Comparing the Effectiveness of Fernald’s And Rossner’s Multisensory Teaching Methods in Reducing the Spelling Disorder of Elementary Students

Background: Writing disorders have an adverse effect on students academic achievement in school. These children need to learn new concepts or skills that they have not learned in the usual way through new methods such as multisensory teaching. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of Fernald’s and Rossner’s multisensory teaching methods on reducing the spelling disorder of elementary school students in Tehran. Methods: Using a multi-stage cluster sampling method, 120 research samples were selected from third and fourth grade elementary school students in districts 6 and 11 of Tehran in the academic year of 2018-2019 and randomly divided into two experimental groups (15 students each) and one control group (15 students). Research instruments included Fallah Chai Spelling Test (1974), the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children, and Fernald’s and Rossner’s Multisensory Teaching Protocols. Results: Fernald s multisensory teaching method was found to be more effective than Rossner in reducing the post-test spelling disorders of the students. Furthermore, the students in Rossner s multisensory teaching group showed more reduction in spelling disorders in the post-test than those in the control group. Overall, the effectiveness of Fernald s sensory method was greater than that of Rossner s sensory training method. Conclusion: The results showed that Fernald’s and Rossner s multisensory teaching methods are both effective on students with spelling disorders. However, Fernand s sensory method is more effective than Rossner s in reducing spelling disorders.