Treating Adult Dyslexia – The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program uses phonemic awareness as a technique to help adult dyslexics acquire the necessary skills to read proficiently. By using phonemic awareness dyslexic listeners are able to hear, recognize and control minimum units of sound that are called phonemes. In essence users can breakdown words into letter(s) and/or sounds, one at a time.

The phonemic awareness system believes that the basis of difficulties associated with deciphering and spelling is the complex way a person assesses the identity, sound sequence and number(s) that are found within words. This inability is termed to be “weak phoneme awareness”. A dyslexic adult is generally thought of to have difficulty with his or her phonological processing which is associated with “phoneme awareness”. This weakness is the reason why a dyslexic adult tends to add, exchange, skip, and reverse sounds and letters when they read. Adults with dyslexia can see words correctly however they cannot judge if what they see will correspond with what they say. It is because of this difficulty that they are unable to find and correct errors in spelling, reading and speech.

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program’s goal is to successfully provide preventative and remedial solutions to the reading, spelling and speech issues that occur due to adult dyslexia. If an adult dyslexic individual chooses to train with this type of program they will discover that various mouth movements produce different speech sounds. Sounds and word order can be confirmed by using the kind of sensory information trained by phonemic awareness. Through practice and commitment reading, writing, spelling and speech skills can be improved and corrected. Research has also shown that added improvements in overall speech and language skills have occurred using this method.

During participation in this program people are assigned grade levels based on their achievements. The program lasts four to six weeks and is usually intensive treatment with therapy lasting up to four hours per day. However, there are options that provide lighter levels of therapy if an individual chooses. It is important to remember that the more frequent and intensive the treatments the greater chance of faster results. Treatment results vary depending on the individual and the severity of the dyslexia.

This kind of program is available at a Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes Center. These centers are available in over fifteen states in the United States and in the United Kingdom as well. There are materials available to the public that are included in the program such as a manual with a detailed presentation of the steps that will be taken in the program. Program outlines and example discussions are also included. Support products are needed for the program which includes a classroom kit, a program clinical kit, training videos, a practice CD, and a testing kit. These products are included when registration is completed for the program.