Why Do We Love What We Do?

At the end of a student's journey with Langsford, students often write us letters about their experience here. We love letters like this:

"Dear Langsford Staff,                                            
While I have been at Langsford I have learned how to read more smoothly and write better. My reading hours have helped me with sounding out words, how to spell them correctly, checking the spelling, and many other things. My writing hours helped me with punctuation and finding synonyms of words, instead of using the same words over and over again. It has also helped me with knowing how to write a great, short main idea, visualize, plan and not loop back to the same ideas. You all have helped me find what I need to watch for when reading and writing in the future.

Sincerely, 

Cami"

Thank you for the kind letter, Cami!

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Hmmmmmm...

Hmmmmmmm.......

I know you think you understand what you thought I said,

but I'm not sure that what you heard is what I actually meant!

Have you ever been on either end of this scenario? It is frustrating for both parties. Language comprehension is essential for one to communicate effectively with others. A person must be able to not only receptively understand language, but to also be able to use his or her expressive vocabulary to effectively convey that information to others.

Surprisingly, one can be highly intelligent and still have difficulty with language comprehension. At Langsford Learning Acceleration Centers, our experience in teaching reading over the last 25 years has been that many who are struggling to comprehend are simply lacking the foundational skills necessary for good comprehension.

Research indicates that people with good comprehension utilize concept imagery to facilitate understanding. Simply put, they make mental movies in their head when reading or listening.

Have you ever tried to put together a bookcase or a child's bicycle? Did you find the diagrams that accompanied the directions to be of more help than the written directions? That's because the diagrams helped your brain to see the relationships between the pieces and how they would work together as a whole. Concept imagery is very much like this.

Clients who we tutor in comprehension at Langsford do systematic work to develop their imaging skills, starting with a simple sentence and building up to multi-page units of material. Once they have the information pictured in their minds, they practice recalling and verbalizing it in a clear and concise manner. Emphasis is also placed on determining the main idea and important details, as well as on developing higher order thinking skills (such as making inferences, drawing conclusions, or making evaluations of material).

Many people make mental movies in their minds naturally and without prompting. For those that don't or those who do not do it efficiently, structured practice to develop their concept imagery and verbalizing skills can make both school and interaction with others easier and less frustrating.

In conclusion,

I hope that what you read and what you think I said

matches what I actually said and what I meant to say!