Now we are going to talk about some multisensory tools you can use for teaching spelling. The first thing, the first point, is teaching cursive script. It is very important that you teach cursive script to the children, especially the children with dyslexia because each time the pen is lifted from the page there is a potential error, mistake, which can be made. The cursive writing really eases the writing process because it's continuous. Also, another aspect, which you may have noticed if you have dyslexic learners in your classroom, is that with printed script, they usually do not put spaces between words so that you have the impression that the line is a single word whereas with cursive writing each one is going to be neatly separated from the next one and the previous one. But be aware that there are many, many cursive scripts available. What is important is that across the year, the same cursive script is being used. I made a big mistake myself, because when I was supporting a child, she was seeing one type of cursive script in the classroom and then another with me, and she was very disturbed about that. So pay attention to this. If I may recommend, one cursive script is the American D'Nealian. You will find it on the web where this cursive writing is quite good, because there are some more differences between B, D, P, Q, etc., and U, and W, compared to other cursive writings. Another important thing when you teach cursive script is to prepare appropriate support to write, to spell. So use four lines, and you can use a color coding for the lines. You have seen in the film that I used green and orange, but you can also use another trick. For example, the bottom line is the red line representing the center of the Earth and then you would have a brown line for the soil, and then you would have a green line for the grass, and then a blue line for the sky. So depending on what the children are sensitive to, you may try to use different color coding of the fall lines, but it helps them a lot. Also, another thing to be very attentive to is to try to encourage children to sit comfortably and to hold their pen appropriately when they are spelling. Here are a few examples, a few drawings, of how the child should be sitting, holding the pen, and placing the page. These drawings are taken from 'Teaching Today, Staff Development', BBC Education. The second point to be aware of and to draw attention to is how to teach regular and irregular words. We have already talked about regular words with straightforward correspondences between graphemes and phonemes, and irregular words where at least one correspondence is complex, is not following the rule. Now there are several multisensory routines to teach regular and irregular words. I'm going to start with the regular words. One very popular multi-sensory technique is what is called SOS, simultaneous oral spelling, which was invented by Gillingham and Stillman in the sixties. There are many variants, and you can find them on the web, of this SOS technique. But basically, the following principles, the following steps should be followed when you teach regular words. So first step, the teacher says the word, then the pupil repeat the word and they name the letters of the words. And then the pupil, again, name(s) the letters of the word at the same time as they write down the word in cursive script. And then, you have hidden the words, of course, when they spell it, and then you show it again, and the pupil checks whether they are correct or not. This technique helps establishing connections between the four modalities, oral- kinaesthetic, the manual-kinaesthetic, and auditory, and visual, because they see what they are spelling. Now let's move on to the teaching of the irregular words. There are several multisensory methods for teaching irregular words I'm going to I introduce you to two of these routines. The first one was proposed by Fernand. It consists in several steps, which I will go through. The pupils receive large cards on which the word is written in cursive script. Possibly you can use that from a pack of irregular words which I mentioned earlier - the children may have packs of irregular words. The word is divided into syllables by the pupil with a pencil, and then the pupil follows the letters with her finger on the cards. And when they feel ready, when they have the feeling they can spell that word without mistakes, the card is removed, obviously. And the pupil writes the word from memory as they say it again. So you are introducing the visual modality. They see themselves writing, (the auditory modality) because they hear themselves saying the words. If the spelling is correct, they repeat the action by tracing the word with their finger, as you see in the film. And the words should, obviously afterwards, be practised in context, in the context of sentences and texts. Another example which has also many variables is known as LCWC, for look, cover, write, check. An example from the Dyslexia Institute Learning Programme for Dyslexia Action is the Following. The teacher shows the word for several seconds asking the children really look at the word and analyze the word. The pupils say the word. They name the letters of the word. So they spell out loud each letter. They copy the words, both teachers and pupils hide the words. The pupils repeat the words, the pupils spell the word as they say it again, and the pupils write down the word again. And the teachers show the word again, and the pupils check their own spelling. The difference that are repeated until the pupils can spell the word. When teaching irregular words, international experts, like BevĂŠ Hornsby or Tony Buzan advise going though the routine, and repeating it at increasingly longer intervals: one hour, perhaps, if you can, one day, two or three days, then one week, etcetera. Now, let's move on to sentence dictation. When the children have acquired enough expertise in writing single words, you will introduce them (to) sentences. Before you give a dictation, make sure to allow the child to read the text one time before you are going to dictate it. If possible, you should record the passage, if possible for you, depending on the materials you have at your disposal. Recording is very important, so the child is recording the sentence, and then she plays back the sentence. Listening to your own voice is a very powerful tool for memorization. This has been shown by studies because the listener is obviously hearing her own voice. There are also several multi-sensory routines to teach sentence dictation. Dr. BevĂŠ Hornsby proposes the following sequence, which induced people to listen, to speak, to write, to look, and to read, so all the multisensory modalities are being involved. So, the teacher says the phrase at normal pace, the pupils repeat the phrase aloud, and then the teacher repeats the phrase with a short pause between each word, speaking very clearly. The pupils then write the phrase as they say it out loud. The pupils read out exactly what they have actually written, and not what they think they have written, this is a very important distinction. Always ask the dyslexic child to read what is written on the page and not what they think is written. And if they have made mistakes, the teacher asks them to find these mistakes and to correct themselves. So these multisensory routines for teaching irregular words, regular words, and sentences are very important for children with dyslexia because they bring into play phonological analysis, and they help memorization. Obviously, they are also good for older children. If you cannot use these routines in class, but you can tell these routines can be done without any specific material, you can always ask the parents to do these, explaining how to proceed or the specialists. In addition, you may have noticed that the final step in each of these routines is self-correction. And again, I insist on the fact that self-correction is very important, not only for dyslexic learners but also, for all learners. Another thing you can do to teach reading, spelling, sorry, is use memory tricks. Remember that earlier when I was talking about informal assessments in (module) two, you could access or just auditory short-term memory, and you can access visual short-term memory. Now, you're going to feel, you're going to see that children do better when they hear auditory stimuli, and others will do better when they see visual stimuli. So you can use either, auditory tricks, mnemonics, to have the children memorize the spelling of irregular words like because, and I'm going to give you an example in a few seconds. Or you can use visual tricks. So an example of mnemonics for an auditory word is to find the sentence. Ideally the child should find the sentence herself to memorize the correct spelling. 'Because' can be decomposed as Big Elephants Can Always Use Small Entrances. So you have the first phoneme and the first letter of each word of the sentence correspond to the letters of the word because. Another example for 'said, Sally Ann Is Dancing. And another example to remember, that in 'necessary', you have one 'c' and two 's's, ... it is necessary to have a shirt with one Collar, and two Sleeves. You can also group families of irregular words into sentences. For example, a good knight (with a 'k') knows how to knit knots at night (without a 'k'). Many children with dyslexia, and probably other children as well, have difficulties with homophones, so words which are pronounced the same way but spelled differently and have different meanings. Here is an example of visual trick for the pair, tail, T-A-I-L, T-A-L-E, and for the word pail P-A-I-L versus P-A-L-E. So for children with a stronger visual memory, you may introduce the homophone with the little drawings (as) you see now on the screen.
