I firmly believe it is not in children’s best interest to withhold written language while they are learning spoken language. Starting with my own children, who both learned to read before their first birthdays I have traveled the world introducing parents to multi-sensory learning, with thousands of babies learning to read using my techniques.

Here, I will describe the fundamentals of multi-sensory learning and how any parent, anywhere, can use them on a daily basis to help put their children on the path to early learning.

It is a scientific fact that babies learn more about many aspects of their world, when they learn through multiple sensory systems. Every parent knows that when babies are given toys they will look at them, shake them, and often put them in their mouths. This is how they acquire knowledge about toys and other objects in their environment. They learn through several sensory systems - looking, touching, listening, moving, and tasting.

Here are the key points about multi-sensory learning:

1. It is more fun than learning through one sensory system.

2. It is easier and more natural to learn through multiple sensory systems.

3. It is better for baby brain development. Infants have tens of thousands of new brain connections forming every second, many going from the different sensory areas of the brain. The more elaborate the connections made in their brains, the deeper their learning will be.

4. This approach works well for everyone, whether the person is a visual, auditory or physical learner.

The key to multi-sensory learning is to create situations where a child uses as many senses as possible during an experience. For example, if a baby is interested in flowers, let her see, smell, touch and feel a flower. Without any effort on her part, the infant will simultaneously process multi-sensory information about flowers, giving her a better understanding of them.

I have effectively applied multi-sensory techniques to learning language. In order to teach reading skills, I suggest adding the written word to the activities a baby is doing. I use this approach and more in the early learning system I designed called Your Baby Can Read!

-Dr. Robert C. Titzer