HOW CAN MULTI-SENSORY APPROACH TO LEARNING BENEFIT YOUR CHILD? 
 

Multi-Sensory Approach to learning or MSA refers to using more than one of the senses in learning. The five senses of a child is the door to learning. Young children communicate or relate to the world around them through their five senses. We used to take our ability to see, hear, touch, taste and smell for granted. It is a mistaken belief that our senses are fully developed soon after we were born.  

Scientific research has proven that our ability to use our senses develops during the first six years of life. During the early childhood years a child’s nervous system is still forming. The extent to which the nervous system develops depends of many factors among which is proper nutrition and adequate stimulation. For, example as a parent if you see your 3 year-old child sitting on a lawn feeling the grass with his hands, what would be your first expression ? What would you say as a parent? Would you say, “Stop it? It’s so dirty. Quickly wash your hands now!” or would you observe without interrupting, and then later, show the child some interesting textures to feel so as to expose him to feeling rough and smooth textures. Which one is you? Take a moment to pause and think about it. 

In the past, children used to be able to run around freely, climb trees, pick fruits, feel bark, watch spiders and caterpillars, roll down the hills, dig and play with sand, watch plants grow or just lie down on a the grass watching the sunset. How wonderful, fun and enriching can these priceless experiences be to a child when he grows up one day and looks back to his fun-filled days. Such learning is termed as experiential or active learning rather than passive learning. 

Today, it is harder for young children to get these kinds of experiences due to our living styles. So as a result, it is easy for a child to end up sitting in front of a television or computer, a fixed focal distance away, watching a screen with consistent contrast, and images fixed in only two dimensions. This represents the passive type learning which does not promote development. We live in a three dimensional world and ours eyes are created for seeing three dimensional objects. Such limitations will only impede a child’s ability to natural growth and future developments. We have to understand that the development of the senses is the foundation of the intelligence. So, as parents we have to be consciously aware of our child’s growing needs for development and purposely make provision to see that they are met. 

We often hear parents saying, “Well, let the school do the job…leave the educating to the school…….the school will teach the basics..”  Most people think that the basics are reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, today, more and more, we hear of teachers having difficulty teaching children who can’t read. These children have reversal problems and get mixed up between a “b” and a “d” or even a “p’ and a “b”. The children claim the letters look the same. So is reading the really the first basic? Or, is the ability to distinguish line and shape more basic? Obviously, our ability to receive information through our senses and interpret it will have a great influence on our intelligence development which in turn will determine our ability to read, write or do anything. 

These are just some examples. However, the lesson is clear. We must not assume that active learning is unimportant. Instead we have to realize as parents and educators of young children that it is so important that young children are exposed to a multi-sensory approach to learning which is very experiential and enriching in building a child’s emotional and intellectual needs.  

Our Young Genius Readers programs are geared towards experiential learning and are specially developed to meet the intellectual and emotional needs of children between the age of 3-6 years old. All our Young Genius Programs are Multi Sensorial based. Our program uses hands-on material so as to allow children to learn through exploring and discovering rather than direct teaching. We adopt a multi-sensory approach to learning so as to maximize every child’s emotional and intellectual needs.  

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