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!"

Creative Moment

This is Haysley in the lobby of our office. We didn't think she could have a more beautiful name until we saw this. Haysley recently completed some work in reading and spelling at Langsford. Mom says spelling tests are now a breeze for her!

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!

What If Langsford Is Not The Best Fit?

When speaking to parents about their child's learning needs, it's important for us to be clear and honest not only about what Langsford can do, but also what we can't. This means we sometimes speak with a parent whose child needs help in areas outside our particular expertise.

Our Director, Stephen, recently ran into such a situation after having an in-depth conversation with a mom who was referred to us by a previous client. Stephen determined that Langsford was not a match for this child so he gave her other resources that he felt were a much better fit for her child's needs. Later, when Stephen communicated with the past client who made the referral, this is what she wrote:

Dear Stephen,
Langsford is the only place I will refer parents. I suspected his needs are not something to be corrected at Langsford, but as always I had confidence that you would be able to give his mother some options. I know you and your staff do not pretend to have a cure all for every learning issue that affects children. I also know his mom will remember your time and concern...

Staff Spotlight: Joseph

Joseph is one of our Instructors.

Where were you born and how long have you lived in Louisville?
I was born in Meadville, PA and have lived 2 1/2 years in Louisville.

My school/work background is?
Bachelor’s in Biblical Studies/Christian Education, Taylor Univ. IN;
Working on Masters of Divinity at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

When I was a child and thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I…
wanted to be an NFL football player or Oceanographer.

In my free time, I…
chase 2 little boys around the backyard.

One of my favorite books of all time would be…
Chronicles of Narnia

One of my hidden talents is…
I can walk on my hands.

I love and I hate…
I love Jesus, my wife, my boys, family, church, friends, being able to hold my wife’s hand on a walk, bringing in my sleeping boys from the car, finishing a paper…I hate starting a paper, when I lose perspective and my self-centeredness.

People say I…
Easily put my foot in my mouth – I have a leg up on them. :)

Langsford Celebrates 17 Years

Langsford Learning Acceleration Centers recently celebrated 17 years of helping students learn to read, spell and comprehend. Here's a picture of the yummy cake Plehn's Bakery made for the party:


And here's a picture of Stephen and Claudia with the Langsford Staff in the background. This picture turned out to be the calm before the storm because everyone was really hungry. If you look carefully, you can see that the staff was ready to eat and tired of picture-taking:



Oh sure, you might think that's the traditional "peace" sign someone is flashing behind Claudia, but really it was someone using their fingers to simulate scissors and yelling "Cut the cake! Cut the cake!"

Then, when Stephen finally did begin to cut the cake, he took forever because he had to painstakingly line up each knife cut perfectly. Now, this tendency for perfection is certainly useful when helping a student match all the words in the sentence she's reading, but in this situation, it only increased the restlessness. A real free-for-all began when everyone wanted a piece that included logo icing.

Whew, it's a good thing company birthday celebrations only happen once a year. If you have some good tips on how to clean bright green icing off of bright yellow walls, let us know, okay?