For years students have benefitted greatly from the Lively Letters program (created in 1990) and Sight Words You Can See program (created in 1996) that make up Reading with TLC. Although each case is unique, students trained with the Lively Letters methods and materials typically show improvements of 1.5 to 3 grade levels in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, and oral reading within several months. When the program is implemented intensively (four to five times per week in 45 minute, small group sessions) these gains are seen within six to eight weeks, as was reported in the Boston Public Schools Initial Pilot Study highlighted in the Clinical Studies section of this website. Given intervention using the Lively Letters program, dramatic improvement is usually apparent after the first few weeks. The introduction of Sight Words You Can See results in more fluent reading and enables students to go beyond phonetically controlled books, improving oral reading scores.
Older students typically make greater gains than the averages stated above. In many cases older students who have significant reading disabilities pre-test at the late second grade level when tested on pure phonics skills (reading nonsense words) even though they may be able to read functionally at the 5th or 6th grade level due to sight word recognition These students often soar after being introduced to the Lively Letters program, significantly increasing phonemic awareness skills, and often raising phonetic decoding skills by 8 to 10 years in a matter of months.
Although cognitively delayed students may need longer and more intensive periods of instruction, they typically make great gains due to the powerful mnemonics and unique intersensory techniques.
English Language Learners, those learning English as a second language, respond extremely well to the oral and visual cues, the program helping them not only with phonics and phonemic awareness, but correct articulation of the letter sounds.
Students with speech and language disorders, in particular those with speech production problems, respond well to the Lively Letters clinical techniques that enhance the ability to correctly articulate the speech sounds. The strategies also decrease sequencing errors while sounding out words, particularly words with consonant blends and multisyllable words.
When implemented in the Response to Intervention model of instruction, schools implementing the program have reported a decrease in the number of students needing to be referred for intervention or special education services. To review data supporting many of the gains listed above, including pilot studies in various school districts and case studies from a private practice setting, visit the Clinical Studies section.
