The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program (LiPS)® is the program used by Strategic Learning Clinic to teach basic reading and spelling.  It is a unique program.  The LiPS program teaches phonemic awareness and phonics (sound/symbol associations and the rules that govern reading and spelling).  It uses a multisensory approach to teach these skills.  And it provides a method for students to self-check when reading and spelling.  This forms the foundation for independent reading and writing.

To read, individuals need to be able to decode what is on the printed page and decoding requires phonemic awareness.  But what is phonemic awareness?  Phonemic awareness is an ability to differentiate between speech sounds and to be able to adequately conceptualize the order of sounds in syllables and words. 

Some students have no difficulty with phonemic awareness and learning to read and spell comes easily for them.  But, for those students lacking phonemic awareness, learning to read and spell is an arduous task.  They must rely on learning to read through rote memory rather than through an understanding of the association between sound and symbol.  This way of learning to read does not lead to accurate and fluent reading.  

But how can we help develop phonemic awareness in students that are weak in this area?  We can instruct them with a reading and spelling program that includes instruction for phonemic awareness but also teaches phonetic principles.  The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program is such a program.

Another very important feature of the Lips program is its method for teaching these skills.  The LiPS program teaches through a conscious awareness of how sounds are formed in the mouth.  It helps students to develop the oral-motor, visual and auditory feedback system that enables them to prove the identity, number and order of phonemes in syllables and words.  As the student becomes able to sequence and compare sounds within words, they then have the ability to apply that knowledge to self-correct in reading and spelling.  This allows them to become independent readers and writers.

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program is truly a multisensory program for learning phonemic awareness and phonics.  At Strategic Learning Clinic, we offer a comprehensive program by combining LiPS with other remedial programs that develop sight words, fluency and comprehension.  In our 34 years of working with students, we have found this method of teaching reading and spelling to be the most beneficial for those individuals having difficulty acquiring the basic skills of reading and spelling.  ​