tips for LiPS?

[caedmyn]

I finally got LiPS for my K'er.  He is done with Barton 1 except for the post-test, but he still has some trouble with auditory discrimination.  He failed part C of the Barton pre-screen a couple times this summer.  I wasn't sure if he actually had trouble with it or just didn't care to cooperate, so we worked on auditory discrimination some and I gave it to him again this fall and he passed it.  I started teaching him to read with the Abecedarian program and it became obvious after a few months that he couldn't remember a single word no matter how many times he read it--he had to sound them all out every time.  I decided to switch to Barton for him since he has dyslexic siblings and I'm using Barton with them.  I gave him part C of the pre-screen again because I wasn't sure if the one pass on it was just a fluke...he seems to understand things fine one day and be completely clueless about them the next.  He didn't pass it this time.  Then DH decided to get involved and insisted on giving him the pre-screen without watching the tutor screening or how-to video, and wouldn't let me observe.  DH said he only missed one, so a pass.  Fine, whatever, It's pointless to argue with DH, so I started Barton 1 with him.

 

He did ok until lesson 4, when it became apparent that he still couldn't hear the difference between /t/ and /ch/, or /ch/ and /sh/--the same sounds he'd had trouble with in the pre-screen.  So I ordered LiPS, and finished up Barton 1 while waiting for it to arrive.  He doesn't have trouble with the mechanics of level 1, only discriminating between those particular sounds.  On the last pre-screen I gave him he had trouble with /j/ and /ch/ also but I don't know if he still has trouble confusing those as they didn't come up together in Barton 1.  He also had trouble with /m/ and /n/ this summer, but after we did the auditory discrimination stuff he usually can hear the difference, and if he can't he just looks at my mouth when I say them and then he gets them right, which is what Barton says to do.

 

So my questions...Barton says to they need to do LiPS until they know all the brothers and cousins, the vowel circle, how to track 3 sounds in a CVC syllable, and how to find the sound that's different in a chain of 10 CVC nonsense words.  Does he really only need do the brothers, cousins, and vowel circle since we're doing this a bit out of order and he has actually gone through Barton 1 which covers those last two skills?

Also, he doesn't know all the sound/letter correspondences.  Should I teach him those with LiPS, or just teach him the sounds, and wait til we start Barton 2 to introduce the sound/letter correspondences?

[ElizabethB]

I would teach the sound letter correspondences with LiPS. For a struggling student, the more modalities you can work and the more repetition you can get in early, the better.

[PeterPan]

The advantage of working through all the face cards and sounds with LIPS is that you're going to catch any holes he has and are going to be able to make sure he can discriminate the sounds in all positions. 

 

I've sold off my Barton 1, so I'm working by memory here. Actually I typed it all up a while back in a document on dropbox. I think it would confuse you more than anything, because it explained how to include PROMPT. 

 

Basically, you will introduce a narrow field with LIPS, like maybe 4 consonants and one or two vowels, take them through all the steps (lessons 1-5) in Barton, where by the end you've converted from faces to colored tiles to letters (written or magnets). Then start again at the beginning, doing more consonants and one or two more vowels with LIPS, and go through lessons 1-5 with them.

 

So after you've cycled through enough, you've done all the letters, all the steps. And with my ds, I was able to do all those steps in a matter of days for one batch of consonants and vowels. Also, I cheated and took it farther, going not only into cvc, etc. but also blends, etc. But that really is material in Barton level 2.

 

B2 lesson 5 covers a ton of multi-syllable phonograms all at once. that would have been too much for my student. I introduced them in our LIPS work (like during all those repeat runs through Barton 1). So if that appeals to you, that would be a trick to consider too. Scope | Barton  Here's the list of lessons for each level, so you can see what she introduces. LIPS probably explains how to teach them. For instance "th" has two sounds: th and TH (voiced and voiceless). You've already introduced the concept in LIPS with b/p, so it's no biggee to do it with th/TH as well. 

 

I'm saying, given that he's having these issues, I would hold onto LIPS longer and go through more phonograms.

 

So you're correct that you don't need to set your Barton aside. You won't even need the 2nd half of the manual. You need the first half for the dialogues on how to present the voiced/voiceless pairs (what they call brothers, yes? I forget) Once you get the hang of that, you won't even use it any more.

 

Fwiw, I used a big magnetic whiteboard for our work. We'd put out the mouth pictures, saying the sounds that went with them. Then we'd put down alphabet magnets under each picture. We'd trace it in a sand tray, saying the sound. After we had all the written versions out, all organized under sound pictures, then we did the REVERSE, saying the sounds as we saw the letters. So we worked both ways, sound to written and written to sound.

 

LIPS and Barton 1 and 2 blend really well! Just play with it and you'll figure it out. :)

[PeterPan]

Do you have Barton 2 yet? I'm saying if you move ahead and do Barton 2 skills as well, using your LIPS, you won't feel as bad that you're backtracking, if that makes sense.

 

There's really nothing like getting this stuff solid. This is the stage to NAIL. You're not crazy. It will pay off big time. Be uber-thorough here. Every sound, every position, every direction (sound to written, written to sound). It will pay off. :)

[Kanin]

I agree, the more the better with LiPS! If he's not solid with hearing and feeling the differences between the sounds, then anything you try to do with Barton will just be like trying to build on sand. 

 

It bugs me sometimes that people tout Orton-Gillingham based programs as being the only fix that's necessary for reading problems. So many kids need more than an OG program (lots of kids need LiPS!), but it feels like OG should be enough.... and when it's not, it can be really scary and frustrating.