The LIPS program works on developing phonemic awareness as a basis for improving reading decoding and spelling.This is an auditory discrimantory program that uses a multi-sensory approach to identify sounds and their sequence in words. Students are taught 16 consonant sounds which are grouped into eight pairs (lip poppers - p&b, tongue scrapers - k &g, tongue tappers - t & d, tongue coolers - th like in the & th like in with, lip coolers - f & v, fat air pushed ch & j, fat air streams sh & zh and skinny air streams - s & z). The remaining consonants are taught as such tongue lifter - l&r, wind noises - w,wh,h, and nose sounds - m,n,ng. Vowels are taught again by how their mouth feels with each vowel sound. The vowel sounds fall under four categories on a Vowel Circle: smiles (ee,e,i,ae,a), open (u,o,aw,au), round (oe,oo,oo) and sliders (ue,ie,ow/ou, oi/oy) as well as Crazy r's (ar,er,or,ir, ur). Sounds are taught in isolation and then taught through a tracking process (segmenting and blending as well as manipulating sounds). Words used are sometimes real words and other times aremadeup words. Reading and spelling activities are completed through these tracking and manipulating exercises. Expectancies are taught for such rules as two vowels go walking, hard/soft c&g, letter y sound, etc. This program leads from simple words to complex words with prefixes and suffixes.