Some children struggle with difficulties in learning to read and write. Researching teaching methodologies that enable children to achieve academic success are a matter of great importance as learning difficulties, namely, to read and write are common in today's education institutions.

Knowledge of the complete phonemic code, namely grapheme-phoneme correspondence is one of the essential foundational skills for reading success. The domain of the phonemic code is an essential skill that students must develop, to acquire the reading-writing process. Decoding and understanding are crucial to a meaningful reading process, in languages that use the alphabetical principle.

Children with intellectual disabilities, often, have difficulties in intellectual functioning (such as learning, problem solving, judgement) and adaptive functioning (such as communication and independent living) (APA, 2013). One of the three areas of adaptive functioning is the conceptual domain (language, reading, writing, math, reasoning, knowledge, memory). Mild levels of intellectual disability may not be identified until school age, when children show difficulties with academics, namely learning how to read and write. One of the reasons argued for this effortful learning may lay in the nature of the audiovisual process that is recruited for the integration of principle arbitrarily linked elements (Blomert & Froyen, 2010).

There are a range of models, methods, and processes for teaching and learning how to read and write, including multisensory methods. Multisensory methods involve the use of all senses. They focus on using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile elements. They are based on the belief that incorporating all senses into the learning process activates different parts of the brain simultaneously, enhancing memory and the learning of written language. In traditional methodologies, teaching occurs using vision and hearing. In the multisensory methodology there is a recruitment of other sensory modalities, such as kinesthetic and phono articulatory techniques (Seabra & Dias, 2011).

The multisensory methodologies integrate strategies in its structure that include a greater number of sensory aids, like visual and auditory aids – the most used – as well as kinesthetic and tactile. The increase of this type of aid works as a compensation technique which allows the child to achieve a greater probability of success (Seabra & Dias, 2011). The relation between phoneme and grapheme, during the formal learning of reading and writing is based on a multisensory association. It is taught in a systematic and formal way that allows the manipulation of those segments, without recurring to higher cognitive processes (Blomert & Froyen, 2010).

Studies and reports of the application of this method in children, demonstrate that this is an effective method in learning to read and write skills. Studies in neuroscience and cognition also show that teaching with multisensory methods strengthen neural pathways (Kelly & Phillips, 2016). Through the development and implementation of a multisensory methodology-based teaching program, this research project aims at documenting and understanding improvements in reading and writing learning processes in children with learning disabilities.

This project’s goal was to evaluate improvements in the reading and writing learning processes after the development and implementation of a multisensory methodology-based teaching program. Five participants (between the ages of 10 and 11, three girls) were selected, according to the following criteria: 1) existence of intellectual disabilities (APA, 2013); 2) existence of phonological disorders; 3) existence of severe learning difficulties in the reading and writing processes. All children attended regular inclusive school. Using tools such as Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile (ITSP) and evaluation of Language Competencies Evaluation for Reading and Writing (ACLLE-LCERW), we could map the sensory profile of each participant and evaluate their learning evolution during the program, in phonological awareness, reading and writing domains. The multisensory program was applied in weekly interventions, 45 minutes each, during a four-month period. The method consisted of teaching and modelling of the grapheme / phoneme representative gesture, and the point and articulatory mode of the associated phoneme. All exercises were always performed with the support of the gesture and its picture: repetition of the gesture by the child, simultaneously naming the phoneme by matching the corresponding image; writing the grapheme; dictation of isolated graphemes; dictation of syllables and words, reading words, writing simple sentences, with the support of multisensory tracks; spontaneous writing simple sentences, based on images, and reading of simple sentences (for evaluating acquisition).

The intervention with the multisensory method showed improvements in the reading and writing learning process of all the participants. There was an increase in the number of correct answers, in four of the five participants, in the reading processes. Although, writing process was more developed than the reading process, in all participants. There were also improvements in the grapheme’s identification and naming. It is also worth mentioning that, despite not being a goal of this research, there was also an increase in the phonological awareness expressed by the increased number of correct answers in all the participants. Learning to spell and learning to read comprise similar learning processes (Moats, 2005). To understand reading and writing, it is essential for the child to be able to understand the segmental nature of language (Pugh et al., 2001). This exercise of matching the phoneme with the corresponding grapheme is the basis of the stimulation inherent in this method. It may explain the improvements in the phonological awareness of the participants. The methodology used in this multisensory method is also said to be best suited for older children with repeated insuccess (Capovilla & Capovilla, 2002). The multisensory methodology requires a greater number of sensory modalities: tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and articulatory (Seabra & Dias, 2011). The increase of this type of aid proved to work as a compensation technique which stimulated children to a more active, motivated, and actively participated attitude towards their learning. It also allowed them to achieve a greater probability of success in his reading and writing learning processes, and, thus, the belief in their abilities and self-esteem.

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