A student with dyslexia struggles with decoding. Which intervention would be MOST appropriate?

• A. Multisensory phonics instruction
• B. Silent reading practice
• C. Independent vocabulary study
• D. Whole-language instruction

Answer: (A)

Dyslexia with decoding difficulties benefits most from explicit, structured instruction in sound-letter relationships that engages multiple senses. Multisensory phonics instruction directly teaches how letters correspond to sounds, how to blend sounds into words, and how to apply decoding strategies for unfamiliar words. The multisensory approach—using sight, sound, and movement—helps students encode and retrieve phonological information more effectively and builds automatic decoding over time, which is exactly what is needed when decoding is the challenge.

Silent reading practice doesn’t provide the explicit decoding instruction needed to improve phoneme-grapheme mapping. Independent vocabulary study focuses on word meanings and recognition of known words rather than teaching the decoding process. Whole-language instruction emphasizes reading for meaning with less emphasis on systematic decoding practice, which is not ideal for addressing decoding deficits seen in dyslexia.

So, the multisensory phonics approach is the most appropriate intervention.