auditory processing/decoding problems

Homeschooling a student with learning disorders is very difficult without specialized training and materials. I did it with training. Here are a few ideas.

First, my philosophy is to go with these methods:

I believe in direct and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness via Lindamood-Bell. I modify it based on student needs and that requires understanding the whole program—and more.

I believe in synthetic and analytic phonics instruction via Orton-Gillingham taught in an explicit and systematic way through programs like SPIRE (which also has the Lindamood component) and Wilson Language. I do also put some analogical teaching into my in-context reading after students have achieved a third-grade reading level.

There are many other fluency/comprehension components that are too lengthy to name here. They have occurred in other discussions currently on this BB.

Despite what the world seems to think, being a skilled and expert teacher takes exacting training in the right proportions to serve specific populations. I am an expert teacher of reading for LD and at-risk populations. It has taken me many years to learn what I need to know—and I’m not finished yet. I probably never will be finished learning about reading/writing.

I did not learn many of the things that I need to know in my teacher prep classes and my graduate classes were more of the same. It is no wonder that we have lots of teachers who cannot teach reading. They are not taught half of what they need to know even with an MS in Reading from most universities.

Decoding is the most difficult to teach because it requires that the instructor be skilled at segmenting/blending/manipulating phonemes (individual sounds in words). One must be able to expertly “hear” the errors in word pronunciation and guide the student toward discovering the correct pattern. Not everyone is blessed with appropriate phonemic awareness ability to learn these skills.

We encourage students to use metacognition (thinking about thinking) when reading. We want them to *know* when they don’t know something—the first step to learning it. It is time for the adults teaching them to do the same. We must all know our strengths and weaknesses in order that we might learn what is needed to be a good teacher/leader of children.

Sorry about soap-box. Not directed at you. I don’t know your strengths/experience or that of you child’s teacher/tutor. It is for you to objectively determine. The objectively part is difficult for parents who love their children. For me, too!

Susan, where are you located?

I am in the Kansas City metro area.

Do you have the book, “When the Brain Can’t Hear” by Teri Bellis? It is an excellent book on APD. I think it would help to have some solid knowledge of APD before beginning to work on the skills. Next, did you have APD testing by an audiologist specializing in APD? What were the therapy recommendations? Do you have the results of speech language testing as well?

I am a special ed. teacher but we chose to have all the testing (educational, speech/language, APD, IQ) analyzed by an APD specialist (audiologist) who is also a SLP. That helped us focus on the objectives and therapies that would be most beneficial. I have a pretty good handle on what my child needs at this point, and fortunately, any extra training I get really benefits my students as well. I do think you can do it yourself. But you will need some guidance about what to use. And you may have to take some training. If you want to email me your child’s test scores, I will give you my opinion. Then if you’d like, I can give you the name of the specialist who we used to give us an analysis of our testing (cost:$200).

By the way, I do like Earobics and use it at home and at school with my hearing impaired students. Intensive use is the key.

Janis

lwieland,

I am just now connecting your name to a post on the NCAPD board. I live within an hour of you. Please email me and we can talk more. I’ll be glad to give you my phone number. You have good access to training and resources where you live!!!

Janis

I agree with Susan L that it takes a lot of time and work and continued study to master this field. And Janis is very apt in reminding you to take your time and get it right. But I do think a parent can do a good job — after all you are committed to your child, and if you go into this with eyes open knowing that it’s a many-year full-time commitment, you can learn a lot more than those supposedly qualified reading teachers that Janis mentions. Please feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll try to answer those I can and direct you to the right resources to answer others.

Has your child tried the earobics yet? I got it for my son. He worked on the ones he was good at for a short time but it wouldn’t increase the difficulty fast enough…then he tried some that gave him real difficulty….The computer gave him appropriate challenge for only a short time and then kept consistently giving him problems that were too hard. He cried and got very frustrated and didn’t want to play anymore. It wouldn’t drop the challenge level or give him a mix no matter how many he got wrong….Within a day he didn’t want to go near the program with a ten foot pole. Try it before you give up the therapist.lwieland wrote:
>
> Our 8-year-old daughter has some moderate auditory processing
> problems that have resulted in problems with decoding and
> reading comprehension.
> She has been going to a very expensive speech therapist for 3
> months now, twice a week, each a half hour session. We’re
> not sure she’s made much progress. We’re homeschooling this
> year and are considering stopping the speech therapy and
> working with her at home, using Earobics, etc. Can anyone
> recommend other materials, CDs, etc. that would be helpful
> for a child with these issues? We know about FastForword.
> It seems that it works for some children and not for others
> and no one knows why. Plus, it’s very, very expensive. An
> educational specialist in my area told me that they have
> found that Earobics combined with verbal decoding practice is
> as effective as FastForword. Any thoughts on that? Thanks
> for any advice.

I will confirm that a child must be developmentally ready for Earobics. I tried it the first time at age 4 and my child just couldn’t do it. I put it way and took it out about a year and a half later. She did much better then. There are still a couple of games that are hard for her. So we took a break from it again and will try again this fall. I feel that Earobics is very good at adjusting levels. It’s just that a child with APD and/or memory problems may take longer to gain the skills to be able to do some of the games.

Incidentally, I have held off on trying Fast Forward due to the fact she does not like to spend more than 20 or 30 minutes on the computer and FF requires 90-100 minutes a day for at least 6 weeks. I just don’t think she’s ready for that. So at $59, Earobics is a bargain and I think it’s a great thing to try. I use it at school for two hearing impaired children as well and they really like it.

Janis

Shucks! :0)

I think a parent’s commitment and knowledge of their childs emotions, strengths and weaknesses can help to diminish the problems with lack of experience.

When I was a nurse I can remember some parents who knew way more about their child’s disease than I would EVER know. It was their child. The passion with which they developed an understanding of the issues was often staggering.

I sometimes felt the need to get out of their way and just did what I could to be supportive.

It was truely a lesson in humility and empathy.

I have severe CAPD issues that kept me from learning how to read and spell. For me the only thing that worked was the Wilson Reading program that has a strong emphazise on sounds and decoding. Though this program like anything else takes time and the committment. I use to complain about it, but now I’m thankful for it.

You might check out Linguisystems. They have ALOT of materials for APD, listening, really everything. Easy to follow worksheets, games etc. We purchased No Glamour Auditory Processing several years ago, so I still get their catelog - I’m tempted to purchase some of the board games for b-day/xmas ideas.

We also did Earobics and felt we saw good gains from it. But, it was not until AFTER we did Tomatis, which is a sound therapy/auditory tonal training program. My dd struggled with a number of the Earobics exercises and HATED it. We then did the Tomatis and she breezed thru all the exercises except Karloon’s Balloons - and she actually LIKED Earobics. We then discovered she had very handicapped short term memory (as measured by digit span) and purchased Brain Builder SW ($60). After a month of BB (she went from a 3yr old level to a 5 yr old level in about 3weeks) - she then breezed thru Karloon’s Balloons and went on to Earobics Step 2 without any difficulty whatsoever. Note: Tomatis, Earobics, Brainbuilder combo in about a 4mo. time frame, took my dd from not knowing the names/sounds of any of the alphabet to actually reading and being in the top reading group of her kindergarten class!!!

If you have auditory tonal problems, FastForword does do some auditory tonal training whereas Earobics does not, but FF does not do a complete range of tones/frequencies as a sound therapy program would provide.

I just wanted to add that I love Lingui-Systems! The Barnaby’s Burrow Game for APD is really cute!

Dea, I also bought Brain Builder but haven’t used it yet. I’m hesitant about whether there will be carry-over between short-term memory for digits versus sentences (words). Have you seen any? My hesitation on listening programs is that I’m not seeing it recommended by APD experts. To me, there is no great risk to spend $60 on a program that may or may not work. But some of the other programs like FF are VERY high priced to come with no guarantees.

Janis

Thank you so much for all of your responses! I really appreciate your support and willingness to share the names of the programs you’ve used and the results, too.

I recommend that you buy the book Reading Reflex and start teaching your daughter. This is the least expensive way to teach your child and you will have the help from the bulletin board at Read America or Email me. I have helped many parents with the program. If you child has severe auditory problems, just take more additional time with the program. Email me if you have problems but I just started school and I need time to get my classes in order so I will get in touch with you later. Before you spend a lot of money, try it.

Brain Builder is a very boring program. We were very religious about it for like 9mo.!! (every day and sometimes 2x day) Looking back I don’t know how I ever did that. It took alot of creativity and rewards to keep my dd ‘engaged’. I know alot of tricks as well to help move to next level. We plateued at level 5 (5yrs) and it took alot to get to 6. After 9mo. we did master 7 (which was at normal age level) and could even get some of the 8’s right.

Yes, I did see academic improvement with each level gaines. This all related back to reading. When she went from a 3 to a 5 - immediately she could put the sounds together to form words. Each jump she became more fluent. I also became an even stronger advocate for sound therapy. We were doing the listening program (TLP) kind of as booster after Tomatis training. When she plateued on a level, we would do a round of listening and she immediately would jump to next level - it happened every time. (There was a gal couple years ago who use to post here, she used it with her dd who had more visual memory issues - she saw immediate improvement in spelling tests).

BrainBuilder increases your short term memory (I like to compare it like increasing the number of memory ‘slots’ you have), but it doesn’t increase your working memory. Working memory will typically lag and you need to really do more than just BB. When we tired of the computer, we also did flash cards (basically did BB manual method -created our own number cards etc.) We did alot of sequencing in real life - short stories that she had to repeat to me, treasure hunts etc. You have to make it FUN for them and give LOTS of positive reinforcement. I gave my dd a reward even if it took her 5 tries to get it right.

Sound therapy is very controversial and I know it’s hard to spend money on something that does not have sound data behind it. Tomatis was very expensive - it makes Fastforword look cheap! I don’t regret doing it at all - I truely think we would be 2 years behind right now had it not been for Tomatis. I see the difference and we go back every year - it breaks down the walls for my kid.

P.S. One more idea that helps build auditory digit spans is just truely listening - getting lots of auditory input. If you could get your child really hooked on a auditory tape (Harry Potter, Star Wars etc) and they WANT to listen to it Over and Over and Over again, it can be very beneficial. I never could get my dd hooked on anything - she is too much of a TV addict.

what is brain builder sw? and i just purchased earobics , How often and for how long is a 5 yr. old suppose to work on it ? any suggestions for speeded naming ?any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Ari

what is brain builder sw? and i just purchased earobics , How often and for how long is a 5 yr. old suppose to work on it ? any suggestions for speeded naming ?any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Ari