Teaching Phonics With The Body And Mind

The Fastest Way to Improve Learning

The fastest way to change the brain is to invite the body into every academic lesson. Science tells us that the mind and body are a team and bi-directional. What you do to one, you do to the other. That’s why all my lessons include some form of mind-body integration activity. Children learn the lessons much faster and remember content longer when lessons include mind-body neural building activities.

How to Teach Children with Dyslexia

Children with dyslexia are usually taught with specific types of programs that are often called an Orton-Gillingham approach or structured literacy (more current term). These programs offer step-by-step teaching of specific phonics rules.

The International Dyslexia Association is a good resource for those working with children who may have dyslexia, whether diagnosed officially or not. You’ll often hear the phrase, “dyslexia students need a multi-sensory approach to learning.”

What Exactly Does a Multi-sensory Approach for Dyslexia Mean?

Generally, the term multi-sensory is used to describe teaching with the most common senses including visual, auditory, and tactile. Using a multi-sensory approach increases the likelihood of reaching students with a variety of challenges.

This diagram shows the percentages of children who may have specific learning challenges. As you can see, in any one classroom, there may be a majority of students experiencing issues in any of these areas further supporting the need to teach as if all children have something going on because most likely, many do and if they do, it’s rarely just one area that is affecting the child’s ability to learn with ease.

Image by Dr. Debra Em Wilson, copyright protected

The Missing Senses in Most Multi-Sensory Approaches

What’s missing in a typical mutli-sensory approach is that many reading coaches and dyslexia experts aren’t familiar with the additional senses including proprioception, interoception, and vestibular. When teaching students with dyslexia, including activities that call into play these senses supports learning and increases the odds that children will learn faster and retain the information longer.

Children with Dyslexia Often have Additional ADHD, Executive Functioning, or Sensory Processing Challenges

I refer to the overlapping of labels as a kaleidoscope. Depending on how you are looking at the child, you might see only dyslexia if you are looking through a reading coach lens. If you are observing the child from a counseling perspective, you might see more ADHD and executive functioning issues. Occupational therapists are more likely to observe sensory processing challenges. How we see children is based on our training and unique perspectives.

Image by Dr. Debra Em Wilson, copyright protected

Teaching Children with Dyslexia More Effectively by Seeing them More Holistically

When I’m working with my reading students, I assume that they may have a smattering of many different challenges. Time is always of the essence, so I choose activities that help with focus and regulation while also improving academic skills.

Why I love Quadrant Heavy Work Activities

S’cool Moves activities include a lot of moves integrated into lessons using quadrants. Quadrants grab the brain’s attention through novelty, pattern, and the right amount of difficulty. This powerful combination encourages the brain to create new neural pathways that provide additional ways to learn new information.

Cognitive Capital

When a child has multiple ways to learn something, I call this cognitive capital. If one pathway isn’t working, the child can choose a different pathway. Pathways don’t happen on their own. We have to create an environment that encourages the brain to discover new ways of learning and build new pathways.

Image from istock.com

Creating New Neural Pathways

The fastest way to create new neural pathways is to ensure your lessons are designed with the mind and body working together as a team. As my favorite quote from Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen goes, “The mind is like the wind and the body like the sand. If you want to know which way the wind is blowing, look at the sand.”

Teach with the Wind and the Sand in Mind

You can start right away teaching with the wind and sand as your metaphor. Let this metaphor remind you that if we see disorganized bodies, this often indicates a disorganized mind. When the body begins to get organized, the mind begins to get organized.

What do you Observe with the Quad Squad Activity?

This week’s activities encourages you to integrate a phonics lesson into a quadrant activity I call Quad Squad for no other reason than it rhymes, and as a reading coach, I’m all about rhyming!

You can download this week’s activity here by clicking on the image. The instructions and activity sheet are included.

Teach Phonics with this Quad Squad Activity

Start building cognitive capital now!

Observation is the Key to Designing Engaging Mind Wiring Lessons

As children attempt the activity, OBSERVE. A huge part of teaching effectively is honing your powers of observation. How does the child go about negotiating the tasks. How organized or disorganized is the child when doing the activity? Does the child seem too stressed or is it just the right amount of challenge? If the child is too stressed, how might you modify the activity.

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Start building cognitive capital right away with the Quad Squad activity. You and your students will have fun as an added bonus, and learning is way easier when there’s a wee bit of fun included!