Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing is a curriculum for K-2 students with poor phonological processing (e.g., letter naming, and awareness of the sounds within words). The curriculum provides intense instruction in word-level skills — including building awareness of the sounds within words (”phonemic awareness”) and letter-sound correspondences — to enable students to “decode” individual words. After the children demonstrate mastery in decoding words, they begin reading text that is readily decodable, followed by oral reading of regular books with tutors focusing on comprehension skills.

In the version of this program that was rigorously evaluated, students were provided one-on-one tutoring using Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing, in four 20-minute sessions per week for 2.5 years beginning in the second semester of kindergarten. Two of the sessions were conducted by a certified reading teacher and two by a teacher’s aide who followed the teacher’s written instructions.

This program was evaluated in one randomized controlled trial with a sample of 180 kindergarten students in 13 public elementary schools scoring in the lowest 12% on phonological processing skills. Students were randomly assigned to (1) the Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing tutoring program described above; (2) one-on-one tutoring using a different curriculum (“Embedded Phonics”); (3) on eon-one tutoring in the activities taught in the students’ regular classroom reading programs; or (4) a control group that received no tutoring. Each group consisted of 45 students. Of the three programs, the Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing program had the largest effects versus the control group; its effects are summarized below. The other two programs had smaller effects.

Results: