IdeaChain - improve reading comprehension ?

I’m on their e-mailing list, and I think it is fairly similar but more expensive than Visualizing and Verbalizing (Lindamood Bell). I think some parents have preferred it over V/V because it is a bit more layed out with more structure, what to do next that sort of thing. However, I don’t think that V/V is that hard to follow. You don’t really need any extras but the one or more of the books are nice.

I think conceptually they are similar. The kid will not comprehend reading unless s/he can make a visual image. The how whats and whys may be a bit different.

—des

Hi des,

Thanks much for your comments, I will also go ahead to check with V/V.
Question if everyone can give me opinion, can I use V/V with my son at home by myself (means easy to follow through the materials) ? Do I need to do some training or this has to be done in LMB clinic ?

It is possible to follow this. The manual is pretty easy to follow but uses an example kid(s), and you know your child will not say the same things. There is a summary of what you should accomplish at each step. It isn’t as clear as it could be.

The materials are simple. The manual includes any materials you might need with the exception of the stories, written material. They have a book— actually a few and one fo these would be useful.

—des

Hi Des,

I browse through the LMB web site, found their products, they have
V/V manual, V/V stories and V/V kits which looks like include all,
Do I need Kit ? Do you think If I purchase manual and stories are good enough to start the program ?

The Visualizing and Verbalizing® Kit has all you need to implement the critically acclaimed V/V® program in one-to-one and group instruction. The kit includes:
V/V® manual
V/V® Stories
Colored Pictures
Overhead Transparencies
Small and Large Structure Words
Colored Squares

Thanks,
Shelley

Shelley, the manual and book of stories is all you’ll need as long as you don’t mind making copies of the pictures in the back of the manual and coloring them yourself. You can make your own set of structure words easily and cut up squares of colored construction paper. I think you can do it without training, but the training makes it much easier. V/V is an outstanding program.

Janis

Yes, like Janis I colored the pictures in the back with crayons one night while watching tv (I only did half or so, you really don’t need all these as a parent, esp. if your kid isn’t all that low functioning). I would guess my student and I did these for 2-3 sessions.

For the squares, just get 6 different colors of felt and put them on cardboard, qed.

I’m sure the training would improve my abilities but I don’t have the money to do it right now. It is certainly possible to do without.

—des

Janis, Des,

Thanks much for your info and help.
I understand much beter. I wouldlike to try out V/V.

Thanks,
Shelley

Note this is not a quick results kind of thing. I think that the sentence to sentence level might take MONTHS if you aren’t doing this daily for hours a day (I don’t know if I would like that actually). If it is your own kid, I might do this daily but I don’t think it would need to be hours and hours.
But again, expect this to take some time and watch to see some change in types of responses (more depth, more detail, etc.)

—des

Good point, des. My child was evaluated at LMB and they recommended 80 hours of V/V instruction for her. So that would equate to 2 hours a week for a full school year, for example. I will be asking for V/V objectives on her speech-language IEP this Friday, as a matter of fact. And there is a training in November nearby, so I’m hoping the SLP will go!

Janis

After I saw 1 page of sample from V/V and read all the past posts deeply and talk to Jane from IdeaChain. I now like to go to IdeaChain.
I am working mom and I am never trained in LMB, I need the full package with all the scripts and actvities provided.
And their photo graphs training is always something I want to do and just be able to do a little. Now all the scripts and ideas are provided to me, then I should be no excuse to do it.

I definetely know nothing is miracle, I have worked with my son since he was 3yrs old and labeled as PDD, now label changed to language delayed.
He is now in mainstream 2nd grade with no subject behind. But his story tell back still needs a lot of questions to get the full story, however, he does give me all the key points but just not full content.
Our school has reading count computer system to test the comprehension, he loves to do the reading counts and fails half time. Every time he gets one book passed, he will be so proud, so I would love to see him success in this area too.
My daughter in 6th grade and has vacab difficulty. I plan to use it to both of them, since my daughter loves to work with my son. I will build a strategy so both of them can learn it and can apply to real life.

I would let you know how it goes, thanks much for the support without your comments, I can not get so far.

Thanks,
shelley

Shelley,
I’ve been having problems posting but wanted to say I would have gone for Ideachain as well. I bought the V/V book and did not feel it provided me with enough structure to teach my child in an organized fashion. Like you, I work full-time and don’t have a lot of spare moments to structure a program. The dynamics of teaching one’s child are different and it really helps to have a strong structure in place to do it. Had I known about Ideachain at the time, I definitely would have gone with that instead of V/V—Ideachain offers lots of structure through the scripts, all materials, plus unlimited toll-free help and a money back guarantee. In the end, I decided I could not do V/V on my own and so spent thousands at an LMB clinic. If I had to do it over again, I would have tried Ideachain first.