. It involves three key pieces working together:
Sounds – the phonemes or individual sounds in words
Letters – the graphemes that represent those sounds
Meaningful units – the morphemes, which are the smallest bits of meaning in words
Research shows that children learn best when these three elements are taught together. This simultaneous approach strengthens the connections in the brain that support reading and spelling.
What the Brain Tells Us
The brain is naturally multisensory. It doesn’t process letters, sounds, or movements separately—it combines them. Children with reading difficulties often have differences in brain areas that link sounds to letters, but multisensory instruction can help these pathways grow stronger. Even small activities, like pairing a letter with a sound while tracing it with a finger, can make a big impact.
Simple Multisensory Tips for Parents
Here are some easy ways to bring multisensory learning into your home:
Speak and Write: Have your child say letters or words out loud as they write them.
Hands-On Practice: Use sand, playdough, or magnetic letters to form words.
Move While Learning: Clap or tap out syllables while sounding out words.
Combine Senses: Show a word, say it, and trace it—use all three senses at once.
Make it Fun: Games, songs, and storytelling make active engagement feel like play.
Multisensory learning mirrors how the brain naturally processes information. By engaging multiple senses, children:
Focus better
Remember more
Make stronger connections between sounds, letters, and meaning
For children who struggle with reading, these strategies can also help compensate for areas of the brain that process information more slowly.
Reading doesn’t have to be a battle. Multisensory instruction is more than a teaching trend—it’s a brain-based approach backed by research. By combining sight, sound, and movement, children are given the tools to build confidence, strengthen memory, and enjoy reading.
How The Slingerland Approach Fits In
The Slingerland Approach is one of the best-known multimodal methods for teaching reading. It was designed specifically for classroom use and brings multisensory strategies into everyday lessons. Here’s how it works in practice:
A child sees a letter, says its sound, writes it in the air or on paper, and sometimes traces it.
Reading and spelling are taught together, step by step, in a logical order that moves from simple to more complex.
Every lesson is sequential, systematic, and cumulative, so no child is left guessing.
This structure ensures that children don’t just memorize words temporarily—they build lasting skills they can apply in reading, writing, and spelling.
