What Is Multisensory Learning in Education?

Multisensory learning has been a widely discussed topic in education for many years, with some praising it as an invaluable tool for meeting the diverse needs of students, and others claiming the research doesn’t support it. Some of the disconnect stems from different understandings of what multisensory learning is and is not. So let’s explore the question: What is multisensory learning in education?

Multisensory Learning Definition

At its core, multisensory learning is an approach to education that leverages the interconnected nature of the human sensory experience. As a pedagogical philosophy, it recognizes that when learners engage multiple senses simultaneously, they enhance understanding and solidify long-term retention. A practical definition of multisensory education is learning that engages more than one of the following senses at a time:

• Visual: seeing
• Auditory: listening
• Tactile: touching (fine motor)
• Kinesthetic: engaging in physical activity (gross motor)
• Olfactory/Gustatory: smelling and tasting

Research has found that integrating multiple senses in learning experiences engages more of the brain than using only one sense. This provides learners with more ways to make connections and results in better learning outcomes. Additionally, multisensory learning can be beneficial for students with sensory impairments. Although such learners will usually require supports targeted at their specific needs, multisensory experiences will provide more access points to learning than single-sense experiences.

How Is Multisensory Learning Related to Sensory Learning Styles?

Multisensory education involves sensory learning, but it is not the same as the once-popular approach to teaching known as learning styles. A learning styles approach seeks to match teaching methods to children’s preferred learning styles—typically defined as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. According to “The Myth of Learning Styles” by Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham, this is not an effective way to improve learning. In fact, a learning styles approach can be problematic when it leads to labeling children and limiting the types of learning experiences offered to them. Multisensory learning does not attempt to identify children’s preferred learning styles or match teaching methods to those styles. It recognizes that all learners benefit from using all their senses. Multisensory learning does not isolate sensory experiences—it integrates them.

Let’s look at some examples of integrated sensory experiences:

• Math (number sense): Children see the number 5 in writing, hear and say the word five, and use manipulatives to physically show five items.
• Literacy (syllabication): Students touch each syllable of a word with a finger and say the sound of the syllable, then sweep left to right below the word to sound it out.
• Science (environmental): Students learn the definition of an ecosystem and discuss examples ranging from puddles to forests, then go outside to observe the components of an ecosystem, noting what they see, hear, feel, and smell.
• ELA (figurative language): After reading Pablo Neruda’s poem “Ode to Salt,” have students taste a food with and without salt, such as vegetable slices or tortilla chips. Note how their experience compares to the descriptions in the poem, then discuss how Neruda’s use of sensory imagery contributes to the poem’s meaning. You can also show students images of salt mines as described in the poem and discuss if the images align with Neruda's descriptions.

When students experience a concept through multiple senses and are guided in making connections between the different representations, they develop a more complete understanding of the concept.

Why Is Multisensory Learning Important?

Multisensory learning is important because it is an effective way to meet a wide range of student needs. Incorporating multiple sensory experiences improves learning for all students and is particularly helpful for students with attention deficit disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, or autism spectrum disorder.

A single sense approach can present real disadvantages for learners. Instruction that uses only auditory (listening to the teacher) or visual (reading) techniques creates barriers to learning for students who may not be able to access meaning as easily through these modalities. A multisensory approach creates paths that allow learners to access instruction. Due to the compounding effects of learning, this can make a significant difference.

Consider that many specialists estimate that a reader needs to understand a minimum of 90% of the words in a passage in order to comprehend the passage enough to begin to learn the remaining 10% of words (Hirsch, 2006). Readers who know fewer words miss out not only on understanding the passage, but also learning new words, further limiting their understanding of future texts.

Imagine giving an article about reptiles to a fifth grader who struggles with processing, connecting text to meaning, cognitive overload, or attention issues. They understand some of the words, but miss the main idea, and make no progress adding the new words vertebrate and epidermal to their vocabulary. They will now understand even less of the next article.

But now imagine that prior to reading the text, this student was introduced to the core concepts of the passage and guided to draw visual representations or act out meanings. With this approach, they are able to internalize the ideas. They still struggle to read the text, but now they comprehend the main idea, which helps them use context to derive meaning from vertebrate and epidermal. With a multisensory approach, they are able to bypass barriers and continue learning.

All students can more easily build on their knowledge when they have a number of representations to draw on. Multisensory education provides additional pathways to learning and is a flexible tool for addressing a range of student needs.

Benefits of a Multisensory Approach to Learning

One of the primary benefits of a multisensory approach to learning is that it helps students gain more knowledge. Sensory stimulation is associated with improved memory retention and mental cognition. When students are able to use more than one sensory input to make connections between facts and ideas, they are better able to interpret, comprehend, synthesize, and store information.

In addition to helping students understand concepts, multisensory learning helps them develop their own ideas. Kinesthetic activities such as role-play, dance, and scientific experiments provide students with valuable hands-on experiences that help them make connections to what they already know and take ownership of their learning.

Another important benefit of multisensory learning is its embedded inclusivity. Learning disabilities sometimes remain undetected until adulthood. Integrating multisensory techniques for all students provides multiple ways for learners of different abilities to access information, even when undiagnosed.

A learning environment that utilizes multisensory techniques increases motivation and engagement. A classroom with visuals such as photos, diagrams, and maps, as well as audio resources like recordings of speeches or songs, provides opportunities for students to discover information on their own. Such activities allow students to interact with what they learn in meaningful ways.

Multisensory Learning Examples

Multisensory learning techniques can be adapted to support students of all ages in all content areas. The most impactful learning experiences will come not by checking senses off a list, but by deeply considering the goals of a lesson, and then identifying which sensory experiences will enable students to achieve them.

Here are a few multisensory learning examples:

• Visual: Creating posters, drawing, painting, recording/watching videos, using images to show steps in a process
• Auditory: Clapping; listening to audio such as songs, tones, rhymes, lyrics, and dialogue
• Tactile: Finger painting; touching textured or raised-line paper; using manipulatives such as coins, letter tiles, dominoes, sand, and modeling clay
• Kinesthetic: Conducting experiments, acting, charades, dance, gestures, and simulations
• Olfactory/Gustatory: Connecting smells or tastes to characters and settings in literature or people and places in social studies, evoking feelings or memories

One way to begin incorporating multisensory learning in your instruction is to consider a lesson you already teach, identify which senses it uses, and then decide if another sensory experience might provide an additional dimension of understanding for students.

The purpose of multisensory education is to activate multiple paths to learning. We live in a multisensory world with brains that integrate information from all our senses to form perceptions. It makes sense to harness this natural capacity by incorporating multisensory learning in the classroom (Shams & Seitz, 2008).

References

Shams, L., & Seitz, A. R. (2008). Benefits of Multisensory Learning: Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Advance online publication. https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(08)00218-0

Morelli, F., Aprile, G., Cappagli, G., Luparia, A., Decortes, F., Gori, M., & Signorini, S. (2020). A Multidimensional, Multisensory and Comprehensive Rehabilitation Intervention to Improve Spatial Functioning in the Visually Impaired Child: A Community Case Study. Frontiers in neuroscience, 14, 768. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins....

Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). Cedar Riener & Daniel Willingham (2010) The Myth of Learning Styles. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 42(5), 32–35.

Hirsch, E. D. (2006, Spring). Building Knowledge. American Federation of Teachers. Retrieved August 15, 2023, from https://www.aft.org/ae/spring2006/hirsch

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.

***

Download our free reading and math intervention eBooks to learn more about intervention instructional practices that you can use in the classroom.