ASDEC Language Therapy
Multisensory Structured Language Education: 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.
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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
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LEARN MORE ABOUT SOUNDS IN SYLLABLES
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"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​​
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:
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Language 1: Sounds in Syllables© Multisensory Structured Language Education
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Language 2: Advanced Multisensory Structured Language Education (MSLE)
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Language 3: Upper-Level MSLE plus grammar and writing
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See part of a SIS Lesson!
Language 2
Prerequisite​ Required: Language 1
Language 2: Sounds In Syllables©
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ASDEC faculty introduce students to the higher linguistic concepts taught in levels 2 and 3 of Sounds in Syllables by Sandra Dillon. In addition to learning these concepts, the student will demonstrate multisensory instructional methods for teaching these concepts to their students.
Additional areas of study will include reading in-depth articles and chapters on multisensory instruction by leaders in the field of dyslexia. Areas of concentration will include higher levels in Alphabet skills, Handwriting, Spelling and Verbal Expression as well as discussion of written expression, vocabulary and etymology.
Instructor: Barbara Marbury M.A.T., CALT-QI
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Language 3
Prerequisite​ Required: Language 2
Language 3: Sounds In Syllables©
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ASDEC faculty present Sounds In Syllables (SIS), Levels 4&5. This is by invitation only.
This will be live online instruction with Jennifer Appleton, M.Ed., CALT-QI with special presentations from Joy Jacques, CALT in Multisensory Grammar and Marilyn Zecher, CALT in Memory and Learning.
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