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Need examples of traditional auditory discrimination exercis

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

My dd finished up with her speech and learning therapy about a month ago. I just got her last evaluation in the mail. The therapist recommended traditional auditory discrimination exercises. I am trying to find any books or examples so that I can do this with dd. Is phoneme awareness a part of auditory discrimination?

My dd has completed two versions of Fast ForWord. She did poorly on the auditory discrimination part of the therapy. Apparently she had to listen to different pitches and then determine if they were low or high. She had to press the up button (high) and the down button (low) according to the sequence of the pitches. I personally felt that my dd could differentiate the sounds, but she had a problem with remembering the sequence of the sounds.

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks,
Jan P.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/18/2002 - 3:30 AM

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Jan,

Has anyone mentioned the possibility of auditory processing disorder? You might consider having her tested by an audiologist who specializes in APD.

Yes, PA is a component of AD. As a matter of fact, the former name of the Lindamood Bell LiPS program was Auditory Discrimination in Depth. You could also have her tested at a Lindamood Bell center (reading, PA).

Janis

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/18/2002 - 3:43 AM

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She has gone through two Fast ForWord programs which remediates or helps corrects auditory processing problems. She did very well on most of the games except the one on auditory discrimination.

I can’t do Lindamood Bell because it is too expensive and also Reading, PA is quite a distance from FL (my home state).

I have already spent almost $2000 on Fast ForWord with about another $1000 on Interactive Metronome (including testing). This doesn’t even cover the visual and auditory therapy fees that we also built up. I’m spent out at the moment!

I had thought of getting the Lindamood Manual to glean what I can to help dd. It is a little pricey though.

Thanks for your suggestions.
Jan P.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/18/2002 - 3:58 AM

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Sorry, I meant reading and phonological awareness, not Reading, PA!

Do you mean she has been diagnosed by an audiologist with auditory processing disorder (APD)? I wasn’t sure from your post. A speech therapist can recommend Fast ForWord but cannot diagnose APD (unless he/she is also an audiologist).

I have viewed video training tapes for LiPS, but I think I’d have to take the training to really feel confident with it. The 3 day training is $599, so it’s still expensive to do yourself.

Since you mention IM and visual therapy, I’m assuming there are multiple factors involved here and not just auditory discrimination problems. That makes things more complicated, of course.

Janis

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/19/2002 - 4:41 AM

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Janis,
Oh dear, I’m so sorry for my blunder about the reading and PA abbreviations. I still don’t get all the internet lingo. I mistakenly drove into Reading, PA years ago, so that was on my mind when I read your previous post. LOL!

As of October 2001 my dd started seeing a speech and learning therapist. She was given several tests including an audiogram, Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test, the Scan-C (assesses binaural auditory discrimination skills), The Auditory Attention Span for Related Syllables Sub-test of the Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude, the Elison(subtest of Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing), and the Expressive One-Word Pciture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT). Here was the result of the test: My dd came in low on all tests (not sharing scores). The therapist wrote, “Reduced auditory discrimination skills, reduced auditory memory and reduced phonological processing skills clearly indicate an Auditory Processing Disorder.”

So in a sense the therapist said that these problems indicated that my dd had an Auditory Processing Disorder, but did not say that “Yes, she has an Auditory Processing Disorder.” I guess this is what I am going by.

About the LIPS manual, are you saying that it wouldn’t be beneficial since I am not trained in their procedures. I don’t want to waste my money on something I can’t use.

Thanks,
Jan P.

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/19/2002 - 4:44 AM

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I meant to say that my dd’s audiogram test was normal therefore her audio acuity was fine; therefore her audio acuity was not negatively impacting other test scores or reading.

Jan P.

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/20/2002 - 1:27 AM

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“About the LIPS manual, are you saying that it wouldn’t be beneficial since I am not trained in their procedures. I don’t want to waste my money on something I can’t use.”

Yikes, Jan. I am not really qualified to answer that. What I have been told is that Visualizing and Verbalizing is easy to do with just reading the manual but that most people need to do the training to feel confident in doing LiPS. And if you go for the three day training at $599, then the manual is given to you as part of that fee. So it would be better to not buy the manual ($100) now if you thought you might attend the training.

You’re right, your child has not really had an auditory processing evaluation, but her test scores do indicate possible APD. So the intervention would likely be the same regardless of whether you pursued the further testing. LiPS seems to be a good choice for many APD kids. I’d consider getting a Lindamood Bell evaluation in order to know what they think she really needs first, though. Even if you do the training, you will save loads of money doing the therapy yourself.

Janis

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 12/30/2002 - 6:42 PM

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Jan,

Consider doing phonographix (the book is called reading reflex) It really is more similar than different to lips in that it teaches phonemic awareness, blending and segmenting. The people who wrote this program based it on the research done by lindamood and others.

It is simple, logical and easy to do. It gives you some basic tests you can do that measure pa, segmenting and blending so you can really see where the breakdown is.

My son was an early talker and I never thought he had a specific auditory deficit, yet, he did have trouble obtaining phonemic awareness and other skills needed for reading partially because of the way it was being taught at school. He especially had a problem segmenting and still does. I believe this is related to his sequencing deficit. Like you, I have noticed he doesn’t have trouble hearing the sounds but will at times put them in the wrong order. (For example he will read tried as tired.) This to me is sequencing and it just fits his overall profile.

With alot of repetition using the reading reflex book I have been able to really focus on this specific area. He needs alot of help with segmenting. I wouldn’t know he needed help in this specific area if I hadn’t done phonographix with him.

He is a very good reader now. We still use the reading reflex book to work on multisyllable words and I have added seeing stars for this stage.

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