Services
At Learnability we believe that one size may not fit all. Each child is unique and hence our services can be tailored to fit their learning needs and schedules. During the initial meeting, we will determine which program and method would work best for your child. Below are some of the programs we are trained to offer:
The Orton-Gillingham Method as a Base for Reading Instruction
The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multisensory strategy that utilizes a learners’ senses to teach reading, spelling, and a deeper understanding of the text. A multisensory learning experience means that students are learning through listening (ear), speaking (mouth), seeing (eyes), and writing (hands). The process combines multiple senses through listening and saying sounds while writing them.
The Orton-Gillingham methods have been proven to be so effective in reading instruction for all students that it has become the standard for most reading instruction practices. Since it was originally developed to help readers who experienced “word-blindness,” which later became known as dyslexia, Orton-Gillingham uses a direct, multisensory teaching strategy paired with systematic, sequential lessons focused on phonics. This approach works especially well for children with special need tutoring.
Lindamood Bell Programs
Reading is a combination of processing skills, including word attack, sight word recognition, contextual fluency, oral vocabulary, and comprehension. There are three sensory cognitive functions that underlie reading, which are phoneme awareness (auditorily recognizing sounds in words), symbol imagery (creating mental images for sounds and letters within words), and concept imagery (mental representations for the whole). No matter the differences in skills, any reader can develop sensory cognitive functions and improve their reading abilities. The Lindamood Bell Program is a multisensory language-based instruction method that is necessary in remediating reading weaknesses. While question and answer testing has been the focus in education, often the imaging factor is left out, so the question and answer method can only test comprehension, not teach it. The Lindamood-Bell Programs, like Visualizing and Verbalizing, can help readers who have trouble with Gestalt imagery that results in a lack of language comprehension.
Visualizing and Verbalizing Program for Cognitive Development, Comprehension and Thinking
Reading Symptoms
A student can read words correctly but may not understand what they read. Words seem to “go in one ear and out the other,” or they struggle with following directions. They may have difficulty memorizing information.
Weak concept imagery may present as:
- Poor reading comprehension and listening comprehension
- Problems with following directions
- Difficulty interpreting social situations
Reading Interventions
Reading intervention program is a targeted approach to help struggling readers improve skills like comprehension, fluency, and decoding. It uses specific strategies tailored to individual needs.
The Visualizing and Verbalizing Program
Visualizing and verbalizing program develops concept imagery, the ability to create Gestalt imagery or images from language, as a base for comprehension and higher order thinking. Many students who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD who received remedial intervention experience significant improvement in comprehension, a common challenge for individuals with ASD.
Seeing Stars Symbol Imagery Program for Reading and Spelling
Reading Symptoms
When a student is struggling in reading learning progression, such as identifying sight words or sounding out words but not reading words on the page, they may have difficulty spelling phonetically or remembering the visual patterns of words (orthography). Sometimes the student may sound the word correctly, but not recognize the same word in the next paragraph.
Weak symbol imagery may present as:
- Trouble memorizing sight words
- Difficulty sounding out new words
- Poor phonemic awareness and contextual fluency
Not remembering the visual patterns of words (orthographic spelling and awareness)
Learning Interventions
Readers who struggle with weak symbol imagery may have difficulty with quickly perceiving sounds in words and may be slow to self-correct errors in reading.
The Seeing Stars Program
Seeing Stars program helps with symbol imagery for phonological and orthographic processing in reading and spelling. Recognition of symbol imagery allows a reader to process information quickly, so that reading becomes easier, allowing for better fluency and less guessing. The Seeing Stars Program is a proven successful intervention in developing symbol imagery for reading and spelling.
Talkies Program for Communication and Verbalization
Reading Symptoms
Students who are thought to have poor communication skills are often not developing socially at the same level of their peers.
Weak verbalization may present as:
- Difficulty expressing themselves
- Struggling with language concepts
- Difficulty understanding directions
- Problems forming complete sentences
Appearing disengaged or frustrated with learning
Learning Interventions
The Talkies Program helps students who are struggling with verbalization or talking. What they are likely experiencing is weak concept imagery, or the ability to imagine a “whole,” which causes issues with language comprehension and self-expression. Talkies is a primer to the Visualizing and Verbalizing program and is meant to help students who might need smaller, simpler steps of instruction in order to develop the imagery-language connection. It is particularly helpful in early learners and students who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
Educational Assessments for Placement, Planning and Progress-Measuring
Educational assessments are necessary tools that educators use to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an early learning reader. Assessment insights help a tutor develop the most effective intervention strategies for a struggling reader, as well as monitor the progress and development of a young reader throughout their educational program. Some of the assessment tools we use to develop a plan tailored to a student’s needs include the WIST and GORT assessments.
WIST to Assess for Decoding Skills
The WIST, or Word Identification and Spelling Test, can be used to identify difficulties in fundamental literacy skills, and to determine specific weaknesses for struggling readers. It assesses areas such as word identification, spelling, and sound-symbol knowledge. The WIST assessment is helpful in identifying strengths and weaknesses in early learning readers and can help educators develop the best intervention plan for struggling readers as well as periodically assess reading gains.
GORT to Assess for Reading Comprehension Skills
The GORT, or Gray Oral Reading Test, is used to measure a reader’s oral reading rate, fluency and comprehension. The student answers questions after reading passages aloud. The test determines reading strengths and weaknesses, can be used to show areas of growth in oral reading as a result of intervention, as well as help diagnose oral reading difficulties. Information about rate and accuracy is important for educators to determine the best strategies for intervention, because students who read slowly take longer to complete work and will likely understand and remember less of what they have read.
Learnability’s lessons have developed our bilingual third grader into a confident reader. Not only has he increased his confidence and speed in reading, he is actually reading chapter books for enjoyment and often reads beyond his 30 minuets a day assignment.
Parent
We feel like we are making an investment into our son’s academic skill set by working with Learnability. The tutor isn’t just helping him with his homework assignment, she is equipping him with academic skills in order that he is able to complete his assignments.
Parent
During the two years we have been with Learnability, our son has been steadily improving his reading, his grades have gotten better across all classes. His confidence has grown and he is definitely better equipped with skills to achieve in academics even as the coursework becomes more challenging.
Parent
I am always excited to work with my tutor. She genuinely cares about me and makes me feel more confident. I have been doing VV and Reading with her and look forward to working with her more in the future.
Student