What We Do and How it Works

How (and why) the Alula Method Works:


Learn to hear distinct sounds first

Phonemic Awareness, or the ability to identify unique sounds in words, is the best early indicator of eventual success in reading. For example, the word ‘cat’ has three distinct sounds where ‘car’ only has two. Early readers and specifically dyslexic children have a very difficult time discerning the number of sounds in a word.

Alula teaches phonemes in combination with movements and totems to exploit student’s procedural memory paths to build an internal lexicon for phonemes - or ‘sound words’. Students learn the individual sounds as unique and discrete sound words and can lean upon both movements and totems to recall the sounds.

For example: the sound /are/ is represented by a pirate totem and a 3D model moving their arm (see below).

The alula approach provides and easy and fun way to ‘hear’ and recall phonemes.


introduce letters

Alula Learning is developing a phonics application that is currently scheduled to be delivered in 2023

ALULA IS FUN

Alula’s Intervention Apps were built upon the pillars of engagement and evidenced based intervention. Both are critical to the success of reading intervention. Fun is our approach to achieving student attentiveness. And a child’s attention during reading intervention has been proven as the best predictor of intervention success.

Letters and handwriting

Some dyslexic students struggle significantly with letter formation and identification. Alula Learning has developed an intervention application that uses thumb movements in combination with precise letter formation to aid in letter comprehension. The focus on precise letter formation also results in beautiful handwriting.

 What Others Have to Say About It

“This process saved my marriage.  My wife and I were fighting all the time.  I thought my son was being lazy and my wife felt instinctively something was wrong!  Once our son enrolled in the process he began to flourish and was successful in school without the need for additional interventions.”

- Gregg R.

“It’s hard to watch your child feel dumb or stupid because they fail the state assessment and all their friends pass.  I loved to watch her begin to comprehend what she read rather than just going through the motions of reading!”

- Robert M.

“My son never passed a spelling test and after this program he began bringing home 100s.”

- Jessica L.

“He was beginning to shut down at school, but then my son’s confidence began to grow within the first few weeks.  I would watch him be successful with understanding language for the first time.  I can’t tell you how that made us feel as parents. We were so proud.”

- Jennifer S.

“I was so impressed by how quickly my daughter’s handwriting improved.  I could barely read what she wrote before. Now her handwriting is becoming better than mine.”

- Chantel B.

“I am Hispanic, so I speak with an accent. My son was struggling to read and falling behind in school. I blamed myself and thought maybe it was my fault. Maybe my voice is hurting his ability to read…so I stopped reading to him at night before bed. I stopped reading to my own son, which broke my heart. Now after just a few sessions his reading is improving! He’s doing so well and I am so very proud of him. I now know that the teaching method used in school wasn’t working for him. It isn’t anyone’s fault, it just wasn’t what he needed. This method works, and you can see it in his face and his grades.”

- Barbara L.

FAQs

 

WHAT IS THE ALULA METHOD™?


Alula is a teaching method originally designed to teach severely dyslexic children to read. It was later discovered to work for all children, even those without learning disabilities. The Alula Method is used to help early-stage students build a firm foundation in reading fundamentals so that they can take full advantage of traditional reading and writing education.

HOW DOES ALULA WORK?


The Alula intervention technique exploits a student’s procedural memory paths to build an initial lexicon for both letters and sight words to compensate for under performing occipito-temporal cortex function typically associated with dyslexic students.  Essentially, Alula Learning built Alula to hack the visual long-term memory lookup by forming a lexicon based upon movement.

The discrete system assembly teaches letters without sounds and sounds with letters and then combines the two after the students have mastered the concepts independently.  Alula teaches students to read while bolstering their self confidence.

WILL REDBIRD DUPLICATE MY CHILD’S CURRICULUM?


Alula uses your child’s existing curriculum to teach specific strategies that will assist them to master reading. We address the five components of literacy with depth beyond what your child will experience at their school.

WHY IS MY CHILD FALLING BEHIND IN READING?

Reading can be difficult and the current method of teaching reading does not guarantee success for everyone.  Consider a child learning about the letter ‘e’ for the first time.

  • There are two different symbols for this letter - E, e

  • There are two sounds (long and short)

    • That is, until you start reading, then you find out there are modifiers like ‘r’ and ‘w’ that change the sounds

    • The sounds are very similar to something you have already heard ‘i’ and ‘a’ - which both have at least two sounds (before the modifiers) and it is easy to start blending the sounds

    • Sometimes the modifiers make the different letters sound the same.

This is why Alula leverages discrete system assembly to teach in a piece-wise fashion as follows:

Teach the letters

  • The letter ‘e’

    • Only the lowercase is introduced to avoid confusion

Teach the sounds

  • All ~26 vowel phonemes are taught with associated ‘trigger’ movements as a ‘map key’.  This promotes identification of the different sounds (phonemes) and begins the process of identifying the sounds as a building block of words.

Teach the pairings

  • All the possible combinations of letters (graphemes) are mapped to the sounds using movement (for automaticity of recall)

WHAT’S THE RIGHT AGE FOR ALULA?


Alula will work with Kindergartners through adults, but the software is designed for students in primary schools (K-5).

ARE THERE ANY AGE LIMITS FOR USING ALULA?

There are no age limits, but older students might find some of the games less engaging

HOW MUCH DOES THE ALULA METHOD COST?

Please contact Alula Learning and we will make sure you are the first to be notified when Alula Island is available for sale.

HOW CAN THIS SYSTEM HELP ME AS A PARENT?

Redbird can ease your fears concerning your child falling behind in school. The countless hours spent after school doing homework and getting frustrated become less and less as your student begins to master the process. Some brains are simply designed to learn in a way where traditional methods of teaching are inadequate.

By enrolling your child in Alula Learning, you can rest assured that you are providing them with a teaching approach that fits their learning style and ensuring they develop a fundamental skill needed to succeed in life.

MY CHILD ISN’T DYSLEXIC AND DOESN’T HAVE A LEARNING DISABILITY. WHY DO I NEED SOMETHING LIKE ALULA?

Alula can help your child organize their thoughts and substantially improve handwriting and spelling.