Hannah's Reading Room

The LiPS Program is an evidence-based, multisensory approach designed to help individuals develop phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This skill is foundational for reading, spelling, and decoding.

LiPS teaches students how speech sounds work in their mouths so they can accurately perceive, produce, and sequence sounds in words.

Instead of relying mostly on listening, LiPS uses:

• Auditory cues – hearing differences in sounds
• Visual cues – seeing how the mouth moves
• Tactile/kinesthetic cues – feeling what the lips, tongue, and jaw are doing

Students learn to be aware of how each sound is made (for example: "lip poppers," "tongue tappers," "open sounds," etc.). This awareness helps them self-correct and decode/read with more accuracy.

LiPS Builds Skills in:

• Identifying individual phonemes
• Segmenting sounds in words
• Blending sounds
• Manipulating sounds (adding, deleting, substituting)
• Understanding sound-letter correspondence
• Strengthening decoding and spelling

Who It's For:
LiPS is often used as the starting point for students with dyslexia or other reading difficulties and for early readers who need foundational phonemic skills.

What Makes LiPS Unique:
LiPS focuses heavily on the physical feel of sounds—something many struggling readers have never noticed. By building this oral-motor understanding, students develop strong and durable phonemic skills that support reading and spelling long-term.

The Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars® Program is a structured, multisensory reading and spelling intervention designed to develop symbol imagery—the ability to visualize letters and letter patterns in your mind. This skill is essential for fluent word recognition, accurate decoding, spelling, and overall reading fluency.

Seeing Stars helps students learn to "picture" letters and words in their minds so they can read and spell more automatically.

The Program Focuses On:

1. Symbol Imagery
Students learn to create clear mental images of:

• Individual letters
• Letter sequences
• Entire words

This imagery skill supports fast and accurate reading.

2. Orthographic Processing
Seeing Stars strengthens how the brain recognizes written words by focusing on:

• Letter order
• Common letter patterns
• Visual memory for words

This is crucial for sight-word development.

3. Decoding
Students practice:

• Sounding out new words
• Visualizing the letter patterns
• Connecting sounds to letters accurately

4. Spelling
Seeing Stars directly teaches how to visualize the correct spelling of words, helping students hold and reproduce letter sequences.

How It Works:
The program uses a step-by-step sequence of activities that include:

• Air-writing letters and words
• Imagery questions ("What letter do you picture first? What comes next?")
• Tracking (rapid, timed symbol/word activities)
• Word attack and word lists
• Reading connected text

Students are constantly asked to picture what they're reading or spelling, strengthening the mental imagery needed for fluent reading.

Seeing Stars is Effective For:

• Students with dyslexia
• Students who read slowly even if they can decode
• Students who have difficulty with sight words
• Students with spelling challenges
• Early readers needing strong orthographic foundations

Why It's Unique:
While many programs teach decoding, Seeing Stars focuses on the imagery behind the decoding. By teaching students to picture letters and words, it helps them read more fluently and automatically—not just sound-by-sound.

The Visualizing and Verbalizing (V/V) program is an evidence-based language comprehension program designed to develop concept imagery (the ability to create mental images from language). Concept imagery is a critical foundation for reading comprehension, critical thinking, vocabulary, and language expression.

Many students can read words accurately but struggle to truly understand, remember, or explain what they read. V/V helps students develop the ability to "picture" language in their minds so they can make meaning from text and spoken language.

Instead of focusing only on decoding words, V/V strengthens comprehension through:

• Visual imagery – creating detailed mental pictures from language
• Oral language – describing and discussing imagery aloud
• Structured questioning – building deeper understanding and critical thinking
• Sequential processing – organizing information from beginning, middle, and end

Students learn to create and describe mental imagery for words, sentences, and eventually full passages and stories. As imagery strengthens, comprehension, memory, and expressive language improve as well.

V/V Builds Skills In:

• Reading comprehension
• Vocabulary development
• Critical thinking
• Following directions
• Sequencing and retelling
• Making predictions and inferences
• Summarizing information
• Oral and written expression
• Memory and attention to language

Who It's For:

V/V is beneficial for students who:

• Read fluently but struggle to understand what they read
• Have difficulty retelling or summarizing stories
• Struggle with attention to language details
• Have weak vocabulary or expressive language
• Need support with higher-level thinking and comprehension
• Have dyslexia, language processing weaknesses, ADHD, autism, or other learning differences

What Makes V/V Unique:
V/V teaches students to actively create mental imagery while listening and reading, a skill many struggling comprehenders do not naturally develop. By strengthening concept imagery, students become more engaged readers who can better understand, remember, and think critically about language across all subjects.

Word Connections is a supplemental reading intervention program. The program aims specifically to help students with multisyllabic word reading—i.e., reading longer words, not just simple one-syllable words.

Word Connections is Designed For:

• Students in upper elementary—typically grades 3–5 (or above)
• Students who have already mastered basic decoding of monosyllabic (one-syllable) words, but who still struggle when confronting longer, multisyllabic words
• Those who need structured, explicit support to decode, read, and spell multisyllabic words

Word Connections is not for brand-new readers—it's for students who can read basic words but struggle when reading "bigger" words.

What It Teaches:
Word Connections emphasizes morphology and orthography: teaching students to recognize and work with prefixes, suffixes, root words, and other word parts—helping them "chunk" multisyllabic words into manageable parts.

• Instruction is explicit and systematic. Students receive guided practice breaking down longer words, blending syllables, and applying those skills with reading and spelling tasks.
• Over time, the goal is to build automaticity—meaning when students see longer words, they don't have to decode every letter-by-letter but can read and recognize them more fluently.

What Makes Word Connections Unique:

• As students move into upper elementary or middle school, texts become more complex and include more multisyllabic words. Word Connections helps bridge the gap between basic decoding and fluent reading of more advanced text.
• For students with reading difficulties (e.g. dyslexia or delayed decoding), it provides structured, intensive support—especially where basic phonics instruction is no longer enough.

Yes. I offer an initial consultation (typically by phone call) to discuss your child's needs and determine if tutoring is a good fit.

I work with early readers through upper elementary students who need support with reading, spelling, and writing.

I specialize in dyslexia, decoding difficulties, phonics gaps, poor spelling, reading fluency, and comprehension challenges.

I use evidence-based, structured literacy approaches including UFLI Foundations, Lindamood-Bell LiPS and Seeing Stars, The Writing Revolution, and Word Connections.

Yes. All instruction is grounded in the science of reading and structured literacy research.

1:1 Reading Intervention Session: $75/hr. Please reach out for rates on other tutoring services/assessments.

No. Tutoring services are typically not covered by insurance.

I accept Zelle, cash, checks, or payment through ClassWallet. Payment is required in advance of tutoring sessions. Unpaid balances may result in sessions being paused until payment is received.

You may pay upfront and submit invoices to ESA for reimbursement or pay my invoices directly through ClassWallet.

I understand that schedules change. To ensure consistent learning and fairness to all families, the following cancellation policy is in place:

• A minimum of 48 hours' notice is required for cancellations or rescheduling.
• Sessions canceled with less than 48 hours' notice will be charged in full.
• Missed sessions or no-shows will be charged in full.
• In the event of illness or emergency, please communicate as soon as possible.

Every child is different (and this varies based on frequency of sessions and level of effort), but families often see improvements in confidence and foundational skills within the first few months.

I use ongoing assessments, session notes, and regular parent communication to monitor growth and adjust instruction.

With parent permission, I'm happy to collaborate with teachers or review school reports to support consistency.

Due to space limitations and to best support student focus and independence, parents are asked not to stay during tutoring sessions. Parents are welcome to observe the first session to see how I work and help their child feel comfortable.

I will provide monthly progress reports to parents. Brief weekly check-ins will also be provided. To ensure timely transitions between sessions, tutoring will conclude 10 minutes early if parents would like time for questions or updates. This allows us to connect without impacting the next scheduled student.

For best results with Lindamood-Bell instruction, consistent attendance is key. I recommend that students attend four 1-hour sessions, per week. This frequency supports steady progress. Every child is different, so I'll work with you to develop a schedule that fits your child's needs and your family's routine.

No. A formal diagnosis is not required to begin tutoring.

My services are very different from traditional tutoring and typical school reading intervention. I provide intensive, individualized instruction using research-based Lindamood-Bell programs. My sessions are tailored to each child’s individual needs. These programs are most effective when done consistently and intensively (I recommend 4 days a week for 1 hour a session) - to create meaningful progress and lasting changes in reading skills. When sessions are frequent (nearly daily), your child will progress more rapidly. However, we can adjust and make a schedule that works for your child/family.

I currently only offer in-person tutoring.