If you’re looking for ways to support your child’s reading progress at home, you’re in the right place! As a certified Dyslexia Specialist and Dyslexia Therapist, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful multisensory learning can be for struggling readers. Children with dyslexia or other reading challenges often benefit from engaging activities that stimulate sight, sound, touch, and movement. These techniques aren’t just fun—they actually strengthen the brain’s neural pathways, making reading feel less overwhelming and more enjoyable.
Here are seven playful and effective ways to help your child build reading skills with confidence and joy.
1. Sand Writing
Fill a shallow tray with sand, salt, or rice. Have your child write words, letters, or high-frequency words using their index finger. This tactile experience helps reinforce letter formation and sound-symbol connections. After writing a word, have your child say each sound aloud as they trace the letters again. This approach engages both kinesthetic and auditory pathways, boosting retention.
To deepen the learning experience, try varying the activity by:
- Using tools like a paintbrush, stick, or even a plastic spoon to write in the sand—each tool provides a different tactile sensation that helps strengthen motor memory.
- Writing words or sentences from a favorite book or topic your child loves. Linking learning to their interests increases motivation and enjoyment.
- Practicing specific phonics patterns (e.g., words with /ch/ or /sh/ sounds) or tricky words your child is working to master.
- Encouraging creativity by having your child draw a related picture in the sand after writing the word. For example, if the word is “cat,” they can draw a cat next to it.
- Adding a storytelling element: Ask your child to create a short story using the words they wrote. This encourages not only reading and spelling practice but also creativity and language development.
Sand Writing is a fantastic multisensory tool because it appeals to tactile learners while also enhancing visual memory and phonemic awareness. And the best part? It feels like play!
2. Hopscotch Word Play
Create a hopscotch grid with chalk or masking tape. Instead of numbers, write high-frequency words in the squares, or words that follow a spelling pattern your child is learning. As your child jumps to each square, they read the word aloud. To add variety and fun, ask them to use the word in a sentence before moving to the next square. They can also spell each word aloud as they jump to that square, or race against a timer to see how quickly they can read the words and move through the hopscotch grid. Playful approaches like these keep learning active and enjoyable.
To enhance this activity:
- Timed Challenges: Challenge your child to complete the grid within a certain amount of time. This can be a fun way to motivate them while boosting fluency.
- Spelling Variations: Have your child spell each word aloud as they jump to that square. This helps reinforce orthographic memory and supports accurate spelling.
- Sentences for Comprehension: After reading a word, ask your child to create a sentence with that word before moving to the next square. This builds comprehension skills and vocabulary.
- Phonics Pattern Focus: Adapt the hopscotch game to focus on specific phonics patterns or spelling rules. For example, write words with the /ay/ sound or -ing endings for added phonics practice.
- Physical Variations: Mix it up by having your child hop on one foot, jump with two feet, or even crawl to the next word—adding a physical challenge can make it extra fun.
- Draw-and-Write Variation: After reading each word, encourage your child to draw a quick sketch representing that word. Visual associations can be powerful memory aids.
Hopscotch Word Play turns learning into a full-body experience that appeals to children who thrive with movement-based activities. Plus, it’s so much fun that they may not even realize how much they’re learning!
3. Air Writing
Ask your child to write words or letters in the air using big, sweeping motions. Saying the sounds as they write helps reinforce memory through physical movement. To increase engagement, have your child pretend they are writing with an imaginary paintbrush or a magic wand. Encouraging your child to say the sounds out loud while tracing letters in the air helps reinforce learning and adds an element of fun and excitement.
4. Word Hunt
Word Hunts are a fantastic way to build reading skills while adding an element of adventure and play. The idea is simple: hide/place cards with letters, high-frequency words, or specific phonics patterns around a room or outdoor space. As your child finds each card, they read the sound or word aloud.
5. Tactile Tracing
Use textured materials like sandpaper, felt, or glitter glue to create letter cards. Encourage your child to trace over the letters with their index finger while saying the corresponding sounds. This multisensory approach helps reinforce letter recognition and sound-symbol associations.
To expand this activity:
- Create a Texture Book: Encourage your child to build a “touch-and-feel” alphabet book by adding new letters made from various textures (fabric, felt, sandpaper) as they master them.
- Textured Word Lists: Write high-frequency words on textured cards. As your child traces each word, ask them to say the word aloud and use it in a sentence.
- Sensory Art Projects: Combine tactile tracing with art by having your child create textured words and pictures using glue, sand, glitter, or yarn.
- Tracing with Tools: Provide a variety of tools for tracing—such as cotton swabs, pencils, or smooth stones—to create different tactile experiences.
- Blindfolded Tracing: Have your child trace letters or words while blindfolded, relying solely on touch. This adds a fun challenge while enhancing tactile memory.
- Phonics Pattern Tracing: Use textured cards to focus on particular phonics patterns. For example, create cards for the /sh/ and /ch/ sounds and have your child sort and trace them.
Tactile Tracing adds a hands-on, sensory-rich dimension to reading practice, which is especially beneficial for children with dyslexia. This method helps strengthen sound-symbol associations while making learning feel engaging and enjoyable.
6. Phonics Path
Create a “Phonics Path” on the floor using paper squares, sticky notes, or masking tape. Write different phonics patterns, high-frequency words, or individual letters on each square. Have your child walk, hop, or skip along the path, reading each square aloud as they go. This playful, interactive activity provides repeated practice with phonics patterns or high-frequency words, and adds a kinesthetic element that many dyslexic learners find helpful.
To enhance this activity:
- Obstacle Course Variation: Add obstacles such as cones, pillows, or tunnels to navigate while reading words along the path. This adds a layer of fun and challenge.
- Theme-Based Paths: Create paths based on specific phonics patterns, like words with long vowels or consonant blends. Tailoring the path to your child’s current learning goals can make practice more effective.
- Speed Challenges: Encourage your child to complete the path as quickly as possible while still accurately reading each word. Time their progress and celebrate improvement.
- Sentence Building: Write individual words on the path and have your child create a sentence using the words they’ve read. This promotes comprehension and creative thinking.
- Memory Match: Include pairs of rhyming words or words with similar phonics patterns. After reading, your child can match the words by memory or by physically moving matching pairs together.
- Color-Coded Paths: Use different colors for specific patterns or parts of speech. For example, use blue squares for nouns and yellow for verbs. This helps build language awareness while reinforcing phonics skills.
- Movement Variation: Encourage your child to walk, hop, crawl, or dance along the path, making the experience playful and engaging.
Phonics Paths are wonderfully versatile. They provide repeated, structured practice while allowing for creativity, physical activity, and lots of fun. The combination of movement and phonics practice makes it especially effective for children with dyslexia.
7. Sound Sorting
Sound Sorting is a powerful way to build phonemic awareness by encouraging your child to listen closely to sounds in words. This activity helps strengthen their ability to identify, categorize, and manipulate sounds—skills that are essential for reading and spelling success.
To expand this activity:
- Themed Sorting: Create categories based on specific phonics patterns or sounds (e.g., short vowels, long vowels, digraphs like /sh/ or /ch/). Use pictures or objects that match the patterns, making sorting both visual and tactile.
- Mystery Bag Sorting: Place various objects or picture cards in a bag. Have your child pull out one item at a time and sort it according to its initial, medial, or final sound. This element of surprise makes the activity extra engaging.
- Rhyming Sorts: Provide pairs of words or pictures and ask your child to sort them into rhyming groups. This helps develop phonological awareness, which is a critical skill for decoding and spelling.
- Syllable Sorting: Create cards with words of varying syllable lengths and ask your child to sort them by the number of syllables. This builds awareness of word structure and improves decoding skills.
- Texture-Based Sorting: Provide objects with different textures and have your child sort them by sound category. For example, fuzzy items for words with /f/ sounds and smooth items for words with /s/ sounds.
- Word Family Sorting: Provide word cards that belong to the same word family (e.g., -at, -an, -in). Ask your child to sort and categorize them, reinforcing phonics patterns and spelling rules.
- Sorting Race: Turn sorting into a timed challenge to make it extra fun. See how many words your child can sort correctly in one minute and celebrate their progress.
- Story Sorting: After sorting words, encourage your child to create a silly story using as many of the sorted words as possible. This adds creativity and comprehension practice to the activity.
Sound Sorting is a flexible, hands-on activity that targets essential reading skills in a playful, stress-free way. It helps build auditory discrimination, phonemic awareness, and phonics knowledge—all critical components of successful reading.
Bringing It All Together
These activities are fun, simple, and highly effective for building reading skills in a multisensory way. Whether you try just one or all seven, your child will benefit from the variety and repetition. Multisensory learning doesn’t just improve reading skills—it rewires the brain for reading success. It builds confidence, boosts motivation, and makes learning enjoyable.
📢 Are you ready to take your child’s reading skills to the next level? I’d love to help you! Book a parent coaching session today and let’s work together to bring out the fantastic reader in your child.
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