Jacksen: A Star Student

Jacksen came to Langsford Center with an amazing thirst to learn. He came in each day with a dazzling smile and ready to work. Dad, in a conversation with Jacksen's Learning Coordinator, shared that after three short weeks he knew they were in the right place for Jacksen.

Jacksen improved his reading significantly while here, and school reported that his reading rate had increased from 47 WPM (words per minute) to 87 WPM in just 4 months time! Since 90 WPM is the goal for the end of 2nd grade, Jacksen was right on target. With the improvement he made while here, coupled with the practice he's getting this summer, Jacksen should be able to start 3rd grade feeling confident and capable.

Good job, Jacksen!

If You See a Friend Without a Smile, Give Him One of Yours

Zac is a 7th grader who's been doing work in reading and spelling at our Middletown office. It's hard not to be charmed by him when he flashes his big awesome smile. While Zac says that he was very surprised to find that he wasn't bored coming here, it's not to say he didn't try to use his smile on us from time to time.

Zac says that his smile doesn't work for him at home or school, but it always does at his Grandma's. Grandma sometimes picks up Zac and from the the pride I see in her eyes when she looks at him, I imagine it does.

When I asked Zac what he'd like me to say when I posted his picture, he said "tell them it's not boring here and that when I came I wasn't a good reader, but now I am."

(Hearing that would have charmed me even without the smile.)

Ready for Second Grade!

Nothing is worse than having to dread school starting up in the fall! Collin and his family won't have to do that this year, as Collin has been working all summer to prepare!

He completed his session work with us in June, with a promise of continuing on his own this summer so that he would be well-prepared for second grade. Collin's Learning Coordinator, Kristin, sent home sight words to practice, spelling words to master and a recommendation for lots of fun reading and writing. Collin's summer plans included signing up for the reading club at his local library.

How great for Collin to start a new school year feeling prepared and confident! We hope he wow's his teacher this year!

Letters From Home

At Langsford, we talk a lot about letters of the alphabet, and we read a lot of stories. But hands down, our favorite letters and stories are the ones we get from parents and relatives reporting success, confidence, happiness, and accomplishment for past clients. Each one is gratifying and heart-warming for instructors, learning coordinators, and administrators alike. Here are a few we just had to share.

Austin is a first-grader working on reading and spelling. Before he came to Langsford, Austin would do anything to avoid spelling. Recently, Austin's dad reported that Austin had come to him after having a privilege revoked at home. Austin had asked dad if he could earn it back by spelling a word. Austin's dad was stunned! Good negotiating, Austin!

Sam is a sixth-grader who recently finished work at Langsford to aid his comprehension. The focus was on developing his ability to mentally picture what he reads (concept imagery). Sam's Mom emailed to let us know about the changes she has seen since he finished his sessions: "I have seen such an increase in his confidence and he seems so much happier with himself; that is priceless to me." Those words made us picture Sam with a big smile on his face. Great work, Sam!

Tristan is a seventh-grader and Langsford alum from a few years back. She came to Langsford to work on her reading and spelling. Since then, she has really taken off! According to Mom: "Wow!... She is doing wonderfully. Her reading, writing, and confidence in her ability continue to strengthen. ...We are so lucky to have found the Langsford Center... She does well academically and is able to keep up with her reading and writing requirements and gets many compliments from teachers and friends on her kind and charitable nature. I am forever grateful for how you all set her on this road and cheered her on." It sounds like this road is leading Tristan straight to success!

Last, but certainly not least, there's Maggie (pictured above). Maggie came to us (over ten years ago!) as a second-grader to improve her visual-spatial skills, and later, during high school, returned to work on applying these skills to geometry. This spring, as Maggie prepared for her junior year, she was accepted into the prestigious Governor's Scholar program, and will spend five weeks this summer working to enrich her academic background. Congratulations, Maggie!

Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories. We are so proud!

Successful Sisters

Several months ago, we posted a blog entry about Mallory having some fun in her session. You can read it by clicking here. We received the following update and letter from mom:

Dear Langsford,

As you know, we were very pleased with the results we had when we brought our first daughter, Courtney to the Langsford Center. She came to Langsford in the summer after second grade and you really made a difference. She still needed extra help for a time, but after 5th grade, she needed no help at all. She is in the 8th grade now and doing well.

So of course we came to you when her younger sister, Mallory, began having similar struggles with reading. Mallory has really improved! Like Courtney, she still needs some assistance but her confidence has changed so much and she knows she can do it.

Every teacher Mallory had at Langsford found a way to click with her. Mallory needs time to get used to new situations and once she realized you were going to take her where she is and move through at her own pace, she relaxed. She never complained about going to her sessions.

Both of my children did continue to need assistance after the bulk of work at Langsford but that was no surprise because from the beginning you helped my husband and I understand that this is a process and not something that necessarily gets ‘fixed’ immediately.

All of that was explained so well in the consultation we had to discuss the results of the testing. Certainly there are always concerns about whether or not something will help, but realizing that it is a process made all the difference to us.

We were also fortunate in that our daughter’s teachers also attended the consultations. Mallory’s teacher was so supportive of the additional assistance and worked well with us. She was great. That is priceless to us.

I definitely recommend The Langsford Center, it did wonders for my daughters. So thank you. Twice!

Jon: A Real Goal Getter!

Jon is a first grader who recently came in with his spelling test for the previous week. He was excited to announce that he'd gotten all the words correct for the first time this year.

A lot of our clients have goal sheets to help keep them on track in sessions and to promote independence in using their new skills. Jon has a goal sheet with things like:

ask the teacher questions

try my best

and follow the steps for tasks.

As Jon was about to start his session, he asked his instructor if he could add a new goal to his goal sheet. She asked what he wanted to add. He said, "To make a good grade on my spelling test every week!"

Samantha Shines!

Samantha is a third grader who has been doing work at Langsford over the last few months to improve her reading and spelling skills. Mom came in recently giddy with good news! She had just met with Samantha's teacher to go over Samantha's January SRI scores. Her teacher said that they hoped for an increase of 50 points per student on SRI scores over the course of the year. Samantha's score between fall and January increased by 297 points!

Samantha recently told us that she used to feel like she wasn't as smart as her classmates because they could read better than her. But now she has been helping all the good readers with the hard multi-syllable words. In Samantha's words, "It makes me feel good about myself."

It makes us feel good too. Keep up the good work, Samantha!

Describing Evan In One Word

If allowed only one word to describe Evan in relation to reading, everyone agrees the word would have to be confident.

Evan's parents are very pleased with his progress and they say he is reading more independently at home now and is taking an interest in sports books.

His Language Arts Teacher wrote:

If he comes to a word that he does not recognize, most times he is able to figure out the word based on the skills he has learned....He is much more confident in his ability that he CAN DO IT!

His teacher in other subject areas noticed a change in Evan too:

...Evan, I feel, is much more confident about reading in the classroom than he was in the beginning of the year. Whenever I call on him to read aloud in class, there is no hesitation at all. He read about two paragraphs yesterday and had trouble with only one word.

Way to go Evan and all of us at Langsford are confident you will enjoy reading those sports books!

Langsford's Team-To-One™ Approach

This is Lucas, who is surrounded by two of his Langsford Instructors, Paul (on the left) and Christopher. Lucas really enjoyed having these two fellows on his team.

Lucas had the benefit of a lot of people working together to help him. Mary was his Learning Coordinator. Before Lucas even started sessions with us, Mary had a conversation with his school's principal on how to best structure his day so Lucas could attend daily sessions here. As a team, Mary, the principal and the parents worked out a plan for Lucas to come during the school day.

Once Lucas began sessions, the Langsford Team began to work together on the customized plan of action that Mary designed specifically for Lucas' learning profile. Paul and Christopher were a big part of Lucas' team. As you can see by the photo above, the three of them became great buddies.

Isabell

Here's another delightful child we had the pleasure of working with this summer. Isabell is an example of one of our students who really just needed a boost for her skills to help her put all the pieces together more effectively. Isabell's family reports increased confidence in school this year.

Katie Reads The Wig

This is Katie. While on her break between sessions the other day, she was sharing her excitement with everyone in the lobby about how she finished reading a whole book and was able to decode all the words!

The photos above show her in sessions reading that book, titled The Wig. It's a story about a dog who gets into some mischief which Katie found really funny. In the second photo, Katie is showing us a picture of the dog wearing the wig.

Nice job Katie!

Thoroughly Delightful

This is Anika who did some work with us this summer. Kristin reports that Anika made great strides with writing down her thoughts.

Paul taught quite a few of her sessions and he told me she is a "thoroughly delightful" child and it was so much fun to work with her.

With increased confidence in her spelling ability, she will now be able to write some "thoroughly delightful" stories!

Maggie Makes A Splash

The photo at left is a picture of Maggie, one of our recent clients, during her Spring Break trip in April.

Leslie, Maggie's Learning Coordinator, received this note from mom:

Thank you soooo much for entertaining her - oh yes, that was teaching her wasn't it! She will really miss you ALL!! Thank you for helping her to this level. She has definitely improved. Although costly - you helped her self-confidence rise and gave her the tools she needed to feel good about reading and figuring out the words.
You made it easy coming to Walden.

Thanks. :)
Fondly,
Anne

Grandmothers are Great!

Sometimes the logistics of transporting students to Langsford can be a challenge for parents. And that's where supportive family and friends can help. The picture above is of Kaylee, her mother and her grandmother, who helped transport her to sessions here. Below is a recent email she wrote to us when I asked permission to put up the photo:

Dear Debbie,
It has been a pleasure having to pick up Kaylee and take her to her elementary school for the past weeks.
Everyone was gracious and greeted me with a smile when I came inside.
Every morning we talked about what she was learning.
I have seen her gain confidence in reading using word attack skills.
She even wanted to help me read a card when I couldn’t see the words well.
I think Langsford is doing great things

It would be fine to use the picture on the site.

LOVE AND LIGHT SALLIE