I worked at Lindamood-Bell. AMA.
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Anonymous
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LMB has several programs that they recommend to students. For students with reading deficits (as opposed to math) most will start with Seeing Stars in order to develop their phonemic awareness and reading fluency. Once fluency is established an an age-appropriate level, students move on to working on reading comprehension in the Visualizing and Verbalizing program.
The beauty and the limitation of LMB is that there isn’t really a “something else.” It’s a very data-driven organization, so management really wants consistency of approach. Consultants will make adjustments by changing which Visualizing and Verbalizing books they give to students to read. Not only do they vary by challenge level, but the type of content varies too, so different things will interest different students, and some types of stories may be ever so slightly more challenging to visualize. Consultants will also vary the lengths of passages that they give to students based on how well they are elaborating and whether the student appears to be reliably forming mental pictures of what they read. I will say, however, that the entirety of the VV curriculum is more than what you see in the student VV workbooks that you buy online; it stretches all the way into note taking activities for older students. |
Anonymous
| Do you work in a clinic, travel, and or telepractice? Do you prefer one setting over another? What did you think of the training? Did you feel prepared to work with clients independently once trained? |
Anonymous
The clinicians [tutors] work primarily in centers or at charter schools. In some cases lessons are given online. It’s a little tricky to learn the online systems, and technical issues can arise on the center side or on the student’s side, so most LMB staff tend to prefer in-person work to the online work. There is a lot of pressure on clinicians to complete a lesson plan no matter the distractions of the day or conditions of the lesson. LMB also charges a lot per hour, so they are very sensitive about appearing to waste time in lessons. Yet, there is very little technical support available in the learning centers, as there are no staff dedicated to it. Proficient staffers may be off-site, in meetings, or working with students when technical challenges come up. The training is two weeks and covers the most commonly used programs, Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing. It is really informative and offers lots of opportunities for practice (but hours long sections of it are super dull). I felt prepared to do the basics after the training, and still a little overwhelmed by the official steps. Had I been taking the training to use it for classroom use, I would have been very comfortable. There were a number of corporate particulars, such as very precise language we were required to use, ways of taking notes, and ways of managing student behavior that we had to learn in addition to the teaching methods. However, LMB has professional silos that make the work a little easier. As one example, the clicinicans giving the lessons are not responsible for assessment, planning, or parent communication. So there’s less to learn at the outset, and the job duties are relatively reasonable for entry level personnel. All of the clinicians at the company get ongoing training through frequent mentoring. Then there are chances to train in other LMB programs. |
Anonymous
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Just a contribution to this thread; a testimonial of sorts. My son was in about 2nd grade. He enjoyed books and seemed to be an early reader...until we started with little chapter books that he had not memorized or, for lack of pictures, could intuit. It dawned on me that the reading thing was not happening at school. He went to a public elementary school (Princeton, NJ - supposedly the best in the state). Ha! They did not want to test him. They really dragged their heels. They put him in a reading pull-out program, but it was really a form of isolation rather than a supplemental skills learning opportunity. I realized (dirty little secret) that public schools have no incentive to test kids as they would then have to accommodate them. I had to go outside of the school for testing, at significant cost. Very worthwhile. I had a diagnosis, and most importantly a better understanding of my son's learning strengths and weaknesses - which armed me with patience and a determination to help find solutions. (Note, his issue was somewhat mild, but it was still interfering with his ability to master reading.) The psychologist mentioned Lindamood Bell and O-G strategies. The public school did nothing; they practically denied ever having heard of these strategies. Union deadweight IMO. We transferred him into the Princeton Charter School, which was a brand new, bare bones education initiative. THE BEST MOVE EVER! This was actually the first school where my kids were issued text books, like grammar books and math books of their own. It was an amazing can-do learning environment. The PCS is thriving to this day. I am a liberal democrat, but this experience really made me believe in school choice. (After the PCS charter school opened up and citizens found out about how much learning was taking place at PCS, they started making demands of the public school because they could point across the street and say, "it's happening over there at half the budget, you don't have any more excuses!") I digress....The PCS allowed me to hire a L-B instructor independently. It was a few hundred dollars a week (circa 2001) and worth every penny. L-B was a like a key unlocking his brain. He was a bright kid and this ability to read fluently, which developed rather quickly, just increased his confidence so much. He's still not a great speller, doesn't like foreign languages, etc., but thriving. He never received any accommodation (his choice) in school or in SAT testing. He used to say, "I won't get accommodations in life, so I don't want them now."
He thrived in middle school and high school. He double-majored at an Ivy League school and suffered through the language requirement. He got his MBA from top 5 program in Chicago. Married, kids, great job and his house is over-flowing with books he has read and enjoyed. I am so grateful to L-B for helping him figure out how to be successful with reading and learning and setting him up with a lifelong love of learning. The reason I'm on this site, for anyone still reading..., is that I am wondering if an intervention will be needed with his pre-school age kids in the future. I'm convinced there's a genetic component to some learning differences?!?!? The kids sure do love their picture books now, but my antenna is up. |
Anonymous
Accommodations are available in life, especially with the advances in technology so that little quote isnt exactly helpful to those with disabilities. and yes of course there is a massive genetic component to learning differences |
Anonymous
| Agree with PP who has used the program. I used Seeing Stars with both my boys and one is in VV now. Hands down the best investment I have made in their educations. The older one is off the charts how in high school. For various reasons their schools were not meeting their needs. LMB really filled that gap so they have a strong foundation. |
Anonymous
| Five year old thread warning! |
Anonymous
| Why are they calls clinicians? Why are they paid close to minimum wage? |
Anonymous
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I used to work at the Los Gatos center. Horrible experience and the amount of money they charge parents is obscene. The work itself isn't very spectacular either, it's certainly not hard, anybody can do it. Mostly flashcards and air writing, reading condensed material and giving summaries, very repetitive. In my opinion not worth the dollar amount that they charge. Overall in my opinion LMB sucks
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