How Learning Success Is Built, and Where the Evidence Stops

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-05

This page describes how our programs are designed. These are facts about the design, not research findings. Where a study bears on a design choice, the page names it. Then it says where the evidence for our design stops. Then it lists questions we plan to answer on later pages.

TL;DR

This page describes how our programs are designed. These are facts about the design, not research findings.
Our reading course shows each word letter by letter. The picture comes only once the word is complete. So guessing from the image is not available. That is a fact about the design, and it needs no study.
No study we hold tests whether a child taught with the picture last reads better later.
In three small studies, first and second graders heard a word, wrote it from memory, then checked it. That beat copying the words over and over (Jones and colleagues, 2016). Those children were not picked for spelling trouble. These studies are evidence about this kind of practice. They are not a measurement of our reading course.
Our listening program is a set of audio exercises a child follows at home. It is built to run alongside reading and spelling instruction, not in place of it. Listening practice builds listening, and that is what these exercises train. No study of this program exists. So nothing is claimed for it on reading, spelling, attention or social skills.

What this page describes

This page opens one of the ten areas in our research section. It describes how our programs are designed. These are facts about the design, not research findings. Where a study bears on a design choice, the page names it.

This page covers why the picture comes last, and writing a word from memory. It also covers spelling patterns, listening practice, and practice on the skill itself. Next, it collects design choices from the other research pages. Then it says where the evidence for our design stops.

Why the picture comes last

This part covers how our reading course shows each word.

Our reading course shows each word letter by letter. The picture comes only once the word is complete. So guessing from the image is not available. That is a fact about the design, and it needs no study.

No study we hold tests whether a child taught with the picture last reads better later.

Our reading course is practice on reading and spelling words. It is not practice on a general brain skill. It does not teach comprehension, and it does not replace reading teaching.

Writing a word from memory

This part covers the writing part of our reading course.

Our reading course has a writing part. The child first sees and hears the word spelled. Then the word is not on screen while the child writes it. So the spelling has to be recalled, not copied.

In three small studies, first and second graders heard a word, wrote it from memory, then checked it. That beat copying the words over and over (Jones and colleagues, 2016). Those children were not picked for spelling trouble. These studies are evidence about this kind of practice. They are not a measurement of our reading course.

In a 2014 review of 53 studies, Graham and Santangelo found that teaching spelling directly works. They also found gains in spelling while writing, not only on tests. That is evidence about this kind of practice. It is not a measurement of our reading course.

Spelling patterns

This part covers how our reading course groups its words.

Words in our reading course are grouped by spelling pattern. The child meets each pattern in many words. It is never stated to the child as a rule.

Listening practice

This part covers our listening program.

Our listening program is a set of audio exercises a child follows at home. It is built to run alongside reading and spelling instruction, not in place of it. The exercises work on telling similar sounds apart and holding a sequence of sounds in mind. They also work on staying with one voice when other sound competes. Listening practice builds listening, and that is what these exercises train. No study of this program exists. So nothing is claimed for it on reading, spelling, attention or social skills.

Practice on the skill itself

This part covers why each skill is taught directly.

Practice reaches the thing it is practice at. Each of our programs works on the skill it names. Listening exercises build listening. Coordination exercises build coordination.

We teach each skill directly. Our programs are built to run alongside reading, spelling and math instruction, not in place of it.

Design choices on the other research pages

This part collects design choices stated on the other research pages.

We teach number sense, not the math curriculum. Our number-sense work is built to run alongside math instruction rather than in place of it.

Three of our programs work on skills that sit alongside handwriting teaching. None of them teaches handwriting.

Some of our programs include coordination and body-awareness movements. Coordination practice builds coordination, and that is what these exercises train.

We built our programs without game rewards like points and badges. That is our design choice, not a tested result.

Our programs coach parents to praise effort, not only results. That is our design choice, not a tested result.

Some of our programs are followed on video. Screen-free options are available for families who want them.

Where the evidence for our design stops

This part covers where the evidence for our design stops.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

No study we hold tests whether a child taught with the picture last reads better later.

Our rule is that no page says how your child will change by a given week or month.

Does Learning Success build on this?

Yes. This page is about how we build our programs. Two studies on it are about kinds of practice our reading course uses.

In no case do we claim a study's result for our program.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

Questions we plan to answer on later pages

Later pages in this area are planned. None of them is written yet.

Why does our reading course hold the picture back?
What does our listening program train, and what does it not claim?
Why do we teach each skill directly, not a general brain skill?
What does writing a word from memory practice?

The studies

Jones, Wardlow, Pan, Zepeda, Heyman, Dunlosky and Rickard (2016). Beyond the Rainbow: Retrieval Practice Leads to Better Spelling than does Rainbow Writing. Educational Psychology Review 28(2):385–400. DOI 10.1007/s10648-015-9330-6.
Graham and Santangelo (2014). Reading and Writing 27(9):1703–1743. DOI 10.1007/s11145-014-9517-0.

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Pick one program you use at home, ours included. Ask what your child actually practices in it. Then ask whether that is the skill you want to grow.

”What to do tonight

Common questions from parents

Does showing the picture last help a child read better later?

No study we hold tests whether a child taught with the picture last reads better later. In our reading course, the picture comes only once the word is complete. So guessing from the image is not available. That is a fact about the design, and it needs no study.

Does listening practice help with reading?

Our listening program is a set of audio exercises a child follows at home. It is built to run alongside reading and spelling instruction, not in place of it. Listening practice builds listening, and that is what these exercises train. No study of this program exists. So nothing is claimed for it on reading, spelling, attention or social skills.

Has writing a word from memory been studied?

Yes. In three small studies, first and second graders heard a word, wrote it from memory, then checked it. That beat copying the words over and over (Jones and colleagues, 2016). Those children were not picked for spelling trouble. These studies are evidence about this kind of practice. They are not a measurement of our reading course.