Lindamood-Bell® Program
Multi-Sensory Language-Based Programming
Multisensory Language-Based programming is necessary in remediating students with weaknesses in reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and oral language competency.
The way an individual links parts in a speech, a book, a movie, etc., together may fail and leave illogical or irrelevant understandings. Weak oral language comprehension is a common symptom and follows the “parts to the whole” concept. Sometimes perceived to be poor listeners, these individuals may ask the same questions multiple times without getting the meaning.
Weak oral language comprehension often presents with an oral language expression weakness in which individuals experience a difficulty organizing their verbalization with fluency and ease. They may also be verbal but scattered, relating bits of information out of sequence and may interject unimportant bits of information into their speech.
To summarize, reading is cognition. Gestalt imagery is integral to the process of cognition and processing of oral and written language. The imaging factor has been mostly ignored while methods of education that focus on question and answer tests have been the focus. These methodologies can only test comprehension, not teach it.
Lindamood-Bell® programs such as the Talkies® and Visualizing and Verbalizing® programs, address and remediate individuals who experience issues with gestalt imagery resulting in language comprehension deficits.
Visualizing and Verbalizing® (V/V®)
Multi-Sensory Language-Based Programming
Weak Concept Imagery
A primary cause of language comprehension problems is difficulty creating an imagined gestalt. This is called weak concept imagery.
This weakness causes individuals to get only “parts” of information they read or hear, but not the whole. Individuals of all ages may experience the symptoms of a weakness in concept imagery.
This causes weakness in:
Reading comprehension
Listening comprehension
Critical thinking and problem solving
Following directions
Memory
Oral language expression
Written language expression
Grasping humor
Interpreting social situations
Understanding cause and effect
The Visualizing and Verbalizing® (V/V®) program develops concept imagery—the ability to create an imagined or imaged gestalt from language—as a basis for comprehension and higher order thinking. The development of concept imagery improves reading and listening comprehension, memory, oral vocabulary, critical thinking, and writing.
Below, we list the different steps of the Visualizing and Verbalizing® program as described by Nanci Bell in Gestalt Imagery: A Critical Factor in Language Comprehension:
Picture to Picture
The individual describes given pictures. Structure Words of what, size, color, number, shape, where, when, background, movement, mood, and perspective are introduced to provide descriptive elements. By questioning with “choice and contrast,” the teacher stimulates a detailed verbal description of a given picture. The goal is to develop fluent, detailed verbalizing from a given picture prior to requiring detailed verbalizing of an image.
Word Imaging
The individual describes his or her own image with assistance of the structure words and specific questioning of choice and contrast. The procedures move from the “personal image” level to the “known noun” level that stimulates detailed imagery for a familiar, high-imagery word such as clown, doll, Indian, cowboy, etc. The goal is to develop detailed visualizing and verbalizing of a word prior to requiring detailed visualizing and verbalizing of sentences.
Sentence Imaging
The individual images and describes—visualizes and verbalizes—a sentence using a previously imaged noun. The teacher creates the simple sentence, presents the sentence to the individual orally, and questions with choice and contrast to stimulate imagery.
Sentence by Sentence Imaging
The stimulation is now directed as assisting the individual with the creation of an imaged gestalt. The procedure begins receptively, from a short self-contained paragraph, with each sentence read orally to the individual. The individual visualizes and verbalizes each sentence and places a three-inch colored square to note the imaged sentence. Each sentence of the paragraph is visualized and verbalized. At the completion of the paragraph, with approximately four colored squares representing the sentences, the individual gives a “picture summary” by touching and describing his/her images for each square. Following this, he or she gives a “word summary” by collecting the colored squares and sequentially summarizing the paragraph, using specific images to assist with retrieval.
Sentence by Sentence with Interpretation
As the Sentence by Sentence process is developing an imaged gestalt, the stimulation extends to interpretation and critical thinking. The imaged gestalt is used as the cognitive base for higher order thinking skills of main idea, inference, conclusion, prediction, and evaluation.Multiple Sentence Imaging, Paragraph Imaging, Paragraph by Paragraph Imaging
The succeeding steps extend the language from which the individual visualizes and verbalizes, and interprets. The material becomes longer and denser with the individual decoding or orally receiving the language input. The process requires the individual to visualize gestalts, verbalize summaries, and interpret from both oral and written language.
Talkies®
Grow Early Childhood Language Skills
Problem:
Chip is in first grade, and has had a full-time tutor since he was three. His poor communication skills are causing him social difficulty, and he has difficulty expressing himself. He struggles with understanding language concepts.
Cause:
Weakness in concept imagery—the ability to create an imaged whole—prevents Chip from comprehending and expressing language well.
Symptoms:
Individuals of all ages can experience a significant weakness in the ability to create an imaged whole.
This causes weakness in:
Difficulty with verbal and non-verbal expression
Difficulty formulating sentences
Difficulty following directions
Apparent disengagement or frustration
Solution:
The Talkies® program—the primer to the Visualizing and Verbalizing® (V/V®) program—is designed for students who need simpler, smaller steps of instruction to establish the imagery-language connection.
The goal of the Talkies® program is to develop the dual coding imagery and language as a base for language comprehension and expression. The Talkies® program is especially helpful for students with a limited oral vocabulary and/or limited ability to verbalize. Research indicates the Talkies® program benefits students previously diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The Talkies® program is also ideal for any preschool child.
LiPS® Program
Listen and Learn
Problem:
Despite numerous attempts to teach him, John struggles with sounding words. When he attempts to read on the page, he guesses or uses context cues. He has been labeled as “dyslexic.”
Cause:
A primary cause of decoding and spelling problems is difficulty judging sounds within words. This is called weak phonemic awareness. Weak phonemic awareness causes individuals to add, omit, substitute, and reverse sounds and letters within words.
Symptoms:
Many children and adults experience the symptoms of weak phonemic awareness.
This causes weakness in:
Recognizing sameness/difference of phonemes
Discriminating the identity, number, and order of sounds within words
Blending sounds Word attack
Spelling
Syllabication
Solution:
The LiPS® program teaches students to discover and label the oral-motor movements of phonemes. Students can then verify the identity, number, and sequence of sounds in words. Once established, phonemic awareness is then applied to reading, spelling, and speech.