A Reading and Language Arts instructional program                                                        begins with standardized testing of the student’s knowledge                                                     of and ability to work with the basic phonemes, the sound /                                           symbol associations of written English. Then we evaluate the                                      student’s  phonological awareness, his or her ability to hear, process, remember and reproduce those sounds. This assessment process indicates where the student is having problems. If the problem is determining how to pronounce and spell words using phonetic and structural analysis – decoding / encoding - a structured, sequential, phonetic, multi-sensory program is implemented. Other students may have satisfactory decoding / encoding skills, but have comprehension and analysis issues. In this case a program addressing specific problems, i.e., vocabulary, sentence structure, and / or critical thinking would be implemented.

A reading comprehension program lesson might include any or all of the following: study of root words, prefixes and suffixes, and fill in the blank, and meaning in context exercises for vocabulary. Analysis skills would be practiced with paraphrasing, summarizing and comprehension questions. Grammar, and how sentence structure is used to convey meaning would be taught as well. Graphic organizers such as story webs, outlines, and story maps would be used to increase the student's ability to analyze written passages and extract meaning from them. Writing exercises - sentences, paragraphs, summaries, and original essays - would reinforce these analysis skills.

For the student with decoding / encoding issues, a structured, sequential, phonetic, multi-sensory program lesson is divided into Visual and Auditory sections. In the Visual section of a lesson, all activities begin with materials that the student sees, such as letter cards, word cards, pictures and written texts.  In the Auditory section all activities begin with auditory input, including identifying letters by hearing their sounds, identifying and supplying rhyming words, and writing dictated words, phrases, or sentences. Both sections access kinesthetic and tactile  modalities as well. Applying the kinesthetic (movement) modality, both visual and auditory drills include the student tracing the target letter in the air while saying the name of the letter or digraph, a keyword using it, and it correct sound. As research has shown that large muscle movement enhances the learning process more than smaller muscle movement, this exercise uses the entire arm, not just the hand, to trace the letter, digraph, or letter combination. In the tactile modality, a student having a problem with the vowel digraph / ai /, for example, might work on tracing the letters on sandpaper, or working with letters cut out of cloth, while repeating the associated sounds and words using those sounds. One having trouble with reversals, such as reading the letter b  as a d might practice by forming the letters in clay or play dough, cutting letter and word shapes from colored or textured paper, or using hand and arm postures to differentiate the shape and direction of the letters.

Some students are better able to focus and learn when colorful materials and tools are used. Others respond well to musical stimuli, or three dimensional shapes. One child might show more enthusiasm for materials related to sports, while another prefers animals. Specific materials and activities accessing the four major learning modalities - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Tactile - are introduced based on ongoing assessment of the student's strengths, interests, and problem areas.