The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of direct instruction paired with
multisensory tools on letter formation mastery, in comparison with direction instruction paired
with traditional writing tools (paper and pencil) on letter formation mastery in early elementary
students who experience persistent letter formation difficulties. Three early elementary students
who experience persistent challenges with letter formation were selected for participation in this
multiple-baseline across subjects study. Each student participated in three study phases. The first
phase was a baseline phase to assess their existing letter formation knowledge. Next, students
participated in direct instruction lessons on letter formation using paper and pencil tools. The
third phase of the study maintained the structure of the direct instruction lessons used in the prior
phase but used a multisensory writing tool instead of paper and pencil tools. Each student’s rate
of progress towards letter formation mastery was assessed to determine if the writing tool
influenced the impact of direct instruction on students’ letter formation acquisition. Overall, each
student demonstrated varying rates of growth in phase two and phase three of the study. All
students demonstrated greater rates of growth during phase two in comparison to phase three.
Each student showed notable growth immediately following exposure to direct instruction. Based
on the findings of this study, direct instruction paired with traditional writing tools had a greater
impact on letter formation acquisition than direct instruction paired with multisensory tools.
Several limiting factors including elements of the study design and students’ positive responses
to initial direct instruction in phase two could have impacted these results
