Reading with TLC

Reading With TLC Clinical Studies

Reading with TLC is a program that includes the Lively Letters and Sight Words You Can See applications. Lively Letters has been utilized in schools systems and clinical settings since its inception in 1990, and Sight Words You Can See was developed in 1996, as an adjunct to the Lively Letters program. Both components of Reading with TLC complement each other, increasing the effectiveness of the program, when administered to students jointly.

Data from case studies, pilot testing, and test scores from school systems implementing the Reading with TLC program have consistently revealed dramatic gains within short periods of time. Reported here are results of (I) six years of pilot testing in the Boston Public Schools, (II) applications in a city school system implementing Reading with TLC as an early intervention program, and (III) case studies of private clients.

The first pilot study was conducted in the Boston Public Schools from 1990 – 1996. In this study, 170 students in grades K– 5 (including cognitively delayed, visually impaired, bilingual and dyslexic students) received remediation in a cyclical, intensive therapy program, specifically the “Lively Letters” application. The sessions were approximately 45 minutes in length, with each student receiving an average of 30 sessions over a period of 6-8 weeks. Researchers examined three areas in the students’ development: phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, and oral reading.

In the area of phonemic awareness, as tested by the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (LAC), these 170 students increased their reading skills by an average of 2.1 grade levels. Phonetic decoding (reading non-words) was the second area examined, and among 73 students tested by the “Word Attack” subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests, there was a mean increase of 2.0 grade levels. The third area examined was oral reading, as tested by the “Oral Reading” subtest of the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills. Among 168 students tested, there was an average increase in 1.5 grade levels in oral reading skills.

The second pilot study was conducted in Pittsfield, MA, in 1999-2000. In this study of 43 children (at-risk and reading-delayed) in grades K-1, several indicators were measured using timed subtests from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Test (DIBELS), as well as timed informal word reading tasks using first grade curriculum based words. The DIBELS subtests included “Nonsense Words” (average number of phonemes read within nonsense words within one minute, “Letter Identification” (average number of letters named in one minute), and “Phoneme Segmentation” (number of phonemes produced in one minute after hearing spoken words). Among 1st graders who received remedial instruction in the Reading with TLC program 4 times/ week throughout the school year, the number of phonemes read within nonsense words within one minute increased from 12 to 40, and the average number of words read correctly increased from 23 to 71 words per minute (1st grade curriculum reading material.) Among kindergarteners who received remedial instruction in Reading with TLC, letter identification increased from 0 in the pre-test, to an average of 30 letters named correctly in one minute. Phoneme segmentation increased from 3 to 40 produced in one minute after hearing the spoken word, and there was in increase in number of phonemes read in one minute from 17 before instruction, to 25 in the post-test.

The third study was a case review of ten clients receiving individual reading therapy in the Reading with TLC program. Clients received instruction an average of 40 sessions each, 45 minutes to one hour in length, over an average of 4 month’s time. Clients gained an average of 1.75 grade levels, using the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (measuring phonemic awareness), and 2.4 grade levels in word attack skills, using the “Word Attack” subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-R. Gains were even greater when the Lively Letters program was supplemented by the Sight Words You Can See program, which was administered to 4 students. These students experienced average gains of 2.4 grade levels in phonemic awareness, 3.5 grade levels in word attack skills, and 2.6 grade levels in word identification skills as measured by the “Word Identification” subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-R (reading common real words).

Purpose

The purpose of these studies was to examine gains in reading skills of children receiving instruction in the Reading with TLC program, and determine the effectiveness of the Lively Letters application, primarily, and as an adjunct, the Sight Words You Can See program. The three test areas in Massachusetts were: Boston Public Schools, Pittsfield Public Schools, and 10 Case studies, conducted within a twelve-year period from 1990 – 2002.

Background of Reading with TLC

The Lively Letter program trains phonemic awareness, letter sound associations, and word decoding/encoding. The program was developed in 1990 by Nancy Telian, MS, CCC-SLP, and has been integrated in school systems and clinical settings nationally, with applications to thousands of students since that time. The Sight Words You Can See program trains the acquisition of phonetically irregular sight words. It was being developed in the last two years of these studies by Penny Castagnozzi, BA - Elem. Ed., and students referred to in this report were not given instruction in that program prior to post-testing, except in the studies so noted below. Since the remedial Lively Letters instruction does not focus on development of phonetically irregular sight words, the scores in oral reading (although greatly improved from the pre-testing) do not reflect the magnitude of gains that students presently make in oral reading after adding the Sight Words You Can See program to their Lively Letters curriculum.

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPERIENCE 1990-1996

Student selection

Students demonstrating weaknesses in phonemic awareness and phonics skills in this inner city elementary school (grades K-5) were selected for this instructional program.
Candidates were initially selected from the speech and language caseload, and later were referred by special education staff and regular education teachers. Students who performed poorly on screening tests measuring letter name and letter sound knowledge, non-word decoding, phonemic awareness, and oral reading were accepted for treatment. A total of 170 students were identified over this six-year period, and received remediation in the Reading with TLC program.

Methods
Remediation was delivered to students in a cyclical model, with students receiving an average of 30 sessions (fives times/week for six weeks.) Two speech/language pathologists and two program specialists with backgrounds in education delivered the program. Intermittently, the program was delivered by additional on-site program specialists, and second year graduate students from Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions who were supervised in use of this program as a practicum setting for work with reading-impaired students. Students were seen in groups of 2 or 3 at a time, although the more severely impaired students were occasionally seen for 30 minutes individually.

Students received instruction in the Lively Letters program only, with practice in the last several weeks reading from decodable books. After dismissal from this intensive program, most students returned weekly for several months to practice decoding from phonetically controlled text. A whole language basal reading approach was generally utilized in the classrooms, and students generally did not receive structured, explicit phonics instruction in their regular education classrooms.

Students were tested in phonemic awareness, word attack and oral reading skills, with slight variations in tests used during this six-year period. Letter name and sound knowledge were assessed informally for all students, with students producing the names and sounds associated with printed letters in isolation, although these data are not reported here.

Phonemic awareness was assessed with Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (LAC), a rigorous, manipulative sound segmentation test using colored blocks to represent sounds. It should be noted that students were not trained in the use of non-letter manipulatives (such as colored blocks) during the Lively Letters remediation process.

Non-word decoding was initially assessed informally (1993-1994), with students decoding words from word lists. Ten CVC and ten CCVCC non-words were presented and students attempted to decode the words phonetically. In the later years (1994-1996), the “Word Attack” subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests (forms A and B) was used.

Oral reading was measured using the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills “Oral Reading” subtest, which is criterion-referenced. At that time, this was the assessment tool chosen by school administrators.

Results

After an average of 30 sessions of instruction in the Lively Letters program, delivered within a 6-8 week period in small groups, the following are the average gains obtained by the students.

Phonemic Awareness (170 students tested) 2.1 grade levels

Word Attack (73 students) 2.0 grade levels

Oral Reading (168 students) 1.5 grade levels

PITTSFIELD SCHOOL SYSTEM - Early Intervention Program 1999-2000

Methods

Sixteen kindergarten and twenty-seven first grade at-risk/ reading students were given intensive instruction in both the Lively Letters and Sight Words You Can See programs during the 1999-2000 school year. All children received instruction 4 times per week, and were additionally monitored once a week in 20-25 minute sessions. Group size varied according to need, with students entering the program at various times of the year. Instruction continued until May of 2000.

Results

First grade students were tested in their phoneme reading skills using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Test (DIBELS) The number of phonemes read within nonsense words increased from 12 to 40 phonemes per minute, on average. The average number of Words Read Correctly (WRC) from 1st grade curriculum increased from 23 to 71 words per minute. The Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery-R Scores, performed after instruction, revealed average standard scores of 120 on “Word Identification,” 118 on “Word Attack,” and 133 on “Passage Comprehension,” using the Cloze Procedure Comprehension Task.

Kindergarten early intervention test results revealed an average gain in “Letter Identification” from 0 to 30 letters named in one minute after instruction (using the DIBELS test). On average, phoneme segmentation increased from 3 to 40 phonemes produced in one minute after hearing the spoken word. Nonsense word skills also improved after instruction, increasing from 17 to 25 phonemes read within nonsense words in one minute.

Pittsfield Pilot Study data were collected and compiled by Sue Frederick, CAGS. School Psychologist. Pittsfield, MA. sfrederick@pittsfield.net

CASE STUDIES OF TEN CLIENTS MARCH, 2002

Methods

Results of ten clients receiving individual reading therapy using the Reading with TLC program were examined. Six clients (Group 1) received instruction in Lively Letters only, with an average of 30 1-hour sessions delivered in an average of 2.9 months. The other four clients (Group 2) received instruction in both Lively Letters and Sight Words You Can See programs, with an average of 48 sessions in 5.6 months. Two clients had sessions of 60 minutes, while two had 45-minute sessions.

Results

The Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-R were applied to both groups 1 and 2, and results are as follows:

Group 1 (Clients receiving training in Lively Letters only):
LAC tests revealed an average gain of 1.75 grade levels in phonemic awareness.
The Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-R “Word Attack” subtest (sounding out words) revealed an average gain of 2.4 grade levels, with an average gain in percentile score of 35, and average gain in standard score of 17 points, after instruction.

Group 2 (Clients receiving training in Lively Letters and Sight Words You Can See):
LAC test measuring phonemic awareness showed an average gain of 2.4 grade levels.
Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-R revealed an average increase of 3.5 grade levels on the “Word Attack” subtest, with an average gain of 38.5 in percentile score, and an average gain in standard score of 16.7 points. Performance on the “Word Identification” subtest (reading common sight words) showed an average gain of 2.6 grade levels, with average percentile score gain of 37 and an average standard score gain of 23 points after instruction.

Conclusion

These studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Reading with TLC program among varied groups of students, especially when combining applications of both Lively Letters and Sight Words You Can See. Further studies are being conducted measuring the dramatic results realized using these programs, including an analysis which controls for factors that may affect the effectiveness of the program, i.e., age, sex, developmental level, length of treatment, and any other reading applications received by students.