Good Sensory Learning Blog

Making lessons both memorable and fun brings magic into any classroom. Instead of looking to a room of passive, bored faces, you can transform your learners into active, engaged participants. I work with students one-on-one, and this is what makes my practice a success. I often tell my students, if you don’t love coming to our sessions, I’m not doing my job. 16 Strategies that Can Transform Your Classroom or One-to-One Sessions: Don't call home assignments, homework, but come up with a name that is more appealing and motivating such as home fun. Also, when introducing a new lesson or...

For many students, writing can be an overwhelming, taxing chore.   To be proficient, students must be able to manage multiple tasks at one time, and to juggle these responsibilities, the following skill must be developed to near automaticity: 1.     Conjuring up and organizing ideas. 2.     Understanding and being able to implement basic grammar and sentence structure. 3.     Recording words through legible penmanship or proficient typing. 4.     Comprehending and utilizing various literacy devices. 5.     Knowing how to spell. If a student struggles with any of the above tasks, their writing will likely suffer. How Can Students Develop the Needed Skills for Automaticity? ...

For some students the act of writing notes can help to encode classroom lessons, but for others it can present an obstacle that prevents them from learning the content in the moment.  What should we do with students that have such trouble taking notes that it impedes learning? What Types of Students Should Avoid Taking Notes? There are those students that are auditory learners, and they often do best when they can listen to the content without the distraction of taking notes. If these auditory learners also have dysgraphia or dyslexia (weaknesses in fine motor dexterity, language processing, and memory),...

Although there is no specific diagnosis for executive function disorder, or executive function deficits (executive functioning issues), the term is often used to describe the impairment in one's ability to manage their own cognition or executive functions. What are Executive Functions?  Executive functioning refers to a set of cognitive processes that act as the brain's conductor, orchestrating various mental tasks to achieve goals and manage behavior. It includes foundational skills such as working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, which work together to guide behavior, problem-solving, and decision-making. These core functions lay the groundwork for more advanced, higher level executive...

For many struggling readers, sight words can seem like an impossible hurdle. Sight words are high-frequency words that are commonly seen when reading and used when writing.  Students are encouraged to memorize these words by sight because most do not follow standard decoding rules and can not be "sounded out." What if a Student Struggles with Visual Memory? Over the years, I have tried a multitude of strategies to help my struggling students master sight words.  Repetitive, multisensory lessons were a bore, games were a great improvement, but the best technique, to begin with, is creating a multisensory memory book.  Instead of...