WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT
Why is it that we know more about the Cherokee Nation than any other Native American culture threatened to extinction by the “colonization of America?” A brave Cherokee named Sequoia saw the advantage that written language gave his European counterparts and developed an alphabet to capture the sounds of his native tongue. As a result, his tribe’s stories and history were better documented than other cultures that bore the loss of elders to disease and destruction. Written and spoken language is a gift that we so often take for granted but remains a mystery to many of our children. Why do so many children have difficulty with language arts? The neurological network of some children may have been:
Deprived by the lack of stimulation in a home affected by poverty “Fried” by a parent’s substance abuse Raised by dual career parents who had better things to do than “baby talk” Influenced by genetic inheritance Or have a myriad of other reasons, such as high fevers
Sensory teaching techniques empower these children to bridge stronger areas of their brain (i.e. motor, visual, etc.) with the language center and build the dendrites to begin to express themselves. But for whatever the reason the problem exists, the good news is that there are other ways to approach language development that “gets through” to kids whose brains might be wired differently due to external factors. Traditional methods of visual and auditory teaching may not be working, but there are other ways to teach. The work of Howard Gardener, Samuel Orton, Anna Gillingham, Patricia Lindamood and Nancy Bell (to name a few), show us that we can use all of the five senses to teach children when written and auditory methods alone do not succeed. Teaching language arts through a multi-sensory approach has been very rewarding for both the children we serve and the volunteers and staff involved. Today, I watched a tutor work with a kindergartner that just a few weeks ago knew very few letter sounds. She now instantly responds to the sight of each letter with the sound it makes. Like my Spanish teachers who used to say, “You must think the language,” she has learned to think the language and interpret the sound. One of my former volunteers, Dr. Rob Faul, described it well. “It’s like medicine, you diagnose the problem, create an individualized treatment plan and the healing begins.” Children can prefer one style of learning and be adept in many. It is important to note their strengths and what techniques are effective with the children you serve. The best teacher is one who can be eclectic and pull from a variety of resources to find those, which serve the present needs.
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