Learning Without Tears™ was created by an occupational therapist mom and has changed the way many therapists, parents, and teachers approach their methods of teaching basic foundational educational skills. Rehab Specialists of Idaho has therapists specially trained in the LWT program to better assist with helping patients.
With programs like Get Set For School, Handwriting Without Tears, Keyboarding Without Tears, and Building Writers, Learning Without Tears’ (LWT) is quickly gaining popularity and trust in the educational and therapy community.
“Learning Without Tears is a multi-sensory approach,” said Tammy Conrad, an occupation therapist with Rehab Specialists of Idaho who works with children at the Rexburg and Rigby Pediatric Clinics, and a big advocate for the LWT system. “That means that it uses more than one sensory system for learning. It can tap into the visual, tactile, movement and auditory systems to incorporate the skills, the sequencing, the letters, and the formations.”
When a teacher encourages her students to write their spelling words in clay and then trace them in the air, she is using a multi-sensory approach. That means the five senses and movement are used in addition to just reading and writing–and gives kids more than one way to make connections and learn concepts.
“We try to do our activities as a multi-sensory approach,” said Conrad. “When you have a multi-sensory approach it is the easiest or fastest way to learn and to retain the information that you have, because you’re not just using one sensory system, you’re using different ones.”
Something else that makes the LWT systems successful is that it teaches concepts such as writing letters in a more appropriate developmental sequence.
“Typically you would learn a-z, with [LWT] it goes through a developmental sequence,” explains Conrad. It also provides tools and apps to be able to include parents at home. “Depending on what we’re targeting we will educate parents so that we have common terminology, that way everybody is on the same page. We’ll sometimes send parents home with worksheets that they can do or activities they can do with their child. For some components of the program the child will have access to the app at home.”
For more information on how a therapist with RSI can utilize the Learning Without Tears™ program to assist your child in occupational or speech therapy give us a call for a free screening.