ulti-sensory phonics session using the Jolly phonics programme. The activity was based on the game pass the parcel. The children were asked to pass the box around the group whilst singing a familiar song. When the song was finished the child left holding the box would pick out a letter. First the child who picked out the letter would sound it out then all the children would do it together, reinforcing it with the action. The child who picked out the letter would then be asked to choose an object from the middle of the group that began with that letter.
I chose to do this activity as it was physical and interactive. I felt it would be an activity that would engage the children instantly as it is based on a familiar party game that many of the children recognised. It was not too complicated and it was a fun way of reinforcing the letters and sounds that the children had already learnt. Some key findings of the Rose review state that "the phonic work done with young children should be multi-sensory in order to capture their interest, sustain their motivation and to reinforce learning in imaginative and exciting ways". This was the aim for this particular activity.
One particular study done to look into the multisensory approach to the teaching of phonics was carried out in London. The programme that the teachers used consisted of a multisensory approach to teaching related spelling rules. The teachers used a range of resources to teach the children the spelling rules such as power point presentations and talking puppets. The children were expected to learn 40 new words and the rules they needed to know in order to spell them correctly. Each word was presented to the children by either a dinosaur puppet or a boy puppet. The 40 words were split into blocks of ten and so that each child was given the chance to try and spell each word they were given coloured cards to hold up depending on how they thought the word was spelled. To gain a good understanding of the impact this approach had on the children the teachers assessed the children's spelling ability before the study, immediately after and a few weeks after. The children were found to have made good progress. Using the multisensory approach allowed the children to be involved in the learning task and was an important way of reinforcing what the children had already learned. They found the power point presentation stimulating and the children were engaged by the puppets. They were able to concentrate for large periods of time on tasks that required careful listening and concentration. By using this method the children became encouraged to put effort into their work that meant some real achievements were made.
This study showed that by using a more stimulating approach to teaching phonics that children became more engaged. They were offered stimulating resources that they could relate to. The children wanted to learn due to the exciting way in which these new spelling rules were presented to them. It enhanced their listening skills as they became more engaged and it improved their involvement within the learning of phonics as they were all asked to spell each of the words. This was an aspect of phonics teaching that I myself wanted to get across in the pass the parcel activity. By offering the children a new way to practice their sounds and learn new ones they became more involved and more excited. As they recognised the game it took very little time for the children to pick the game up and become engrossed in it.
Other studies have revealed that young children that are immersed in a structured, sequential, multisensory programs, made great progress in decoding skills. These multisensory approaches used clear and direct teaching of letter-sound relationships. Studies that have been carried out in clinical settings have displayed similar results for large range of abilities.
For the pass the parcel activity the jolly phonics programme was used as it was the system that the school had taken on board. This was a good system and the children had taken to it. It did; however seem