October is Dyslexia Awareness Month and The Sensory Path is here to help with some information on how a Sensory Path can be a useful remediation tool for your students diagnosed with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a neurobiological condition that impacts a person’s language processing skills. Dyslexic students may struggle with decoding unfamiliar words, reading aloud, spelling, reading comprehension, and phonological awareness. If students with dyslexia do not receive appropriate remediation as early and as often as possible, they are more likely to have lower vocabularies, poor ability to express themselves through written language, lack of important background knowledge needed in other subjects, lower reading levels, and loss of academic confidence and motivation.
Dyslexia is recognized as a federally protected learning disability. Students with dyslexia are legally protected in our public education system. Schools are required to provide the appropriate interventions to assist students with dyslexia. It’s important that teachers and administrators are educated on how dyslexia impacts our students and how to help students with this language processing disorder learn. These students are just as capable as any other and deserve appropriate accommodations to support their learning.
In addition to properly trained and informed faculty and staff, schools need appropriate resources to help with dyslexic remediation. The Sensory Path can help!
Ways a Sensory Path can support dyslexic remediation:
- Reduces the pressure and anxiety that the classroom can cause for struggling students
- Provides a dedicated space for alternative assessments
- Offers a multi-sensory, interactive learning space
- Provides a concrete learning experience and connection to more abstract and complex concepts
- Allows practice of multi-step directions
- Gives students an informal way of learning
- Serves as an additional modality of a visual learning experience
- Supports Self-Regulation Skills
- Trains hand-eye coordination and muscle memory needed for writing
- Practice Space for various learning objectives
How to use some of our most popular multi-sensory learning products to support dyslexic remediation:
- Step and Say Activities: students with dyslexia may have difficulty with number sequences and order of operations. The Step and Say Sensory Path Elements are a great tool to give students a concrete and memorable learning experience. It may be difficult for these students to fully grasp the concept of sequential numbering in the classroom. The Sensory Path Step and Say Elements are one more opportunity for these students to experience this concept outside of the classroom. For students struggling to comprehend counting backwards, the Count Down Rocketship featured in the Blast Off Sensory Path is perfect to help reenforce how counting down works.
- AlphaDots: while typically displayed as a hopscotch, the AlphaDots are SO much more than just a hopping game. For any students who struggle with letter recognition or sounds, the AlphaDots serves as an opportunity to practice. Have students give you the letter sounds or a word that starts with each letter as they move through this activity.
- Sight Word Spots: sight words are a tried-and-true teaching method when learning to read. Some students aren’t there yet and need extra practice. Adding the sight words to your classroom or halls can help give students that extra exposure to these important words. You can turn the lesson into an interactive experience by asking them to “find” certain words.
- Popcorn Compound Words: students with dyslexia often struggle to build compound words. The Popcorn Compound Words Sensory Path Element is useful for helping reenforce this skill. Using easy to recognize words, you can challenge your students to build new words with this activity. Offering as many different learning opportunities as possible is an invaluable way to support students with different learning abilities.
The Sensory Path is a universal educational tool that can support the vast diversity of learning abilities in our schools. All students are deserving of an equitable education. Dyslexia is NOT insurmountable and is NOT indicative of low intelligence. These students just need a little extra support and instruction from their teachers. With the proper help, students with Dyslexia can overcome their language processing delays and go on to become great leaders in our society. Adding a Sensory Path to your school can help support the interventional efforts in your dyslexia programs.
If you have more questions about how a Sensory Path can help your student population, get in touch! The founder of The Sensory Path is a highly trained dyslexia expert and special education teacher for over 20 years. The Sensory Path knows first-hand how beneficial the appropriate support resources can be in schools. We’re here to help! Email us at holly@thesensorypath.com or give us a call at 662-607-0448. We can’t wait to work with you!
