1. Engage their Brains!
Multisensory Activities to
Promote Reading Success

2. Education
The
only profession
whose job is to change
the human brain
EVERY DAY.

3. Neuroscience & Learning
In the News

4. Brain Facts
True or False?

5. True or False?
The average adult brain weighs
10 pounds and
uses 40% of the body’s oxygen.
FALSE
The average adult human brain
weighs 3 pounds and uses 20%
of the body’s oxygen.

6. True or False?
The brain needs 8 – 12 glasses of water
a day for optimal functioning.
TRUE
The brain needs 8 – 12 glasses of water a day
for optimal functioning. The brain consists of
78% water and it needs to keep hydrated.
Dehydration is a common problem in school
classrooms leading to lethargy and impaired
learning. (Hannaford, 1995)

7. True or False?
The brain is “hard wired” –
what you were born with is what you have until you die.
FALSE
The reason we can learn new habits and
skills that are not innate is the brain is
“plastic” throughout life. Neuroplasticity
is a characteristic of the brain that allows
it to be shaped by experience.
(Merzenich, et. al.)

8. Are kids today biologically different than 30 years ago?
Consuming more additives

9. More exposure to
drugs and use of
medication
Restricted movement due to
hours spent strapped in a car
seat
More sedentary entertainment with video
games and television

10. Unhealthy living conditions
due to limited resources of
families and single parent
households (lead paint)
Less early motor
stimulation from swings,
see-saws, etc. due to
safety concerns

11. The Brain Comes Wired for Sound!
• Learning language is an early
“test” of our brain’s learning
system
• At birth, we have equal
potential to learn any language
• By 6 months, we begin to build
the phonemes specific to our
native language based on
experience

12. Language Experiences

13. Language Experiences by Group
Words Heard Affirmatives Prohibitions
per hour per hour per hour
Professional 2153 32 5
Family Child
Working Class 1251 12 7
Family Child
Low SES Family 616 5 11
Child
Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children by Betty Hart & Todd R. Risley. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. (1995).

14. Language Experiences by Group
Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children by Betty Hart & Todd R. Risley. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. (1995).
Estimated Cumulative Words Addressed
Professional
45 Million Words
to Child (In Millions)
Working-class
26 Million Words
Low SES
13 Million Words
12 24 36 48
(Age Child in Months)

15. 90% of a young child’s knowledge
is
gained from hearing background
conversation.

16. The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading Growth
16 High Oral
15 Language in
Kindergarten
14
13 5.2 years
Reading Age Level
12 difference
11
Low Oral
10 Language in
9 Kindergarten
8
7
6
5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Hirsch, 1996
Chronological Age

17. Growth of the Brain Occurs from the Inside
Out and the Bottom Up
• You are born with~100 billion brain cells
• There are ~ 15,000 synaptic connections for each cell

18. Reading is Not Innate
Language is natural….Reading is NOT
• The human brain is not born
with the insight to make
sound-to-letter connections
• Only through practice can the
learning challenges of a written
system be resolved

19. Reading: Mastering an Invented System
Many Cognitive Skills Needed
Word Word Text
identification memory Comprehension
Processing Short term
rate memory
Decoding
Visual Phonological
processing processing
Text
cat

20. •A few statistics
Fifteen percent of the U.S. population,
or one in seven Americans,
has some type of learning disability.
(National Institutes of Health)

21. • Children with learning disabilities are as
smart or smarter than their peers. But they
may have difficulty reading, writing,
spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or
organizing information if left to figure things
out by themselves or if taught in
conventional ways.
• Learning disabilities often run in families
(genetically-based).

24. The Learning Brain (Brain Plasticity)
How are memories formed?
• Conditions in the brain
are dynamic. They change
and “rewire” at any age
• The brain’s ability to
change, or be trained, is
known as brain plasticity
• The brain can learn at
any age, and certain
conditions encourage
learning
Neurons and Synaptic Connections

26. Not all great minds think alike!
•Didyou know that Albert Einstein couldn't read until he
was nine?
•WaltDisney, General George Patton, and Vice President
Nelson Rockefeller struggled with reading into adulthood.
•Richard Branson, Paul Orfalea (Kinko’s), Charles Schwab,
Henry Winkler, Agatha Christie and many others have not
let their learning difficulties affect their ultimate success.

27. ABC letter sequence

28. abcdefg
h i j k lmno
pqrstuv
wxynz

29. • Phonetic processing
• Decoding
• Phonemic
Independent Auditory
awareness
• Word attack skills
Reader
Comprehension
Language Visual
• Vocabulary and use of context
• Understanding words in isolation • Sight word recognition
• Using syntax (grammar) and • Able to quickly
semantics (meaning) within the read/recall these words
context of reading

30. What Can go Wrong?
Phonological Awareness
Decoding
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension

31. PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

32. Item Correct response Teachers’ Average
response
STUDY BY SUSAN sun (3) 63.4%
CUNNINGHAM IN laughed (4) 42.0%
2004
grass (4) 28.5%
Christmas (7) 22.6%
“EDUCATORS’ though (2) 55.1%
KNOWLEDGE OF
PHONOLOGICAL psychology (8) 19.9%
AWARENESS” scratch (5) 19.5%
each (2) 77.5%
Entire Sample (N = 722)
say (2) 60.3%
chalk (3) 51.1%
exit (5) 2.6%

33. Decoding
Automatic recall of
letters and sounds
(phonics)

34. Fluency
Decoding smoothly and
accurately

35. Vocabulary
Listening Speaking
Writing Reading

36. Comprehension
Putting it all
together to
understand

37. FOUR MODALITIES (PATHWAYS) FOR
LEARNING
visual
auditory
Kinesthetic
(muscle movement)
tactile

38. How can you help?
Explore the senses: Try teaching the
information visually, verbally, and
kinesthetically (with movement) and find
pathway works best for your student. The more
senses, the more likely it is to be remembered
consistently!

39. Make learning and studying
a rich experience involving all five senses
• Hair gel •Rice
• Shaving cream •Sand paper
• Pudding •Play doh
• Whipped cream •Sand
• Finger paints •Cornmeal
• Chocolate syrup •Carpet
•Kool-Aid (dry)

40. The Gel Bag is a favorite!

41. Make it physical: Adding a physical activity such
as pacing, jumping, throwing a ball, or writing
enhances the memory for many people. Typing
or rewriting notes is a very effective memory
device for people who need to learn
kinesthetically.

42. What’s in The Bag?
•Write a letter on the front of a bag
•Place objects in the bag that begin
with that letter. Have each child
reach in the bag and pull out an
object.
•Talk about each item and see if we
all hear the same sound at the
beginning of each word.

43. Blending sounds together

44. Word Family Paint Chips

45. Tap light for each sound they hear in
word...phoneme segmentation

46. The brain can literally grow new
connections with enriched
environmental situations.
You can develop their pre-reading skills
by continuing to read in order to
develop vocabulary, print awareness,
narrative skills, letter knowledge,
interest in reading and the
understanding that words are made of a
number of sounds.
Every thing you do can be essential “brain food” for
the next generation to succeed!

47. DON’T STOP IN 3rd GRADE!

48. ALL Areas Continue to Develop

49. Copy these sentences with your
non-dominant hand
My dog has fleas.
Perhaps some peppers would perk you up.
Theodore was flabbergasted at such a
peculiar sight!
Motor simulation

50. Once, many years ago, a rellifed came to the village.
He stood in the village spuared and pleday and nags
Until the podleo came to listen and to bance. A jolly
duchuer danced with the niikniad. A small doy
skipqed through the crowd with his bod nibbing at his
heels and yabbing loudly.
After the rellifed stopped, the popleo, tossed conis
Into his hat and brought him milk and cookies for his
trouble. It had been a long, weary, bay and the
rellifed was gald of a rets in this pleasat villaqe.

51. In most polymers, like polyethylene and cellulose, the
monomers are all identical. In other cases, such as
proteins, different monomers may be combined.
Although the amino acid monomers that make up
proteins appear to be very different, each one has an
amino functional group and an organic acid functional
group, so the monomers all link in the same way,
forming a “backbone” of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen
atoms. A polymer with three amino acids is called a
tripeptide.*
*15% of one page in an 848 page chemistry text on which
students take an annual high stakes test (Tocci & Viehland,
1996, p. 257).

52. One year of a
science textbook introduced
more vocabulary words
than an introductory class in
a foreign language (Yeager, 1993).

53. Tips for Improving Reading Abilities
• FIVE FINGER TEST: Have your student open
the book and read one page. If he/she
stumbles on five words, the book is above
their reading level.
• Practice with a safe “audience”

54. •Playboard games such as Scrabble, Scrabble Jr.,
Scattergories, or Apples to Apples to increase
exposure to text in fun ways.
•When reading with your student, take turns
reading a page or paragraph. If they stumble on a
word, just give it to them!
•Before bed, just read to them!

55. • As children are reading, encourage use of an
eraser/highlighter/ruler to focus on the word
they are reading.

56. • Use audio versions of books on tape for the
student to listen to as they follow along in the
book.
• Graphic organizers
help organize
materials and
thoughts.

57. There’s an app for that!
http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/tools/apps
Apps for all ages and all areas of literacy!

58. Amy Barto
abarto@sldcenter.org
616-361-1182