Our Mission: To effect change through improved literacy

Richards Learning Systems®

The History Behind the Program

In the 1930’s, a neurologist named Dr. Samuel Orton studied dyslexia.  He and two teachers, Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman, studied the English language and identified a system within it. Dr. Orton’s systematic, multi-sensory phonics method is an explicit organized structure of sounds, syllables, and word patterns that give students a method to identify unfamiliar words.

The multi-sensory Richards Learning Systems® is based on Dr. Orton’s research, to which Carole added writing and fiction and nonfiction reading comprehension.  Richards Learning Systems includes all of the National Reading Panel recommendations for literacy instruction, including:

  • Phonemic Awareness
  • Systematic Phonics
  • Fluency
  • Vocabulary
  • Comprehension

 
Many very bright children and adults have difficulty learning English language skills.  Many people struggle with reading, but perform well and even excel in other activities — like math, sports, mechanics or the arts.  These children and adults learn by doing.  Richards Learning Systems® (RLS) utilizes multi-sensory techniques and systematic phonics to learn and improve language skills.

Richards Learning Systems® WORKS!

RLS is effective with different learning styles and learning disabilities.  By encouraging and supporting individual success, the program builds self-esteem and self-confidence.  Students struggling with other reading approaches find success with Richards Learning Systems®.

What is Richards Learning Systems®?

Richards Learning Systems® teaches English language concepts that include:

Forty-four sounds

Five patterns of vowels and consonants

Seven syllable rules

Students start with little more and then move to bigger words by breaking them into smaller pieces.  The exercises and reading activities control the words used so students apply their newly learned concepts to words “fitting the rules”.  These exercises develop both reading and spelling skills simultaneously.  Once students have learned all of the Richards Learning Systems concepts, they practice their newly learned skills by applying them to words like “archaeologist” and “psychology”.

Throughout the Richards Learning Systems® process, students learn:

problem solving skills

how to build vocabulary

decoding, spelling, reading comprehension and fluency

The NorTech Innovation Award

In recognition of her outstanding educational innovation as author of Richards Learning Systems®,
Carole Richards and North Coast Education Services were awarded the NorTech Innovation Award in 2001.
Usually this award is presented to companies for innovative mechanical, electrical and electronic devices.
It was most unusual for an author of intellectual properties to have been recognized by NorTech.

About the RLS Author

Biography of Carole Richards, CEI President and Creator of Richards Learning Systems®

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