The Use of Multisensory Approaches during Center Time, through Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic-Tactile Activities, to Enhance Spelling Accuracy of Second Grade Students

Learning to spell is an essential skill for students to acquire at a young age. Historically, students used rote memorization to practice spellings words for a weekly test (Joshi & Aaron, 2005). Rote memorization may help students enter information into short term memory, but, using an active multisensory approach enhances the transfer into long term memory (Schwed & Melichar-Utter, 2008). The intention of this study was to determine if multisensory activities enhanced spelling accuracy on weekly tests. Through different activities that involved multiple senses, such as textured writing and Wiki Sticks, second grade students practiced weekly spelling words during language arts center time. Weekly pre and posttests, observational checklists, and open-ended questionnaires were used to triangulate data. The results of this data suggested that using multisensory activities may have helped to improve student spelling accuracy as students conveyed that they enjoyed using multisensory activities and welcomed their continued use. Teaching students to spell is a central part of any language arts program as it provides the foundation for reading success through the awareness of phonemes and letter patterns (Birsh, 2006; Carreker, 2005; Moats, 2005; Rogers, 1999). Students typically use rote memorization to practice spellings words for a weekly test (Joshi & Aaron, 2005) with the ultimate goal of committing proper spelling into long term memory. However, solely using rote memorization may not be the most successful method for some children (Moats, 2005). Rote memorization may aid in entering information into short term memory, but, using a more active multisensory approach may enable the transference of information into long term memory (Schwed & Melichar-Utter, 2008). Because multiple senses are involved in a multisensory approach, the spelling accuracy of students may be enhanced with a better chance for retention and retrieval of that information (Henry & Hook, 2006). Thus, multisensory instruction links two or more of the visual, auditory, tactile, or kinesthetic learning modalities simultaneously (Birsh, 2006; Donnell, 2007; Henry & Hook, 2006; Moats & Farrell, 2005; Rogers, 1999). For example, students can trace sandpaper letters while orally stating the letter names. Through the use of this multisensory activity, connections are made with what students see, hear, touch, and do (Henry & Hook, 2006). When multiple modalities are used, there is a greater opportunity for students to successfully retain accurate spelling because more pathways to long term memory have been established (Rogers, 1999; Schwed & MelicharUtter, 2008). As elementary children learn to read and write, spelling is an important component that needs to be taught directly (Carreker, 2005; Moats 2005). Many words follow patterns and rules and can be easily taught. However, some words in the English language are considered irregular (Carreker). For those words, students need to be provided alternative strategies to aid in memorization (Moats & Farrell, 2005). This study was conducted to investigate whether the use of multisensory literacy centers in a second grade classroom would improve spelling accuracy. Since students have different learning styles, teachers need to deliver lessons in diverse ways.