The Effects of Multi-Sensory Structured Literacy Instruction on Promoting Word Recognition in Elementary Schools

All students and adults need reading skills. Word recognition skills are necessary to build reading fluency and comprehension abilities. This paper describes how to identify students struggling with word recognition and provides a model for supporting these readers. Due to COVID social distancing restrictions, two third-grade students in a rural public school were identified as not meeting the grade-level reading targets and received multisensory, structured literacy instruction to improve word recognition abilities. The data from the research project supported the use of the instructional model to improve word recognition skills. One area that arose from the research is the efficacy of beginning the structured reading intervention at a younger age