It’s The Teaching, Not The Program
Written by Susie M, teacher

“It’s the teaching, not the program.”

A program alone cannot become an effective method for a student if the teacher does not understand both the program and the concepts to be taught.  A multisensory structured program helps educators become more effective teachers because it breaks down the concepts to be taught in small incremental steps.  If these steps are followed and not skipped, the student will be able to receive the information, understand it, store it, and be able to retrieve it.

A multisensory program gives the teacher the tools to present information in auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities so it can be perceived, and will provide the teacher with the language to help form a bridge from the child’s language (informal) to the symbolic language of math.  It will help provide all the scaffolding to take the students from concrete, to semi-concrete, to semi-abstract, to abstract levels of understanding.  But it is the teacher who needs to take all these tools and make them work.  The teacher not only needs to understand the program and the concepts, but should be interested and enjoy teaching it so (s)he can make it fun, enjoyable, even exciting.  Furthermore, the teacher must enjoy working with children and be able to build rapport with students.  When students trust their teacher they are more open to learning!

—Suzie M, teacher