All posts by Amy Kessler

NBC WSMV-TV Channel 4 Nashville Reports on Lindamood-Bell Robot Helping Teachers

* News, For Schools, Professional Development,

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Photo Credit: DoubleRobotics Case Study Video

Lindamood-Bell for Schools Instruction Robot: News Roundup

  • NBC WSMV-TV Channel 4 Nashville Reports on Lindamood-Bell Robot Helping Teachers
  • Tullahoma News Reports on Instruction Robot
  • [Case Study] Lindamood-Bell for Schools Instruction Robot
  • Double Robotics Case Study: Lindamood-Bell Deploys 50 Doubles in Largest Deployment Yet

 

NBC WSMV-TV Channel 4 Nashville Reports on Lindamood-Bell Robot Helping Teachers

TULLAHOMA, TN (WSMV) –The coolest classroom gadgets on two wheels are making a difference and teaching Tullahoma City Schools students to read.

A group of third graders at Tullahoma’s Robert E. Lee Elementary School are taking part in a groundbreaking reading program now in its second year with the district.

Reading specialist Dr. Joanne Coggins is new to the program.

“This one helps students that have difficulty with reading words accurately and decoding words they don’t know,” Coggins said.

And with a new program comes a steep learning curve, even for the teacher. That’s where Jessica comes in.

More than 1,200 miles away in Denver, Jessica watches the reading group through cameras connected to a robot, which she controls from her keyboard.

Watch their news story and read the full article here.

 

The Tullahoma News Reports on Instruction Robot

The Tullahoma News interviewed school administrators and teachers about this groundbreaking literacy initiative for their article, “Young readers learn with help of robots”; and submitted a follow-up report, “Scores up following use of iPad Robots.”

 

[Case Study] Lindamood-Bell for Schools Instruction Robot

Student growth data, as well as more information about the programs and professional development employed in Tullahoma schools can be found in the following article: [Case Study] Lindamood-Bell for Schools Instruction Robot.

 

Double Robotics Case Study: Lindamood-Bell Deploys 50 Doubles in Largest Deployment Yet

Learn more about how schools are using technology to make Lindamood-Bell Professional Development more affordable than ever in a recent video case study produced by Double Robotics. Double Robotics is the creator of Double, the world’s leading telepresence robot:

From Double Robotics: “Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes, a leading education services agency that provides professional development and best practices for teachers, has deployed 50 telepresence robots from Double Robotics in the largest deployment of Double Robotics to date.

Traditionally, a Lindamood-Bell staff member would travel onsite to a school and embed him/herself in the community by living there full-time, from anywhere between six months to a few years. Now, rather than sending a person, Lindamood-Bell sends a Double, allowing staff members to visit schools anywhere in the world, from Colorado to Alaska to Honduras, without having to spend the time or money associated with physical travel. Double allows Lindamood-Bell to provide the same high-quality instruction in a more efficient and cost-effective way. With Double, Lindamood-Bell employees to have greater flexibility to visit multiple sites per day or per week, all while saving the school thousands of dollars per year.”

Tips for Coaching Youth Sports: The Imagery-Language Connection for Sports

Comprehension, Helpful Tips, ,

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Did you recently volunteer for a coaching position? Have you coached before? Are you tired of yelling at your team but don’t know how to get them to follow directions? Do you want this year to be a more positive experience for you and your players? If you answered yes to any of these questions, a few simple changes to the language you use as a coach may help you create the success you’re looking for.
As a coach, it’s important to understand that your team is comprised of many players with different personalities as well as learning abilities. You may have a player, or players, with an identified comprehension weakness, or an ADHD diagnosis. Parents often pursue help for their child’s academics, but may not realize that their language comprehension concerns can also affect their performance in other areas of life, including sports.

 

A primary cause of language comprehension problems is difficulty creating an imagined gestalt (whole). This is called weak concept imagery. This weakness causes individuals to understand only “parts” of information they read or hear, but not the whole.

 

Check out some examples of how concept imagery issues can affect a child at school and on the field or court:

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The imagery-language connection is necessary for good thinking and communication, which is essential for a team to be successful. You may be able to help a struggling player (and the whole team!) by modifying the language you use while coaching. See the following tips for how to strengthen the imagery-language connection for your players:

 

Give Instructions

Establish the imagery-language connection to stimulate thinking and make sure you check for understanding.  For example, when giving your team instructions for a drill (e.g. “Dribble the ball to the far left cone. Leave it there and sprint back to the goal”), have them visualize the activity you are describing, and call on individuals to recall what they are picturing.

Discuss Strategies

Help your athletes monitor their understanding of their actions, as well as problem solving skills, by targeting specific images they’re creating. Teach them to continually ask themselves whether they understand what the consequences may be of certain actions, and if they’re able to picture the outcome: “If I do this, what might happen? What does that look like?”

 

Introduce New Vocabulary

Similar to subjects in school, sports have their own unique vocabulary. It’s important to ask questions, such as “What do you picture for for the words inning, dribble, defense, out of bounds, and guard?” Many coaches already familiar with the sport assume their players understand and are able to visualize these vocabulary words and concepts.  Identify your sport’s key words and phrases and ask players to visualize them. They should be able to tell you what they are picturing. If they don’t have a picture, they will have a difficult time understanding what the word or concept means. Create a diagram on a whiteboard or provide examples to assist with their understanding.

 

Post Game Recap

During discussions with your team after the game, ask imagery-stimulating questions. For example, instead of just asking, “What do you think we need to work on?” you can add, “What do you see yourself doing differently? What does that look like?” You can expand upon these questions to dive into their images even more, by adding choice/contrast questions like, “Do you you see yourself running faster or slower?” or “Do you picture yourself in the same part of the field as you were today or are you moving around more?”

 

If you need further information or have questions regarding ways to address language comprehension weakness, please contact us at 800.300.1818.

Lindamood-Bell eLearning for Teachers [VIDEO]

For Schools, Professional Development, ,

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Lindamood-Bell for Schools has a new way to help teachers.

 

Teachers who take an introductory workshop can now access Lindamood-Bell eLearning courses! Get prepared to use our programs with your students. Our eLearning courses address common questions about using our programs, feature small-group instruction demonstrations, and offer opportunities to ask our instructional experts about the content you’re learning.

 

These online courses are self-paced and tablet friendly, allowing you to take the course anytime, anywhere, at your convenience. Each course is approximately one hour and accessible for 30 days.

 

 

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Lindamood-Bell eLearning courses are an efficient way to get more familiar with the steps of our programs, so you can get back to making a difference for your students. Learn more and register here.

[Case Study] Lindamood-Bell for Schools Instruction Robot

For Schools, Professional Development, , , ,

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It might sound strange, but with the help of robots, a school district in Tennessee is meeting the learning needs of its struggling readers like never before.

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Tullahoma City Schools serves a large percentage of students who are at-risk of reading failure. In 2014, school leaders began an initiative to change how they serve students. They aimed to discover why their students were struggling and to make a difference for each of them. Like many students identified for intervention around the country, Tullahoma’s struggling learners were lacking basic connections needed for reading and comprehension.

 

Teachers attended Lindamood-Bell Workshops to learn the steps of Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking and Seeing Stars for Reading and Spelling.  These research validated programs address the imagery-language connection. To bolster the quality of instruction students would receive—especially from teachers who had only spent a few days at a workshop—they also partnered with Lindamood-Bell to provide job-embedded professional development throughout the year.

 

Lindamood-Bell provided onsite support in the classroom through the use of a state-of-the-art robot. This cost-effective solution was described by school administrators and teachers in The Tullahoma News and has transformed the lives of their students.

 

A recent article was published about the benefits to students. For growth data, the following case study:

 

Tennessee Students Receiving Seeing Stars® Instruction Make Significant Improvements in Reading

 

Background
Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Tullahoma, Tennessee, serves a large percentage of students who are at-risk of reading failure. During the 2015-16 school year, Lee implemented Lindamood-Bell® instruction to address the specific needs of this student population. Nineteen students received an average of 87 hours of primarily Seeing Stars instruction to develop symbol imagery for reading. Instruction was delivered by Lee teachers who received professional development in the Lindamood-Bell programs. Student gains were measured with a battery of reading assessments.

 

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Results
On average, Seeing Stars students achieved significant improvements in reading. They made large standard score changes on all measures. Additionally, the 32-point percentile increase in Symbol Imagery put these students within the normal range (25th-75th percentile). Their pre- to posttest results were statistically significant on all measures. The results of this study illustrate that Lindamood-Bell instruction in the Seeing Stars program leads to improved reading, which is essential to achieving success with school curricula.

 

Profile
School Years: 2015-16
Number of Schools: 1
Number of Students: 19
Grade Levels: 1st-5th

 

Lindamood-Bell Programs Implemented:
•Seeing Stars®
•Visualizing and Verbalizing®

 

Focus of Lindamood-Bell Services:

– Teacher Workshops

– Coaching via Telepresence Robot

– Instructional Leadership Support

 

Lindamood-Bell instruction can change learning for students, regardless of their previous struggle with language and literacy. Contact us to learn how your school can get started: 800-233-1819.

 

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{INFOGRAPHIC} Kindergarten, Here I Come! Creating the Magic of Learning Right from the Start

Australia, Instruction, , ,

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If your child is starting kindergarten this year, you know his teacher will have a long list of goals to accomplish before the end of the school year. To some degree, your child will definitely be working on:

 

  • Letter names and sounds
  • Sounding out for reading and writing
  • Sight word recognition and spelling
  • Printing letters and numbers
  • Understanding stories
  • Listening comprehension
  • Oral and written communication
  • Counting and understanding numbers
  • Addition and subtraction

Whether you are hoping to support your child’s learning at home, or are preparing your preschooler for next year, now is the time to familiarize your child with the activities they will be exposed to—so they can feel great about the new year. “Where to start?” may be on your mind.

 

You may already be following the common advice to “read with your child 20 minutes per day.” However, for parents of young learners, this advice can be somewhat confusing, considering all the new things your child is just learning how to do.

 

If you are like most parents, you wonder:

 

“What if my child can’t read yet? Does it “count” if I do the reading? What kind of books should we read? How do I know if my child is “getting it?” And, what about math?”

 

We answer these questions and more in our FREE Parent Guide:

 

DOWNLOAD: The 3 Best Activities for Boosting Kindergarten Learning

 

We break down the major goals of kindergarten into three categories: reading, comprehension, and math, and provide you with an activity to support each of them. A few adjustments to the daily reading you already do, such as asking your child about the letters in words and pictures in a story, can have a huge impact on school confidence!

 

Need more support for your child? Our learning centers provide Kindergarten Boost Instruction. Students can spend a few weeks working on the basics in order to make the school year easier. We work to strengthen the imagery-language connection as a foundation for reading, spelling, comprehension, and math. We want to help create the Magic of Learning right from the start of your child’s academic career! Learn More.

Lindamood-Bell Named a Top Back to Homeschool Resource of 2016

* News, Academy, Homeschool

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Homeschool.com researched products, curriculum, websites, and fun books, to come up with their Top Back to Homeschool Resources. We are honored to be chosen as one of the “best of the best!”

Check out Homeschool.com’s Top Back to Homeschool Resources.

Contact us to discuss how we can help your family go back to homeschool, and have a great year: 800-233-1819

It’s Not Too Late: A Lot Can Happen in One Week

Instruction,

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If you’re like most parents, school is starting for your kids in just a few short weeks, maybe even sooner! Are you ready? Are your kids ready? You’ve been down this road before and know what to expect: excitement, nervousness, maybe a little trepidation about what the school year will bring.

 

If you feel your child isn’t quite ready to tackle the new school year’s curriculum, you may be wondering what you can do to help in such a short amount of time. It’s not too late! We can help get your student ready in as little as one week! One week? Yes!

 

Here’s what we can work on with your child in just one week of intensive instruction, or one more week if he/she is currently enrolled at one of our learning centers:

 

  • Help your student apply new sensory-cognitive processing skills to grade level content. Your child has just spent weeks learning how to image letters within words for reading and spelling, or image concepts for comprehension.   Now it’s time to apply these new skills to their schoolwork.   
  • Help your child use their improved vocabulary skills to incorporate new words into their writing.
  • Ensure your child, who worked hard to improve her concept imagery ability, is now pulling relevant content into her note taking and leaving the nonsense behind.
  • Work with your student to confirm his math skills are continuing to improve. Now that he’s worked on strengthening his numeral imagery and concept imagery skills, how are his math facts? Is he able to successfully solve word problems?  
  • If your student attended one of our learning centers last summer, it’s time to bring those skills back to conscious awareness after a summer of no school.
  • Build Independence in EVERY sensory-cognitive processing skill by asking the student to monitor herself!
  • Work with your child to continue to build her sight word base. The more sight words she recognizes, the more fluently she’ll read in context.
  • Get your child started with intensive instruction, so we can incorporate their new sensory-cognitive skills into their school day more easily.

 

In other words, in just ONE week (or one MORE week) we can make possibly the biggest difference of all—the one where your child will head back to school feeling confident and prepared.

 

We want the 2016-2017 school year to be your child’s best ever.  His backpack is full of supplies. Let’s make sure his brain is full of the skills necessary for success!

 
For more information on how one week of intensive instruction can make a difference, please contact your local learning center.

Afterschool Learning to the Rescue! Reasons to Get Help

Instruction, , ,

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If your family is like most, you’ve enjoyed summer break—and may not exactly be looking forward to the school year’s relentless schedule of project deadlines, events, and class obligations. And if last year ended on a sour note—either because your child has a learning difficulty or because getting through homework was just rough—you may be looking towards the new school year, and the increasingly challenging curriculum, with actual dread.

 

As you prepare for the new year, consider afterschool help to address the issues that are making school hard for your child. Though every student is unique, extra learning after school can make the year easier.

 

Stop the Homework Battles

Do you find yourself in full-on homework battles most nights of the week? It’s no surprise that most children and teens will dig in their heels when it comes to doing schoolwork. Can you blame them? It’s always tough to get started on something we don’t particularly enjoy. Most would prefer to be playing video games, chatting and texting with friends, riding their bikes, watching television—just about anything other than homework—especially after the school day.

 

To avoid the battles, parents should: 1) establish a daily homework routine  2) implement and monitor an organization system for assignments and projects 3) provide a distraction-free homework zone, and, 4) be available during homework time for questions and monitoring progress. Most kids benefit from structured homework time with parents, and having clear expectations can eliminate a lot of conflict.

 

But for many busy families, protected homework time is not always practical, at least not for every night of the school week. Whether it’s a work schedule that keeps us from homework help until after dinner, or the myriad other family activities bustling around the studying child—our best laid plans for homework time can quickly go out the window.

 

Homework Matters at Lindamood-Bell

Homework Matters is supervised homework help, 1-4 afternoons per week.

We create an environment that motivates and focuses students on getting their homework done. Our skilled instructors take the struggle out of homework for families by helping students get their work done. We can answer your child’s questions and assist when necessary. 

 

Improve Skills

Students who struggle in school may have a weakness that is affecting learning. Unfortunately, these students typically fall further behind as the year goes on. Students with poor comprehension, critical thinking, writing and memory may have weak concept imagery—the ability to create an imagined gestalt (whole) from language; students who are poor decoders and spellers, or slow readers, may have weak symbol imagery—the ability to visualize letters in words. These difficulties are not only frustrating for a student, but prevent them from accessing school curriculum.

 

Sensory-Cognitive Instruction at Lindamood-Bell

We start by identifying strengths and weaknesses that may be affecting performance in reading, comprehension, and math.  And, we make recommendations for individualized instruction plans that create learning gains. Sensory-Cognitive instruction is available at the learning center or online.

 

Build Confidence

Students who attend our learning centers may benefit from a bridge between their new skills and their school work. For example, a student who received comprehension instruction may have made great progress, but could use help applying his new skills to a book report assignment.

 

Application to Content at Lindamood-Bell

Students who have completed sensory-cognitive instruction at Lindamood-Bell can get help applying their new skills to school. 

 

Call us to chat about how you can use after school to make an impact on your child’s learning! 800-233-1819

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New to Lindamood-Bell? The first step is to see what may be affecting your child’s performance in the classroom. A learning evaluation will uncover the strengths and weaknesses that are affecting school. In a thorough results consultation, we will discuss an individualized learning plan to make school easier.

UAB Study White Paper Now Available

Autism, Research, , , ,

A new white paper released by Lindamood-Bell, “The Science of Improved Language Comprehension: Brain Connectivity and Autism Spectrum Disorder,” summarizes the groundbreaking results of a recent University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) study.

 

In this study, a group of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) received 10 weeks of intensive instruction utilizing the Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking® program. It was found that the instruction “was enough to strengthen the activity of loosely connected areas of their brains that work together to comprehend reading.” The children’s reading comprehension also improved.

 

The white paper will enable parents, physicians, and education professionals to better understand the relevance of the findings of the study, primarily that deficits in language comprehension can be improved through stimulating and strengthening the connection between the verbal and imaginal centers of the brain.

 

Language comprehension is foundational to learning—both social and academic—in the educational environment. With a better understanding of subject matter and social relationships, students are poised for greater success in all areas of life.

 

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For information about the Visualizing and Verbalizing program, including learning center instruction for students; or professional development workshops for educators, contact us: 800-233-1819.

Go Back to School With Confidence

Learning Difficulties,

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It’s almost time to go back to school!

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If you’re like most parents, you are spending the last few weeks of summer with your family: relaxing and reconnecting and enjoying your time together. Maybe you went on vacation or possibly, you preferred a “staycation.”  You may have scheduled trips to the local library and bookstore for your kids to prevent the “summer slide.” This is the perfect time for them to check out and buy books that interest them and capture their attention—including topics such as animals, sports heroes, mysteries, or adventure, allowing them to travel to new places or reintroduce them to familiar but forgotten passions.

 

However your time was spent, your kids are most likely exhausted from camps, beach days, and play dates. And, you know they’ve spent far too much time watching television, snap chatting, texting, and playing video/computer games.

 

Now, with summer coming to a close, it’s time to buckle down and get ready to go back to school. Unfortunately, you may have a child who doesn’t view this time of year as exciting. Your child may be feeling stressed about the increased level of academics in the classroom this year. Their struggles may have surfaced throughout the previous school year: you noticed your child having difficulty with reading words in context (trouble sounding out unfamiliar words), or maybe demonstrating a weakness in remembering what they read or listened to; their spelling skills may have begun to deteriorate with the introduction of multi syllable words; or perhaps their math skills declined due to increasingly difficult concepts.

 

If reading and spelling are difficult for your child, they may be suffering from weak symbol imagery–the ability to visualize letters and sounds within words. Weak symbol imagery will cause difficulty in establishing sight words, contextual fluency, and spelling.

 

If reading or language comprehension are difficult for your child, weak concept imagery—the ability to image a gestalt (whole)—may be the cause. Weakness in concept imagery will interfere with reading and listening comprehension, memory, oral vocabulary, critical thinking, and writing.

 

Your child’s math skills may be suffering as well due to an inability to create a gestalt image for the concepts underlying math processes. Individuals often attempt to memorize facts instead of being able to think, reason, and problem solve with numbers. Symbol imagery and concept imagery are necessary sensory-cognitive functions that underlie reading, comprehension, and math skills.

 

This time of year should be exciting, not worrisome. The last thing you want is to have your child dread going to school when it hasn’t even started yet. As a parent, what can you do? You might want to consider having your child evaluated in order to see what is causing the difficulties. Once the area of weakness has been determined, it’s important to know that treatment is available. Lindamood-Bell’s sensory-cognitive programs develop the necessary skills that underlie reading, comprehension, and math.

 

Your child’s backpack is full. More importantly, let’s make sure her skill set is full by going back to school with us!

 

For information on how to contact us in order to get your child prepared to go back to school with confidence, please see the listing of our Learning Centers.