Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes

Pat Lindamood spent a lifetime helping the world understand the sensory-language connection necessary for reading, spelling, and speech. She is recognized internationally for her seminal work on phoneme awareness as a primary sensory-cognitive factor underlying competency in language and literacy skills.

We at Lindamood-Bell recognize Pat’s many contributions, and we will remember more. We will remember her for all she gave to each of us: a belief that each person could learn to his or her potential, a belief that we could make a difference, and a belief in the good in each individual—and in each of us.

Pat was the essence of kindness, patience, and cheerfulness. She often worked until the wee hours of the morning, carefully writing and editing, only to awaken happy and rested after a few hours of sleep. She was never unkind and she never lost patience. Even when a student lost patience with a task, she found some way to respond positively to his response.

Some of us will remember more—a silent entrance into a room that made you jump out of your skin, an unwavering belief in the power of articulatory feedback and mouth pictures, a small hand slowly, ever so slowly, eating popcorn one kernel at a time in a movie theater, and a kindness and love that is rarely seen and experienced on this earth.

Pat didn’t just disappear. She is with us every time we ask a student to compare his response to a stimulus, every time we make a presentation on the sensory-language connection, and every time we dig down and find patience we thought we didn’t have. For me, she is constantly here, saying, “We just have to keep on keeping on, Nanci Dear.”

Like all who knew Pat, Phyllis and I miss her and love her. We remember. August 27th will forever be Pat’s Day.

Pat Lindamood Day