Tangible multisensory aids for collaborative phonics learning

Abstract

Children in the UK start learning to read and write using the phonics method, which teaches them how to link sounds (phonemes) with their written representation (graphemes). However, it is a difficult skill which takes a long time to master. To address this, our research begins to explore how a multisensory toolkit could aid phonics learning and support engagement in the process. In this exploratory study, we use variants of the bouba/kiki stimuli, which have been shown to have pre-existing shape, colour and scent mappings, and explore how they could be applied to phonics learning. We presented a first prototype to four children in order to gain initial insights of their experiences of using multisensory tangible models for phonics, as well as the types of sensory associations and interactions that could be further explored.