Observations on Lindamood center and seeing stars

Karen,

Thanks so much for sharing. I honestly logged on just to see if you would post an update. I have been doing more seeing stars over the break and I think it is helping. The center sounds great.

Linda

Hi Karen N, I’d like to know more about LD interventions. Could you enlighten me on Seeing Stars? Also what is SS and PG? I know a little about V/V… Glad it looks promising for your son- I’ve known other kids who have benefited from Lindamood Bell. I just never knew much about what they actually did. Thanks for expanding my knowledge…

since I was the one to blithely throw around those acronyms. But truth be told there are teachers on this board who can really explain them. Also if you search this and the Teaching Reading board you’ll find lots of info.

PG stands for Phonographix which is the method taught in a book called Reading Reflex. The web site for the group that developed and supports it is www.readamerica.net. Its a low cost way to introduce phonemic awareness, blending, segmenting and more. Many mom’s here have done it successfully at home, and Shay is our resident (teacher) expert.

SS is Seeing Stars which is the Lindamood Bell “product” that they recommend after Lips, or after some level of phonemic awareness is in place. It seems to work on automating and reinforcing what we did in phonographix, and what my son has been taught by his tutor who uses orton gillingham materials. It seems to stress visualization of the letters/words, which is supposed to help with spelling as well as decoding. I’m no expert…

I have no first hand experience with Visualizing /Verbalizing (V/V) but I do know it is a well thought of Lindamood Bell course that teaches visualization techniques that enhance comprehension. Others here have used it successfully.

Hope that helped! I’m sorry to use the abbreviations. : )

PG = phonographix the book is called reading reflex and the website is www.readamerica.net. This program teaches phonemic awareness, segmenting and blending. It is well researched, logical and fairly easy for even a novice to teach. The LMB equivalent would be lips. PG really got my son reading.

Seeing stars is another Lindamood bell program that teaches what is called symbol imagery. It helps the child see the actual letters and make pictures of them in their head for retrieval later. My son’s problem is that he is a phonetic speller. He knows the sounds but will spell laff for laugh. He needs to see the actual word in his head to avoid this mix-up. Developing this skill also helps strengthen and automate the skills learned in lips or pg. Lips and pg deal more with hearing the sounds in the words but some people modify both of these programs to include visual imagery.

As you know VV is visualizing the actual story or the gestalt. The LMB people say that the ability to visualize symbols and the ability to visualize the gestalt of the story, ie characters, places etc… are two different skills that come from different areas of the brain.

My son can make images of the gestalt but can not hold the pictures of the symbols. He had great difficulty learning to identify and write his letters and numbers on the page even though he could say them before he was 2.

Karen may understand this better than me now that she has this direct experience. I would like to hear her take on this if it is at all different than my understanding.

For a minute I thought I was reading my own post! No, I think you have a better grasp on this stuff than I do, since you’ve actually been doing it with your son. But I am getting a sense of how LMB operates, how they put it into practice. And I’ll share more when I learn more.

I *think* his spelling has improved. He was making up a game today and for the first time actually spelled have “have” and not “hav” . stay tuned…

I’ll never forget when my daughter was 7 and after only about 3-4 wks. of LMB, (2x wkly) she looked at the back of a pick up and tried to sound out the word “F-ord”. I was elated and sad at the same time b/c I never knew she couldn’t do it.

Karen,

Both you and Linda have a great feel for the LMB programs you’ve described. I’ve mentioned this on other boards but the LMB people like to combine LIPS with SS as soon as possible. They really feel that children benefit right away from this. They don’t wait till a child is done with LIPS before starting SS; in fact they begin it as soon as a child has learned a few consonants and vowels.

SS is built upon the same principles that V&V uses but applies those strategies to visualizing symbols. Both SS and V&V are very easy to learn to teach straight out of the manual; it’s that accessible. People tend to shy away from LIPS, thinking it’s hard to teach. Actually it’s quite easy. I do think it’s much easier to teach if you’ve taken the LMB training than if you were trying straight from the book alone. But, like all the LMB manuals, there are exact lessons in the book so you really could just teach with the page open and mimic the lessons the very first time.

I find that I use SS and V&V strategies all day long in my own life. They are very helpful memory aids, especially to this forgetful menopausal woman!

Joan,

I use them too! I make a mental picture of where I place my keys. Then I try to retrieve the picture later. I am a little (very little) less flighty.

I think it is great that they use it sooner. I wish I was using visualization when I was first teaching my son phonographix. The other day he forgot how to write a capital Q. His symbol imagery is just that bad.

I’ve been trying to use this technique with my son who can never find anything he’s looking for. Maybe I should try it on my husband too.

We did PG with my 10 year old son at the Read America clinic in Orlando. Although it’s a good program to teach reading, it is not a good program for children with visual dyslexia. It is not intense enough, and does not help with symbol imagery. When my son made little progress after 18 sessions, I was given the “learned helplessness” excuse.

We went to the LMB clinic in Weston FL a few months later. This was the first time anyone told me why my son could not read — weak symbol imagery. He did Seeing Stars and LIPs for 7-1/2 weeks. HE CAN READ!!!!! Besides an excellent program, my son received a ton of emotional support. His tutors were so kind to him and so positive that this was the first time ever he wanted to go to tutoring. And he loved his break time there. It was more like camp than tutoring.

LMB definitely knows what they’re doing. I am grateful to them. It was the only thing that worked. And we tried ALOT of programs, only to leave us hopeless and frustrated.

We’re all cheering for you. I pulled my Seeing Stars manual out to reread. I have been using some of it, but think I ought to be more systematic about it.

Beth

Thanks! Haven’t heard from you in a while.

Really, though, I’m not doing anything except schlepping him to the center. I cheer all you mom’s that are able to teach your kids this stuff at home. keep you posted!

How exciting Karen!
Please do keep us informed. Like Beth, we’ve been very busy. We’re reviewing some of PG, segmenting multisyllable words and working on memorizing multiplication facts…however it does not seem like we’re doing enough!!! The holiday is passing too quickly.

It’s nice to hear your son is reading on his own for information. That sounds like a positive step.

I look forward to reading your posts!!!

Laura and Beth,

It is good to hear from you both.

Laura,

I am doing the same thing as you. I am doing the multisyllable words in the back of the reading reflex book and then following up with seeing stars which actually has similar words. If you were interested you could get away with just buying the seeing stars multisyllable workbooks for just a few bucks. I think the seeing stars has the words grouped more systamatically. For instance he learned the le sound and the ly sound at the end of words better with SS.

Like Beth I have decided to be more systematic in my approach. I am trying to get him to visualize specific preffixes and suffixes.

We had company and we basically took Christmas week off. It was a nice break.

I went back and reread Seeing Stars last night and this morning went through the first half of the steps with him. He was doing really well, although he first told me that noone could teach him to see letters!! I know he can visualize them, because I make him do it with spelling, but it isn’t automatic for him. I think going through the program step by step is the way to go at this point. I did this two years ago but had to stop because he just didn’t have the sound-symbol relationship down firmly. Now he does, which is a big relief. He was managing advanced code like ai, oa, o-e without any problem. Of course, I had just spent the earlier part of the week reviewing PG!!

I also have been working with my five year old, which has been amazing. He can chain without any problem, something that took years of practice and therapy for my LD child to do!! Really makes you realize what a handicap being LD is.

Beth

Hey Laura,

Did you get the directions for glass analysis that I emailed you?

Beth

My son too needed LIPS. I think there are kids who LIPS works for when nothing else will and I wish PG people would just accept this and send them on.

Hi Linda,
I plan on ordering some of the SS books. I may even order the manual although I have a general idea of how SS works and some of the techniques.

My son is making progress and getting better at decoding multisyllable words. Some of this is due to the fact he resents me writing anything difficult on the dry erase board, breaking it down and asking questions that help him figure it out. He doesn’t want me to help him. He’d much rather do it on his own. This is both good and bad.

He is getting more automatic and I do think he’s reading quite well, but every so often he’ll stumble on the simplest word or appear to make careless errors.

Also, even as he improves in reading, he still absolutely HATES it. That’s probably the most exasperating of all. I can’t help but think that if he enjoyed it, he’d probably progress remarkably well.

Hi Beth,
I haven’t had too much online time, but just read through and replied.

Maybe I need to do some “marathon” reading (like a Lindamood Bell center!!!!). I could set up a few weeks of intensive 4-hour reading/tutoring sessions. Of course I’ll have to come up with a good reward system (which won’t be easy following the holiday toy overload!).

After completing 2 weeks, ds finally asked for a reward for all his hard work. Unlike IM, he gets mini-rewards at LMB, and they have little prizes for the kids. This is where I think being with other children helps. Anyway, he’s getting a bey-blade (sp?) when he finishes. I think I got off pretty easy considering how many Pokemon cards I had to buy last summer to get him thru IM!

Karen,

Weird, weird, weird! The one thing my son wanted for Christmas was a beyblade. I was spelling it bayblade and couldn’t find it anywhere. I thought is was a made up thing.

Our boys would be such good friends.

I wish we lived closer! Now that it seems likely we’ll be having him attend a special school next year, I’ve started worrying less about his actual learning disability and more about how he’ll adjust socially. Guess there is always somethign to worry about!

Great- I’ll pick up the manuals for these interventions. Thanks for your help!

Laura — two small suggestions that may work — worth a try anyhow.

If he’s doing better and hates having you write words on the white board, OK, trade roles and have him write them and break them down for you (you help if he gets stuck of course). True, this will be slower and you’ll “cover” less material. But he will remember so much better and gain so much confidence. Sort of like backing off and having him make his own bed etc.; so what if it’s rough, he’s doing it for himself and he’ll get better. When he gets tired you can step in again for a while, but give him more and more ownership as soon as he can do it. Another benefit: after he has done this for himself a few times, a light may flash and he may be able to visualize or air-write without the whiteboard.

As far as hating reading, I don’t know what level he is on. But if he is beyond the beginner books. try backing down a level or two and having him read comparatively easy books for mastery. In my experience kids get more benefit from mastering a book that’s a little below their tested instructional level and reading fluently and with comprehension than they get form dragging through something painfully. They speed up and *then* do that more advanced book. (One exception — the practiced guesser sometimes needs to be challenged by something that’s much too hard to be guessable.)

Just think—someday he’ll be doing so well, you won’t need to worry any more. What will you do with all your spare time?

Beth

I figure by then my daughter (who just turned 6 today!) will be a teenager and that will open whole new avenues of worry! : )

I always said that I would send my daughter to a boarding school when she was 13!! She is 12 now and still basically civil. One more year!!!

I think what LD does is rob us of the “easy” years between preschool and teenage.

Beth

If it’s any consolation, those supposedly calm “in-between years” were the very worst in my son’s life. I dreaded his becoming a teen. But those were the best years! Childhood was by far very hard for him.