All posts by Erin Bell

The #1 Cause of Math Weakness You’ve NEVER Heard of!

Instruction, Math,

 

It’s not that your child is JUST NOT A MATH PERSON, or that he doesn’t yet know the right tricks, or that numbers get jumbled on the page. The primary cause of math difficulties is 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.

 

 

People who are great at math can actually visualize math functions, whether it is SEEING the numbers increase as they go to the right on a number line, or SEEING Johnny give two of his five apples to Susie.

Individuals of all ages may experience an inability to image the concepts underlying math processes. This causes weakness in the following:

  • Learning math facts
  • Grasping mathematical relationships
  • Following proper mathematical operations
  • Solving word problems
  • Estimating numerical values
  • Understanding higher level math

The On Cloud Nine® Math program stimulates the ability to image and verbalize the concepts underlying math processes. Concept and numerical imagery are integrated with language and applied to math computation and problem solving. There is emphasis on both mathematical reasoning and mathematical computation. Individuals of all ages learn to SEE math!

 

Call 800-300-1818 or get in touch to learn more.

Announcing Our New School: The Lindamood-Bell Academy

Academy, Homeschool, Instruction, , ,

Today, we are excited to announce the new Lindamood-Bell Academy—a private school—where we develop the imagery-language foundation for language processing and curriculum.

 

For 30 years, Lindamood-Bell has been teaching students to read and comprehend to their potential.  Research verifies that when the imagery-language foundation is in place, students’ lives change as they experience success with all learning.

 

The Lindamood-Bell Academy offers individualized instruction, a flexible learning environment (at our Learning Centers and/or online), and is available for K-12 grades. It is an excellent solution for students of all ages who require or thrive in non-traditional teaching environments.

 

For more information, visit the Lindamood-Bell Academy website.

Earth Day: Greening our Learning Scene

Community,

Blog-Image-Earth-Day

Celebrate Earth Day!

In 2007, Lindamood-Bell began an initiative to Green Our Learning Scene.  This effort has led to many new developments, including  the creation of a Green Team to help fulfill our objectives, ongoing green practice policies, and  receipt of a regional Green Award.

Now, during our 30th Anniversary year, we are pleased to announce  we have continued the practices outlined in our initial plans with the following items:

  • All our locations utilize naturally-derived cleaning products
  • Our materials are printed on recycled paper
  • Recycle bins are at every desk
  • Recycled bathroom and kitchen paper products are used
  • Water coolers have been replaced with tap water filters
  • Incandescent lights have been replaced with LEDs or CFLs
  • Use of natural light and fresh plants in our offices is encouraged

These simple changes help us keep our environment safe for our students and staff as we work together for a healthier tomorrow.  Together we can do this.  Together we can do anything.

 

Decoding Your Child’s Report Card

Helpful Tips, ,

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The end of the marking period is a time for parents to assess their child’s progress—to make sure they’re on track, improving in subjects, or to see if they need help. But how do you decipher your child’s progress based on a simple letter grade? Does a B mean she truly understands History, or is she only getting parts of what she’s reading or hearing? Does she have the potential for an A but continues to receive Bs despite the long hours spent studying the material? Does a C in math mean he’s struggling with the concepts? Is he lazy or not making an effort to do well? Or, is he doing well on the homework yet performing poorly on the tests?

 

What’s really going on with your child’s performance in the classroom?

How can you know if they are performing to their potential?

Are they ready for next year’s more strenuous curriculum?

 

Your child’s struggles in school may be due to a language processing problem. If your C student is spending hours reading the chapter and studying their notes, there is a possibility he is only processing parts of what he’s reading or studying. If he’s not understanding the “whole” of what he’s reading, his comprehension will be affected and can lead to a lower grade than you would expect.

 

If you have a child who is frustrated by low grades despite hours of hard work, you may want to consider having her evaluated. An evaluation will identify strengths and weaknesses that may be affecting school performance in reading, comprehension, and math.

 

It’s important to know your child’s potential in order to gauge their performance in the classroom.  Can that B in History be an A? And what about that C in Math? Should it be a B?  It’s time to see what your child is capable of when it comes to their grades so you can correctly evaluate their report cards.
Learn more about our evaluation process here.

Get the Connection: Real Help for Your Students with Dyslexia

Decoding, Dyslexia, Professional Development,

Blog-Image-PD-Seeing-Stars

When a student has been diagnosed with dyslexia, extra help typically focuses on phonics, or sounding out words, and spelling rules. Unfortunately, many students, even those who have had years of extra help, continue to struggle.

 

Perhaps they sound out a word eventually—but it is slow and labored. They may take so long to sound out the word that they miss the meaning of the text altogether. Or, they may substitute words when reading a paragraph. For example, they may read ‘production’ instead of ‘perfection.’

 

For many students, even those who have received extensive reading support, sight word recognition remains difficult. They may attempt to use phonics strategies for most words—such as reading  /pee/ /oh/ /plee/ for the word ‘people.’ When they finally conquer a word, they might not recognize that same word when they encounter it in the next paragraph. Also, while a student may be able to spell words phonetically, they are unable to remember the visual patterns of words (orthography). For example, they may spell the word “friend” as “f-r-e-n-d.”

Why? What is the missing connection for these students?

 

An important aspect of reading and spelling is symbol imagery, which underlies both phonological and orthographic processing. Symbol imagery is the ability to visualize letters in your mind’s eye. This connection of imagery and language is necessary for sounding out new words, as well as quickly recognizing letters and common words.

 

Students who read fluently, and are able to self-correct their errors, have strong symbol imagery.

 

Traditional reading remediation programs  focus on how to sound out words as well as reading and spelling rules. While these activities have value, they do not affect the necessary imagery-language connection. They do not change how a student is processing language.

 

This is why reading may still be difficult for your dyslexic students, even after years of extra tutoring and accommodations.

 

The good news is that this skill can be improved, and change how a student reads and spells, regardless of their age or struggle with literacy, including those with a previous diagnosis of dyslexia.

 

Learn the steps of the Seeing Stars Program in one of our upcoming workshops.

I See Movies in My Head: The Key to Reading Comprehension

Comprehension, Learning Difficulties, ,

I See Movies in My Head:

The Key to Reading Comprehension

Most reading experts agree on one thing: In order to comprehend what they read, students must have strong decoding skills and adequate oral vocabulary. In other words, a child must be able accurately decode every word on the page, and know what all of the words mean.

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Unfortunately, many students who can decode well and understand words still have weak comprehension. What is the missing piece for these students?

Nanci Bell first became aware of the connection that underlies comprehension while she was teaching phoneme awareness  to students struggling with literacy, many of whom had been previously diagnosed as dyslexic. Nanci has described that at the time, she was unaware of a separate comprehension dysfunction. Like many others, she thought difficulty with reading comprehension was caused by weak decoding and weak oral vocabulary.

In the following excerpt, from Visualizing and Verbalizing, Nanci Bell describes the incident that sparked her passion to change learning for students struggling with weak comprehension.

………………………………………………….

Needing a break in the lesson from spelling word after word, I decide to have Allan,    [a college student majoring in architecture], read and give me a verbal summary.  Handing him a college level skill book, I ask him to read aloud so I can be certain he is decoding accurately.

He accurately reads the page of material, and I take the book from him, saying, “Good job.  Tell me what you read.”

Allan gives me the very complete summary, beginning with the main idea and then including all the details.  To my amazement, he infers, concludes, predicts, and evaluates the material.  He is confident and involved in the activity – a much different Allan than the one that struggles with spelling.

I stare at him, saying, “That was really an incredible summary.  How are you able to do that?”

Looking at me, surprised and now shy, Allan replies, “I don’t know.”

Realizing that Allan seems embarrassed and unsure of himself because of my question, I reassure him.  “That really was good.  You have very good reading comprehension.  How did you do that?  If I know what you do to remember what you read, perhaps I can teach others to do it.”

Thoughtful, Allan replies, “I don’t know.”  Then, after a pause, he says, “I make movies when I read.”

A little surprised, I ask, “What do you mean, you make movies when you read?”

“I don’t know.  I just see movies in my head when I read.  The words turn into pictures and I just remember the pictures, the images.  Don’t you do that?”

Thinking about the books I’ve read, I finally answer, “Yes.  I do.  I picture what I read.  I guess I’ve just not thought about it.”

“Do other people do that, too?”

“I don’t know … but I’ll find out …”

The statement “I make movies when I read” prompted my twenty-five-year-odyssey exploring the relationship between imagery and language.  Today, twenty years after first writing Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking, I am still passionate about the importance of imagery to comprehension and cognition. (Bell, 2007, pp. 4-8)

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Learn how imagery-language instruction can improve comprehension and thinking:

https://lindamoodbell.com/program/visualizing-and-verbalizing-program

 

 

Early Bird Savings: Extended through April 15th!

Specials, ,

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Summer Sessions filling now.

In just a few weeks, we can change reading, comprehension or math. Summer is a great time to make this happen for your child.  Make your plans now and enjoy special savings.

Enroll for summer sessions by April 15th and receive Early Bird Savings:

5% discount off the first week of instruction.

Find the Learning Center near you to get started.

 

Skip Flu Season this Year: Key Advice You’ve Never Heard

Helpful Tips

Like most parents, you are constantly nagging your kids to wash their hands. We all hope to avoid at least one of the bugs being passed around their class this season.
Unfortunately, nagging doesn’t carry over to school, where the responsibility is largely on our kids.

Check out this critical advice from learning experts, Lindamood-Bell, on how to check if your child really comprehends what’s going on when we wash up.
It could be key to a healthier cold and flu season for your family!