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100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t...
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How to Learn The 44 Phonemes And Have Fun

Phonemes are the smallest units of language based sounds that can be paired with graphemes or symbols that represent those sounds. These sound/symbol associations are the foundations to writing and reading text, and teaching them to young learners can help boost learning potential. Why are There 44 Phonemes When the Alphabet has only 26 Letters? There are 44 unique phoneme sounds in the English language for two reasons.  On the one hand,  some letters make more than one sound, while on the other hand, certain letter combinations, such as the vowel teams, make their own unique sounds.   So even though we have 44 sounds that make up our language, we have 250+ graphemes that can make those sounds.  This is one of the reasons that spelling can be difficult to master.  For example, er, ir, and ur, all make the same sound, so learners have to recall what the word looks like. Purple, pirple, or perple  are all pronounced the same way, but only ...
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How to Easily Teach and Accommodate Struggling Readers

How can we accommodate the needs of struggling readers, so they can quickly master this critical skill?  Pedagogy, an educational method that assumes the learner to be a "blank slate" and dependent on the teacher for guidance, evaluation, and the acquisition of knowledge, is a common approach when assisting struggling readers. However, it is often forgotten that these students do have a wealth of prior knowledge that can be utilized. In addition, many of them have specific learning deficits that have left their learning capacity riddled with booby traps that ambush the encoding of information and sabotages confidence. So how can we reach these capable learners?  Luckily, there are three steps that dismantle these snares and fortify each student's academic infrastructure. Uncover Cognitive Deficits  First, we need to reveal any cognitive deficits. Comprehensive psycho-educational testing is a great option that reveals areas of weakness that need to be addressed....
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What Reading Games Ignite a Love for Learning?

Using games in the learning process brings joy as well as a positive motivating factor into lessons.  Instead of bribing kids with external motivators such as candy and stickers, games ignite an internal love for learning. Reading Games Are Necessary for Struggling Readers When learning to read is a struggle, it can have a major impact on a child's academic self-esteem.  What's more, additional work and lessons on a topic that does come easily can feel torturous and simply unfair!  In contrast, if quick lessons are supported with fun games, a chore can quickly transform into playful entertainment. I have created four comprehensive reading game publications that can be used with virtually any phonics or Orton-Gillingham reading program.  They are all available as digital downloads and the following tables describe all of the games that are included in each publication. You can purchase all the publications in a discounted bundle , or you can buy them individua...
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Why are Games the best Teaching Method for Learning?

In my practice as a learning specialist and educational therapist, I quickly learned that games were the secret weapon to learning.  Candy, toys and other bribing forces trigger limited and brief bursts of motivation, but sparking a love for learning remains the bullseye.  Everyone loves to play a game, and when instruction incorporates creative and multisensory merriment to combat and obliterate learning fatigue and frustration, even the most discouraged learners will rise to the occasion. Why do Games Grasp the Hearts and Minds of Students? Paring pleasantries and positive feelings with scholarship increases the motivation to learn over time.  I can't tell you how upset I get when I learn that a student has been assigned school work as a punishment.  This silent warfare wreaks havoc on self-directed learning and homework completion.  In contrast, when humor, joy, comfort, and nurturance is associated with the process, an insatiable fo...
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Superior Sight Word Mastery - A Breakthrough Proven Approach

For many struggling readers, sight words can seem like an impossible hurdle. Sight words are high-frequency words that are commonly seen when reading and used when writing.  Students are encouraged to memorize these words by sight because most do not follow standard decoding rules and can not be "sounded out." What if a Student Struggles with Visual Memory? Over the years, I have tried a multitude of strategies to help my struggling students master sight words.  Repetitive, multisensory lessons were a bore, games were a great improvement, but the best technique, to begin with, is creating a multisensory memory book.  Instead of expecting students to use rote, visual memory, I like to teach my students hooking strategies and have them record their ideas with colorful markers in booklets or notebooks.  It is a word diary of sorts that students can title with their own fun, creative name (e.g., magical memory strategies...). Each difficult...
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