All posts by Amy Kessler

Students with Dyslexia Thrive at Lindamood-Bell Academy!

Academy, ,

 

The Challenge

Students with dyslexia are often susceptible to falling behind their peers in academic skills. And it’s no wonder. It’s hard to keep up and get excited about learning when reading is labored and slow. 

 

Extra help at school doesn’t always get to the root of reading issues. For example, students might receive tutoring in reading and spelling rules and learn techniques for sounding out words. While these activities have value, they do not address the cause of a student’s problem.  Despite having extensive phonics instruction, students with dyslexia often struggle to become fluent readers. 

 

Students who struggle with reading may have weak symbol imagery—the ability to visualize letters in words. This difficulty is not only frustrating for students but also prevents them from accessing school curriculum alongside peers. 

 

Lindamood-Bell Academy is a Great Fit for Students with Dyslexia

At Lindamood-Bell Academy, we develop the imagery-language foundation for language comprehension and literacy skills. The imagery-language foundation is especially important for students with dyslexia who come to the Academy. At the Academy, they receive an individualized school experience like no other.

 

Hear parents of students with dyslexia talk about what it’s like to go to school at Lindamood-Bell Academy.

 

 

 

Research-Validated

New research from the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington, has examined dyslexia and how intensive intervention drives the growth of reading skills in struggling readers.

 

Dr. Jason Yeatman, one of the study’s researchers, says that although dyslexia is often thought of as permanent, the findings indicate that the targeted, intensive instruction leads to “substantial” improvements in reading skills and changes in the “underlying wiring of the brain’s reading circuitry.”

 

Numerous peer-reviewed articles based on studies examining the effectiveness of our instruction with dyslexic students have been published in scholarly journals – Summary of Behavioral & Neurological Research—Dyslexia.

 

New Webinar

Join us at 10 am PDT/ 1 pm EDT on October 23 for a webinar titled The New Science and Results on Addressing Dyslexia: What Is Important to Know. Lindamood-Bell’s Director of Research and Development, Paul Worthington, will discuss how the latest diagnostic and intervention studies and instruction results are offering major hope for addressing the needs of individuals diagnosed with dyslexia.

 

 

 

 

Is Lindamood-Bell Academy right for your child? Call us to learn more, discuss your child’s needs, or to schedule an interview.

 

US 800-300-1818 | UK +44 020 7727 0660

Extended! Early Bird Savings | Sign Up Now for Summer!

Australia, Learning Centers, Specials,

Summer is a great time to get help with reading, comprehension, or math. In just a few weeks’ time, we can make years of change so your child can go back to school with new confidence. Also, working on crucial skills can minimize the learning loss that takes place for many students.

 

Our evidence-based instruction allows students to make years of academic growth in just a few weeks. Your child can go back to school feeling successful.

 

To get your family started, we are extending our special Early Bird Discount. Save 5% on your first week of summer instruction when you schedule by October 18, 2019!

 

Contact your local learning center to find out more about changing learning this summer. Or, call us today to take advantage of this special offer!

 

Double Bay: (02) 9328 7119 | Chatswood: (02) 9410 1006

 

Back to School: Strategies & Tips for a Successful School Year

Helpful Tips, Learning Centers

For many students, back-to-school season comes with the promise of a fresh start and another fun and successful year of learning. They eagerly fill their backpacks with sharpened pencils and new notebooks for each subject. But for students who struggle in school, they may instead be preoccupied with anxiety, stress, and waning self-confidence as another tough school year looms on the horizon.

 

It can be frustrating for both parent and student when conversations about report cards dissolve into tears, or discussions at the dinner table end in arguments as your child insists there’s no need for help practicing spelling words. Does your son constantly leave his math book in his desk? Is your daughter able to give great verbal summaries but freezes when she has to do a written assignment? While these struggles may have been buried under the sand while your family vacationed at the beach this summer, they are likely to surface as you transition back into the school-year routine.

 

When searching for ways to help support your son and/or daughter this school year, one of the best things you can do is be proactive about giving them the tools they need.

 

Make Homework Easier

Kids with learning or attention issues can have a tough time with homework, no matter how hard they try. As a parent, you know the importance of completing homework and developing strong study skills. But it can be hard to know how to be supportive without doing too much. Students should get the learning benefit from the assignment. Check out tips in Help Your Child with Homework

 

Fill Your Tool Kit

In the age of the Internet and social media, you’ll find a wide variety of free and varied resources to help you best understand, empathize with, and support your student. Take advantage of the lighter homework load in the beginning of the school year and start gathering information:

 

  • Join Facebook groups for parents in your area, to swap tips about the best local tutors or upcoming events.

 

  • Balancing extracurriculars and school work may lead to cranky, sleep-deprived middle and high schoolers. The Child Mind Institute offers tips for helping your teenager get more sleep.

 

  • Email may be the easiest way to reach out to your child’s teacher — set up a time (even before Back-to-School Night) to discuss her expectations for the school year and learn about any recommendations she may have for supplemental materials or other educators. You can also share information about your student’s strengths and strategies that have previously worked well for him or her in the classroom.

 

The Right Instruction

As the school year continues, it may become clear that your student is struggling to keep up. Choppy reading fluency or trouble recognizing sight words, despite seeing the same words in the previous paragraph, may be due to a weakness in 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.

 

A student who has trouble following directions, comprehending what she’s read, or organizing her time may have challenges with concept imagery, or the ability to image a gestalt (whole). She may be able to read quickly and accurately but struggle to understand and describe what she’s read or answer critical thinking questions about a given text.

 

At Lindamood-Bell, we are committed to teaching all children and adults to read and comprehend to their potential. The first step in understanding your child’s individual strengths and weaknesses is scheduling an evaluation, which you can learn more about here.

 

Watch as one parent, who describes our reading instruction as a “mythbuster,” shares his son’s experience with our approach:

 

 

Lindamood-Bell Academy | K-12 Instruction

A private school that provides both content-focused curriculum and process-based remediation tailored to a student’s individual needs, Lindamood-Bell Academy (LBA) is a perfect option for students who haven’t been able to thrive in a traditional school setting. Offering both in-person and online instruction, LBA allows students to access grade-level content in areas of strength while simultaneously receiving 1:1 support in subjects that prove challenging. Students of all ages and abilities can receive individualized support with a curriculum tailored to their unique needs.

 

To find out more about how Lindamood-Bell can help you best set your son or daughter up for success this fall, please contact your local Learning Center.

Help Us Bring a Lindamood-Bell Learning Camp to Your Community

Australia, Learning Camps,

So far, Lindamood-Bell has taught more than 40,000 students to read and comprehend to their potential. We are able to reach students, in part, by bringing our Learning Camps to new communities every year.

 

A Learning Camp is an extension of a Learning Center that is open 4-12 weeks—enough time to change learning for many students. Just like our Learning Centers, Learning Camps provide the following:  

 

✓ One-to-one instruction that addresses the individual’s learning needs

✓ Daily instruction

✓ Regular progress updates

✓ Parent practice sessions

✓ Professional collaboration/school visits

 

Let’s Create the Magic of Learning in your community.

✓ Spread the word about upcoming events: share social media posts, email invitations, post fliers, and more

✓ Schedule your Learning Ability Evaluation or School Year Checkup

✓ Make sure we have your child’s spot reserved on our schedule

✓ Discuss Lindamood-Bell with your pediatrician, psychologist, or educator—as a resource for their other clients

✓ Help us scout the right location

✓ Lindamood-Bell alumni. . .kindly share your learning success with others!

 

Frequently Asked Questions

When will there be a Learning Camp in our area?

When we have a commitment from a community, we are able to open our doors. Student reservations make this happen.  

 

How do you choose the location of the Learning Camp?

Safety is our first concern when securing a location. Our locations are varied and based on the local insights of our clients and contacts.

 

How can my child receive support during the school year?

Online instruction is available throughout the school year. We can help with the transition back to school with follow-up help or continued daily sensory-cognitive instruction.

 

Who are the instructors at the Learning Camp?

All Lindamood-Bell instructors must pass a rigorous screening and orientation process. Like our Learning Centers, Learning Camps provide genuine Lindamood-Bell instruction that is monitored by our corporate instructional quality team.

 

Watch this video for a glimpse of what our instruction looks like:

 

 

Contact us to learn more about our instruction or getting a Learning Camp to your community.

 

Double Bay (02) 9328 7119 | Chatswood (02) 9410 1006

How to Help Your Child Improve Comprehension at Home

Australia, Comprehension, ,

When a child has an identified comprehension weakness, it makes sense to pursue extra help for academics. Students can get help from tutors, learning specialists, or may have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) in place at school. Unfortunately, language comprehension troubles can affect family life, too. This is especially difficult when weak thinking skills are misconstrued as poor behavior. The child who “never listens” may not understand the task at hand.

 

A primary cause of language comprehension problems is difficulty with creating mental images for language. This weakness causes individuals to grasp only “parts” of information that they read or hear, but not the whole. This weakness often undermines the reading and thinking process. Students with weak language comprehension are commonly saddled with the misconception that they are just not trying, or that they are distractible. In fact, they may be trying very hard to memorize everything they have heard or read. And they need help.

 

Check out some examples of how concept imagery issues can affect school and home:

 

 

The imagery-language foundation is key to good thinking and communication. You can help address comprehension in the following ways:

 

1. In conversation

During discussions with your children about their day or current events in the news, use imagery-stimulating questions.  For example, instead of asking, “What do you think about…?” you can ask, “What did you picture for that story in the news today?”  or “What are you picturing for what might happen next?” You can expand upon these questions to dive into their images even more.

 

2. When reading together

After you or your child reads aloud or listen to a story together, you can gauge comprehension by asking some imagery questions: “How did you see that happening?” or “What do you picture happening next?” These can begin a fun discussion of the story and allow you to see what your child is getting out of it.

 

3. When there’s a problem to solve

Help your children to target specific images they’re creating while they’re processing oral or written language. 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?”

 

4. When you give instructions

Establish an imagery-language foundation through daily life activities to stimulate learning.  For example, when giving your children instructions, such as brushing their teeth, getting dressed, or making their beds, ask them to picture these tasks in their minds before they do them.

 

5. When learning something new

Whether your child is learning the rules of Monopoly for the first time or helping you work through a favorite cookie recipe, prompting your child to visualize the language is a great start. You can also fall back on the imagery-language foundation to check for understanding and to answer questions. For example, “What do you see for ‘bankrupt’?”

 

Comprehension Solutions at Lindamood-Bell

The imagery-language foundation can be developed as a foundation for comprehension and thinking. Students can make years of growth in a matter of weeks.

 

An accurate learning ability evaluation is the first step toward helping your child learn to his or her potential. We uncover the strengths and weaknesses that are affecting comprehension, and, in a thorough results consultation, we will discuss a learning plan to improve learning in the shortest time possible. Recommendations are differentiated based on the unique learning needs of each student.

 

https://youtu.be/lHtkIkjGCvA

 

Contact us to learn more or get started: Double Bay and Brisbane (02) 9328 7119 | Chatswood and Melbourne (02) 9410 1006

A Middle Schooler Finds Success at Lindamood-Bell Academy

Academy,

 

John struggled at his public middle school. He was unhappy and was picked on almost daily. His family found the right fit for him at Lindamood-Bell Academy.

 

 

At Lindamood-Bell Academy, we help close the gap between potential and performance. Our instruction is flexible and differentiated to meet students where they are and help them flourish. 

 

We’re enrolling now for 2019-20. Get in touch or call 800-300-1818.

Find Success for Your Student with Lindamood-Bell Academy

Academy,

 

Lindamood-Bell Academy (LBA) is a K-12 private school where we address each student’s learning ability and offer a full curriculum. 

 

 

Our Students

Our unique learning model with a flexible and differentiated curriculum allows all types of students to thrive, including:

 

  • Accelerated learners
  • Learners who need a flexible environment
  • Students with challenging schedules
  • Homeschooled students
  • Students who struggle with reading and/or comprehension
  • Students with school anxiety  

Each student has a team dedicated to his or her individualized learning plan. Our model means that students do not work alone, whether attending in-person or online.

 

Students Thrive at Academy

At the Academy, we create the Magic of Learning every day. Here is what our students say:  

 

“In LBA, I am a VIP and I’ve never been one before!”

 

“Academy has helped me because now I know so much about all my subjects.  I didn’t get that at my old school. Now when my mom asks me questions at home, I can answer her quickly. I’m so smart now because the Academy has helped me so much.  I feel like this is the best school ever.”

 

“I feel like I can focus better in LBA.  It’s a lot of fun, since it’s smaller and my teachers are so nice.”

 

“I really like doing my school work online and meeting people around the world in my classes.  The technology is cool too!” 

 

Find out how the Academy can be the right solution for your student. Get in Touch or call 800-300-1818.

Springtime Learning: Imagine a Strong School Year Finish

Australia, Instruction, Learning Centers, , ,

At this point in the school year, students everywhere are feeling the pressures of looming due dates and stressed schedules. For students who struggle with learning, this time of year can be especially taxing. Their performance may have lagged behind peers all year, and increased academic expectations may be compounding the issue. Spending so many hours a week, doing the thing you struggle with, would be challenging for anyone.

 

The classroom teacher may have raised a concern, or maybe homework sessions at home are tearful. Either way, you know when school is just too hard. Parents may wonder if help could even make a difference this late in the school year—or if it would just be one more thing to burden a stressed-out student.

 

The right instruction that addresses individual learning needs can make a difference in a short period of time. Imagine a strong finish to the school year!

 

 

Ways We Can Help

Homework Matters at Lindamood-Bell

Homework Matters is supervised homework help, for 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 organized and complete assignments. We can answer your child’s questions and assist when necessary.

 

Academic Prep at Lindamood-Bell

Give your student the learning skills needed for success when facing an academic challenge. Students benefit from our expertise in learning and cognition. Academic Prep is enrichment instruction for students who do not require remediation. We teach:

 

  • Note taking
  • Writing
  • Study skills
  • Test-taking strategies
  • Organization skills

Sensory-Cognitive Instruction at Lindamood-Bell

Students who struggle in school may have a weakness that affects 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, commonly referred to as “slow readers,” may have weak symbol imagery—the ability to visualize letters within words. These difficulties are not only frustrating for students, but also prevent them from accessing school curriculum.

 

Our unique imagery-language instruction can make a difference. Instruction can happen after school or as part of a child’s school day. Students can make years of progress in just a matter of weeks.

 

  • Individualized learning plans
  • One-to-one instructor-student ratio
  • Research-validated programs
  • Instructional quality team oversight
  • Welcoming, comfortable environment for all ages

We Make it Easy

Lindamood-Bell Online Instruction

Lindamood-Bell instruction is now located where each child needs to learn. Qualifying students may receive instruction online, in-person, or in both settings. We connect with you from a Lindamood-Bell Learning Center and our instruction staff works with your student. At home or school, a parent or other adult will perform the role of facilitator. Online instruction works well for busy families with challenging schedules.

 

Use Spring Holiday

If school is not always easy for your child, you may have mixed feelings about spring holiday. While we all look forward to rest and relaxation, parents of struggling students must consider the effects that time off from learning may have.

 

Spring Holiday instruction is individualized to meet the needs of each student. For example, students can attend Lindamood-Bell for an enrichment program to advance in a specific area like writing or study skills. Alumni students might attend for help applying their skills to a new task, such as story problems or reading fluency.

 

Students who are currently struggling with reading, comprehension, or math can use the school break to jump-start a new or ongoing intensive instruction plan. Spring holiday is an opportunity to focus on the skills that will make school easier when it resumes.

 

Getting Started

New to Lindamood-Bell? If school is hard for your child, you need to know why and that there is help. Identifying strengths and weaknesses is the first step toward helping your child finish the school year successfully. A learning evaluation will uncover the strengths and weaknesses that are affecting school performance. In a thorough results consultation, we will discuss an individualized learning plan to make school easier.

 

Some students come to us with a previous diagnosis such as dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, or a general learning challenge—and we make a difference for each of them.

 

Some students seek our help to enhance their skills or to just make learning easier. And we do!

 

Contact us to discuss a plan to support your child’s learning this spring:

 

Double Bay (02) 9328 7119 | Chatswood (02) 9410 1006

Back-to-School Tips: Imagine Better Mornings

Helpful Tips, ,

Perhaps your kids just spent the summer at camp. Or they spent long hours in the pool or at the beach. Maybe lazy days were spent reconnecting with friends and family. Regardless, the back-to-school transition may be a big change for your family. Why not take this opportunity to establish new habits that contribute to a successful year?

 

Below, explore ideas on how to make school-day mornings better. We’ve included tips for how to encourage your child to make mental pictures during everyday tasks.  The imagery-language foundation is key to good thinking and communication.

 

Imagine a better bedtime

If your kids are like most, they spent their summer evenings watching television or movies, or playing video games, staying up later than they should. School’s physical and mental challenges, paired with an earlier wake-up time, call for most kids needing an earlier bedtime during the year. Transitioning about a week before school begins can be helpful. And, depending on your goal bedtime, about 15 to 30 minutes earlier each night is an easy way to adjust.

 

Tip: When discussing any new healthy habit, try using language that helps create images. For example, instead of just saying, “It is important to go to bed,” add, “What does it look like when you are in class and you are very tired?”

 

Tip: Establish a simple bedtime routine to discuss and visualize together. For example, instead of merely saying, “Time to brush your teeth!” ask your child to picture: “What do you see yourself doing after you get your pajamas on?”

 

Imagine getting organized the night before

Set aside time in the evening to get organized for the next day. Packing lunches the night before and having your kids organize their clothes in a tidy pile they can easily grab in the morning can be big time-savers. And, working with them to get their backpacks organized—homework assignments in order, permission slips signed, and packing needed gear for extracurricular activities—can eliminate a lot of “morning madness.”

 

Tip: Have your kids create mental pictures for the next day. Ask questions to stimulate imagery, such as, “Tomorrow is Tuesday. Where do you see yourself going after school? What do you see yourself wearing [at ballet, tennis, etc.]? Let’s pack it!”

 

Imagine a morning schedule

It might seem like a child’s morning responsibilities are so simple, that a schedule couldn’t possibly be required.  But if you find yourself repeating the same orders morning after morning, why not try something new and set an actual schedule? You can do a quick review of it the night before to ensure that your kids understand what they need to do in the morning. And, have them imagine the order of their morning tasks.

 

Tip: Some kids will benefit from the schedule being written out and available, along with a clock. For example:

 

6:45 – Wake Up & Make Bed

7:00 – Eat Breakfast

7:15 – Get Dressed, Brush Hair & Brush Teeth

7:30 – Backpack Check & Out the Door

 

Rather than just reiterating the schedule (“Remember to check your backpack!”), use language that creates images: “What room do you see yourself going to after breakfast?” Connecting language and imagery is a great way to make sure your child understands what needs to be done.

 

We hope these tips have you imagining better school-day mornings! If you notice your child struggling to get organized or to remember the morning routine, it may be due to a weakness in concept imagery—the ability to create an imaged gestalt (whole) from language. The imagery-language foundation is necessary for comprehension, following oral directions, and higher order thinking skills. 

 

Stronger visualization skills and better comprehension can help improve your child’s school experience:

 

 

To learn more about concept imagery, contact your local learning center or get in touch: 800-233-1819.

4 Signs of Reading Difficulty

Australia, Reading, ,

It’s only natural for parents to wonder how a child’s reading stacks up next to the child’s peers. This is especially the case when there’s an older sibling or friend in the picture who seems to breeze through the reading process. It is not always clear whether a child has a weakness that needs to be helped, or if reading simply hasn’t yet “clicked.”

 

Students might avoid reading, or say they “are bad” at it, or even that they dislike it. These concerns could be related to a true reading difficulty, and there are specific reading behaviors that every parent can watch for. Check out the following 4 signs that reveal when a student needs reading help.

 

If you’re not certain about one of these, have your child read grade-level text aloud to you.

 

1. Sounding out words is difficult

Some students have difficulty sounding out new words—even those words that “play fair.” They might add or omit sounds or syllables, or read sounds out of order. For example, the word stream comes out as “steam,” or they read grater as “garter” or “grate.”

 

2. Difficulty learning and retaining sight words

Many common words “don’t play fair” (such as find and eye and thought), so recognizing them is the only way to read them correctly. And, because these words are common, they should be recognized quickly, leading to fluent paragraph reading. A student who has difficulty may attempt to sound out common words that they’d learned already, reading people as “pee/oh/plee,” for example. Students may also do a lot of guessing (e.g., reading people as “purple”).

 

3. Slow and laborious passage reading

Some students may be able to sound out words but can’t put it all together on the page. These readers get mired down in sounding out every word, and they may not recognize the same word when they encounter it in the next paragraph.

 

Slow decoding interferes with reading comprehension; by the time readers get to the end of a passage, they have lost the big picture, or meaning. This can be especially frustrating for students who are curious and love learning.

 

4. Poor spelling

Some students have difficulty identifying all of the needed phonemes (optnrty for opportunity); and, some students can spell phonetically but cannot retain spelling patterns (opertunity for opportunity).

 

Reading Help at Lindamood-Bell

For many students, a cause of reading difficulties is weak symbol imagery—the ability to visualize letters in your mind’s eye. This connection of imagery and language is necessary for sounding out new words, and for quickly recognizing letters and common words. Students who read fluently and self-correct their errors have strong symbol imagery. Learn more about symbol imagery and solutions for reading difficulties here.

 

A child who seems to have trouble reading could be behind, or may, in fact, be developmentally on-target for his or her age and grade. Regardless, if you observe signs of a reading difficulty, you need to find out why. A Learning Ability Evaluation uncovers the strengths and weaknesses that affect learning. While some students come to us with a previous diagnosis, such as dyslexia, many seek our help to enhance their skills or to just make learning easier—and we do!

 

In this video, a Lindamood-Bell instructor describes her own daughter’s journey in learning to read to her potential. She discusses the early signs of reading difficulty, the Learning Ability Evaluation process, and her daughter’s experience receiving intensive reading instruction at the learning center.

 

 

Contact us to discuss your child’s reading and for information about our Learning Ability Evaluation, the first steps in teaching students to read to their potential: 800-300-1818.