Supplementary Materials
Due to its holistic, multisensory approach “Myrtel and Bo” provides ideal conditions for teaching special ed students – even within a regular class. The diversity of methods as well as the variety of the means and materials applied stand out as an excellent learning-promoting characteristic of this teaching system. In addition to working with the reading and writing materials, the following means of conveying knowledge are of special importance:
Sensory-motor learning
The children will get to know the object of learning using all their senses:
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Listening: i.e. aural identification of letter positions within a word; listening to stories which focus on the new letter to be learned.
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Seeing: i.e. recognizing certain letters within a cluster of many letters; assigning pictures to letters and vice versa.
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Moving: i.e. forming letters using the body; responding to letter positions by moving; linking of movement and sound quality (for example for long and short vowels); forming words through hopping games.
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Touching: i.e. touching of wooden letters in little cloth bags, touching of letters laid out in threads or ropes; working with sand trays.
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Being touched: i.e. sensory stimulation of the back using different qualities of touch (for example spot or area); feeling of letters which are being written onto the back by another child.
Games
Often children with learning impediments in the cognitive area will find access to course contents by playing games.
- Well-known children’s and party games are being turned into functional learning games for repeating, practicing and reinforcing of what has been learned.
- Many games contain elements of movement therapy.
- In addition to the reading and writing abilities being practiced by playing the corresponding game, all learning games promote communication and linguistic capabilities of expression within the group.
