Specialized Programs

East Bay Therapy has several therapists knowledgeable in specialized programs to serve clients' specific needs. These programs include:

• Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing
• Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS)
• Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing

The Visualizing and Verbalizing Program for Language Comprehension was designed by Nanci Bell to instruct and improve reading comprehension, oral language comprehension, and critical thinking skills through development of concept imagery (i.e., ability to visually picture language). This program was designed to facilitate language and reading skills for students with auditory processing deficits.

Steps:

• Picture Imaging
• Word Imaging
• Sentence Imaging
• Paragraph Imaging
• Answer higher order thinking questions about paragraphs
• Whole Page Imaging
• Chapters and Lecture Noting
• Writing from Visualizing and Verbalizing

Nine structure words are used to develop visual images:

• What = what is the object of the sentence (e.g., cat)
• Size = size of object or surrounding details
• Color = color of object or surrounding details
• Number = number of objects (e.g., one cat, two people)
• Shape = shape of main object or items in background (e.g., square barn)
• Where = is it taking place outside or inside, etc.
• Movement = such as walking, jumping, biting, etc.
• Mood/emotion = is the object of the sentence happy, scared, angry, etc.
• Background = what else is in the image (e.g., blue sky, trees, etc.)

Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS)

The Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing Program, formerly called Auditory Discrimination in Depth or the ADD Program, was developed by Phyllis and Patricia Lindamood. The program is designed to promote the development of an oral-motor, visual, and auditory feedback system that enables all students, including students with learning disabilities, to determine the identity, number, and order of phonemes in syllables and words.

• Decoding
  Errors such as "steam" for stream, "imagination" for immigration, "claps" for clasps
• Spelling
  Errors such as "gril" for girl, "cret" for correct, "eqeutment" for equipment
• Pronunciation
  Errors such as "death" for deaf, "flusterated" for frustrated, etc.

The LiPS program is structured in a progression of five levels.

• The introductory level focuses on establishing the climate for learning.
• The second level emphasizes identifying and classifying speech sounds and helps students differentiate consonants and vowels.
• The third level focuses on tracking speech sounds in sequences and associating sounds and symbols with these sequences. The LiPS program uses concrete objects (mouth pictures and colored blocks) to help students track sounds.
• The fourth level of the LiPS program emphasizes sound-symbol associations.
• The final level provides the first experiences with integrating the auditory tracking skills and the sound-symbol associations. Spelling and reading skills are introduced using letter symbols printed on tiles and felt squares.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) was developed by Lori Frost, M.S., CCC-SLP and Andy Bondy, Ph.D. to provide children with an AAC system with which they can initiate functional communication. In the PECS program, icons or pictures are used to communicate requests and, eventually, comments. The program uses a child's interests and reinforcers to motivate children to initiate communication. The program consists of 6 phases:

• Phase I
  Teaches students to initiate communication right from the start by exchanging a single picture for a highly desired item.
• Phase II
  Teaches students to be persistent communicators- to actively seek out their pictures and to travel to someone to make a request.
• Phase III
  Teaches students to discriminate pictures and to select the picture that represents the item they want.
• Phase IV
  Teaches students to use sentence structure to make a request in the form of "I want _____."
• Phase V
  Teaches students to respond to the question "What do you want?"
• Phase VI
  Teaches students to comment about things in their environment both spontaneously and in response to a question.