ASDEC Language Therapy
Multisensory Structured Language Education: Sounds In Syllables
Sounds in Syllables
​​Developed by Sandra Dillon, Director of the Multisensory Language Training Institute of New Mexico, Sounds In Syllables (SIS) is the most powerful Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching reading (decoding, fluency, and comprehension), spelling, writing, and the foundations of syntax and grammar. In developing SIS, Ms.Dillon incorporated teaching methods she learned directly from Patricia and Charles Lindamood, Beth Slingerland, and Aylett Royal Cox, author of Alphabetic Phonics. These methods integrate evidence-based practice from neurology, cognitive sciences, psychology, speech-language pathology, and linguistics to produce the most durable remediation for students with even the most severe learning disabilities. ​​​
​​Academic Therapists learn the precise articulation of the sounds of English and sound-symbol relationships. They learn to "cement" learning by using multisensory methods that trigger positive changes in the way students process learning. Research on these strategies demonstrates that multisensory approaches delivered through the repetitive, simultaneous, methods of SIS actually strengthen weak neural pathways and build new ones. This is why SIS students retain the reading and language skills they learn in order to achieve academic success long after they have completed their work with ASDEC therapists.
​
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) considers Multisensory Structured Language Education techniques such as those used in SIS to be the most effective method to teach dyslexic students. In a recent report from the Academy, Dr. Sheryl Handler and Dr. Walter Fierson explain:
"Most children with dyslexia need help from a teacher, tutor, or therapist who has been specially trained in using a multisensory, structured language approach. It is important for these children to be taught by a sequenced systematic and explicit method that involves several senses (hearing, seeing, touching) at the same time. Highly structured daily intensive individualized instruction by an educational therapist or skilled teacher specially trained in explicitly teaching phonemic awareness and the application of phonics is the foundation for remedial programs.In addition, students with dyslexia often need a great deal of structured practice and immediate, corrective feedback to develop automatic word-recognition skills. Remedial programs should include specific instruction in decoding, fluency training, vocabulary, and comprehension. The approach to learning decoding begins with detailed instruction in phonemic awareness and then progresses to sound-symbol association (alphabetic principle), phonics, awareness of rhyme, and word segmentation."
- Pediatrics Vol. 127 No. 3 March 2011 ppe818-e856
​
LEARN MORE ABOUT SOUNDS IN SYLLABLES
​
​
ASDEC Qualified Instructors teach ASDEC’s Sounds In Syllables© (SIS) Curriculum live online, offering multiple opportunities for practice. Course Sequence for our SIS Academic Language Therapy Training is below:
​
-
Language 1: Sounds in Syllables© Multisensory Structured Language Education
-
Neuropsychology of Learning Differences and Disorders
-
Language 2: Advanced Multisensory Structured Language Education (MSLE)
-
Language 3: Upper-Level MSLE plus grammar and writing
​​
See part of a SIS Lesson!
"Throughout this process I have come to realize that I have found my niche as an Academic Therapist working with kiddos that are severely impacted with dyslexia and comorbidities as well. I enjoy working with these challenging kiddos and have been successful in helping them progress through the Sounds In Syllables journey."
- Jamie Levy, ASDEC Academic Language Therapist, Maryland​​
Language 1: Sounds in Syllables© Multisensory Structured Language Education
Language 1: Sounds In Syllables
SIS Academic Therapists Learn:
-
Information from current reading research
-
The rationale for multisensory instruction
-
Stages of reading development
-
Phonology, including phonemic awareness
-
Graphophonemic relationships (symbol/sound correspondence)
-
Morphology (meaning units of word parts)
-
Semantics (Vocabulary and syntax)
-
The influence of etymology (word origins) on spelling
-
Multisensory spelling techniques for phonetic and non-phonetic words
-
Syllabication
-
Strategies for building fluency and comprehension
-
Lesson Planning
-
Diagnostic Teaching
-
Adapting instruction to students’ individual needs
​
VIEW A SAMPLE LESSON
​Language 2: Advanced Multisensory Structured Language Education (MSLE)​
Language 2: Sounds In Syllables
The course builds upon the foundational philosophies and therapeutic teaching practices of ASDEC’s Language 1 course using Sounds In Syllables (SIS) by Sandra Dillon. Language 2 walks teachers through the concepts taught in levels 2 and 3 of the SIS program and provides a more in-depth rationale for diagnostic multisensory language teaching, an expanded education in the phonologic, linguistic and morphologic structure of the English language, as well as critical steps that must be taken to ensure a student's ability not just to decode and spell words of ever increasing complexity, but to do so accurately, fluently and with good comprehension while using researched based techniques and methods.
Instructor: Barbara Marbury M.A.T., CALT-QI
​Language 3: Upper-Level MSLE plus grammar and writing
Language 3: Advanced Multisensory Structured Language Instruction (Levels 4 & 5 of Sounds In Syllables)
​
Jennifer Appleton, M.Ed., CALT-QI presents Sounds In Syllables (SIS), Levels 4&5. This live online course is by invitation only.
​
Course Description:
This course is designed to provide students with advanced skills and strategies necessary to teach students with dyslexia or related reading difficulties using a multisensory approach in a therapeutic setting. Using the principles of Scarborough’s Rope, we will focus on Levels IV and V of the Sounds In Syllables including uncontrolled text, Greek and Latin roots and affixes. When remediating a language-based learning disability, LBLD, a diagnostic and prescriptive approach is essential to the success of the student. During this class, students will document examples of being diagnostic and prescriptive while working with a current student. Strategies for memory techniques, grammar instruction, and executive functioning will be addressed. Current research in teaching reading and remediation will be explored.
Course Objectives:
-
Analyze and compare research as it relates to structured literacy programs
-
Identify the principles of multisensory instruction and how they apply to Levels IV and V of the SIS in a therapeutic setting
-
Utilize uncontrolled text while remaining diagnostic and prescriptive using data collection
-
Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of diagnostic and prescriptive teaching as it relates to therapy level instruction
-
Synthesize grammar instruction throughout SIS
-
Utilize memory strategies and techniques to enhance student performance
-
Utilize Greek and Latin roots and affixes and identify their role in multisyllabic words and the 6 syllable types
-
Apply techniques for advanced syllable division as it relates to reading instruction
The course also offers pre-recorded workshops with ASDEC Master Teachers Marilyn Zecher, CALT and Joy Jacques, CALT
​
Language 3 Class Meetings: 14 hours Synchronous​
​
​Neuropsychology of Learning Differences and Disorders
Neuro-Psychology of Learning Differences featuring presentations from Dr. Rachna Varia, Co-Founder of Mindwell Associates, Dr. Karin Varblow, Jennifer Appleton, CALT-QI and Jennifer Cofone, CALT-QI in training.
​
This hybrid onsite and online course offers full, up-to-the-minute research findings in the brain functions underlying learning, with emphasis on language-learning. Participants will learn about the history of psychology, brain structure, brain development, and neurological anomalies that produce learning differences.
​
The course will discuss how to use different intervention strategies based on a better understanding of how neurological conditions affect learning. Specifically, participants will learn how to respond to behaviors and create more effective learning environments both in a one-to-one teaching environment as well as in the classroom.
​
Participants will also learn how to read and analyze neuro-psychological testing to design the most effective learning interventions. This class is ideal for all teachers, academic therapists, tutors and parents who wish to better understand the neurological strengths and weaknesses of their learners.
Required Reading:
Stanislas Dehaene, Reading in the Brain
