FACT! Engaging all the senses when in class is a wonderful way to embed learning. The amazing Susie Nyman shares her top ten tips for how to do this at home.

Multi-sensory teaching is what it says on the tin: ‘teaching using the five senses!’ Everyone says that they are doing it, but are they really exposing the students to a range of multi-sensory teaching and learning techniques and ideas every lesson? Multi-sensory techniques use approaches that all students can apply to their learning. These techniques, using the five senses, may improve the neuro-plasticity of the brain which helps with learning and memory. (Nyman, 2019) (Eastap, 2018)                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Below are a few of Susie’s top 10 Multi-sensory Teaching Tips parents and teachers could try at home during lockdown in order to make a difference to their students’ short and long term memory as well as recall for their future examinations.

They are cheap and easy-to replicate. All the props have been hand-made using resources purchased from Yellow Moon Craft Supplies™, Poundland™, The Range™ and Hobbycraft™. Alternatively, you can try using anything else you have at home that will work!

No. 1 Connectives Key Ring and Randoms™ Sweets

This resource was developed for family members in order to help them with creative writing. The connectives key ring can be used to help replace adverbs, as well as trying to encourage students to provide a richer vocabulary in their essays. The key ring can be adapted for remembering key words for all subjects.

No. 2 Paper Chains.

This resource has often been used for curriculum support students with SpLD to help them to sequence the names of compounds in organic chemistry as well as link characters together from English Literature texts.

No. 3 Football.

This resource was developed for students in order to practice the key examination questions and answers. It could be used for any subject. Do give it a try!

No. 4 Go Large Mats.

This resource has been developed for hundreds of students and family members. It is particularly useful for geographical, biological and chemical processes. The flower mat is a wonderful sequencing activity that all students thoroughly enjoy using during lessons.

No. 5 Strawberry Shoelaces.

Strawberry shoelaces have been used to help with graph plotting and explaining trends and patterns of data in mathematics and science related subjects. It enables the student to visualise the data and explain the trends and patterns with competence and confidence.

No. 6 Pipe cleaners.

Pipe cleaners were a real hit wen explaining the different types of neurons to students. However, they could be used for many other subjects such as making geographical landforms.

No. 7 Post-it Notes.

These are ideal for sequencing such as historical events, geographical or biological processes. They can be colour coded in order to provide an extra layer in the learning process for memory recall for example with spelling difficult science terminology, or unfamiliar words in a foreign language.

No. 8 Puppets.

Puppets are a fantastic resource for all students when exchanging ideas and consolidating difficult concepts for example when discussing how to diagnose and treat a patient with heart disease. Many students with ESL and SpLD benefit from using puppets and gain confidence in their ability in the subject.

No. 9 Balloons.

Students never forget a lesson with balloons. They are so interactive and engaging, and always used for showing and explaining the function of the digestive system. Here is a picture showing balloons for mitosis, but they could be used for counting in French or plotting giant graphs in mathematics.

No. 10 Storyboards.

Students love making their own storyboards. Any excuse for getting the felt-tips out and the glitter glue! It does not matter if they are not very good at drawing, because they can find pictures to cut up from magazines, or the Internet to copy. This idea was initially developed with students studying English literature and Religious Studies, but could be adapted for a wide variety of different subjects.

Although Susie has provided her top 10 Multi-sensory Teaching Tips, there are many other ideas you may wish to try out. You can see her in action on YouTube either the British Dyslexia Association video ‘Dyslexia teaching points: Multi-sensory techniques for teaching science’ (BDA, 2018), or Oaka Books videos (Oaka, 2018). Alternatively, try using ‘The Multi-sensory Teaching Toolkit’ published by Oaka Books.