Journal of Education & Social Policy

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

Abstract
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.

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