auditory processing

Get hold of the Lindamood-Bell book called “Visualizing & Verbalizing”. For the price of that book, a dozen index cards, and about 10 4”x4” colored felt squares or even construction paper, you can follow that program with him. It’s an easy program to follow; the bookis very readable. In fact, after you’ve read it, you’ll find ways to implement those principles in much of the work you do with every child and with a class as a whole. That’s what happened with me.

Sometimes kids with auditory processing deficits also have trouble forming images, making pictures, in their brain. Some of them might be very strong at visualizing symbols and are great decoders and sight word readers. But it’s been found that visualizing pictures of a story that one’s reading or listening to is a different function from visualizing symbols (letters/words). So one can be strong in one area yet still weak in another. The V&V program is designed to help those with poor comprehension skills.

Can he decode? Most remediation directed at addressing weak decoding skills will incorporate extensive work with auditory processing skills. In fact, AP is one of the cognitive areas that is extraordinarily responsive to remediation. Many kids in good remedial programs such as Orton Gillingham make substantial gains in this area.

Robin

My child, age 6, has recently been diagnosed with APD, although I recognized it at an early age because I am a special ed. teacher myself.

I would like to ask Joan if she has used “Seeing Stars” by Lindamood Bell and whether it is good to do before V+V. I was told that my child had good enough phonemic awareness that she does not need LiPS. She can decode 3 letter words well,but has difficulty with longer words. Auditory memory is a problem, too. When I ask her questions after she reads aloud, she usually answers, “I don’t know”. I am afraid she is going to have comprehension problems, but it is a little early to tell since it is only the fall of first grade. I am considering taking the LB training because I could use it with some of my students as well as my child.

Thanks!

Thanks for your idea, Joan. How long does it take to present a lesson from Visualizing and Verbalizing?

No, he doesn’t decode well at all. He doesn’t even want to try. I am using Phono-graphix with him but feel somewhat frustrated, because he is so strongly visual. He finds it very hard to tell me how many sounds are in a word, for example, because he pictures the spelling of the word and wants a sound for each letter. (I think he has finally accepted the fact that when he writes a word such as ‘like’ he is to say only three sounds.) To overcome his strong visual memory, I’m trying nonsense words now, to force him to sound them out. He is a real challenge!

Pat,

I wanted to comment on two things already mentioned. I talked with Lindamood Bell one day last week, and they recommend a minimum of one hour each day for their programs. More time, more rapid progress is what they say. That is why resource teachers are in a bind. You could only serve about 5-6 students on a caseload, and really very very few public schools provide that level of service. They do say it is possible with some programs to work with a small group, so I’d recommend you call them and ask specific questions. It sounds like this child might need to start over with either an Orton Gillingham based program as or Lindamood Bell LiPS (phonemic sequencing) and then possibly Seeing Stars (symbol imagery) and V+V as others have already suggested.( www.lindamoodbell.com)

A good resource to strengthen auditory processing and phonological skills is Earobics (about $59 for the home version which can be used with 2 or 3 students, school version costs more, but you could buy the homeversion and replace it when completed). They recommend this CD rom to be used for 20 minutes 3 times per week, supervised. It could be used by the SLP instead of you since you need to instruct him in many things. (www.earobics.com)

Janis

The truth is that EVERY program works best when practiced for 1 hour a day, be it LMB, Orton Gillingham, Reading Reflex, etc. It isn’t anything about LMB that makes it special in this way. It’s no different than taking piano lessons. If you practice an hour a day, you’re going to see steady improvement. That’s how any program of any kind is best served.

But schools often don’t have such resources and do the best they can. I’ve found that an hour 3x a week (Mon/Wed/Fri) works adequately and even a half hour daily 5x a week works OK. No, the improvement might not come as quickly as a daily 1 hour session but again, that’s true of any remedial program.

Janis, it would be great if you took the LMB training. You’re right - you’ll find ways to use it with all your kids. Heck, you’ll find ways to incorporate it for yourself. Doing the V&V program with kids has improved MY visual imagery and it’s not an area where I’ve ever struggled.

You can begin Seeing Stars at any time - it doesn’t need to come after V&V. I usually just incorporate it as part of the LIPS program and don’t teach it as a separate program. I do have to say that I like the LIPS program even for kids who don’t have auditory processing issues. That’s because there’s so much more there besides just the auditory chunk. It’s also a really strong phonics program and that will benefit any kid. It’s all blended in together with the auditory discrimination piece in a really cohesive way. When you add Seeing Stars to it, I think there’s no program more complete in teaching a child to read and spell.

When you read aloud to your daughter and then ask her questions, what does she say? She’s very young. She may be concentrating so hard on the decoding piece when she’s reading a passage that she hasn’t any concentration left for comprehension. So read to her yourself and ask her questions.

Someone asked about my background. I started out as a nursery school teacher, then moved on to elementary. I taught first and second grade in a parochial school originally. I then got my Montessori certification, taught 1st/2nd/3rd grade for several years and along the way took the LMB training in an effort to help my son who was a very poor reader. That’s spurred me on to where I am now - studying for my master’s degree in special education. I’ve been tutoring children and adults for the last three years using the LMB method.

Joan,

That is so true that an hour of individual instruction would be best with any program. I did ask LB about younger children and their attention span and she responded that they have children as young as 6 come to their intensive 4 hour sessions! That would be overwhelming to some children, I would think, but I think the hour would be a great thing to shoot for!

The resource programs where I work have 30 minute periods throughout the day and the subjects are divided between reading, writing, and math. So if a student needed all three areas, they could have 90 minutes a day. I would question 30 minutes for reading, though, since these are small groups of 4-5 students.

Janis

“When you read aloud to your daughter and then ask her questions, what does she say? She’s very young. She may be concentrating so hard on the decoding piece when she’s reading a passage that she hasn’t any concentration left for comprehension. So read to her yourself and ask her questions.”

She usually answers, “I don’t know”, but I completely agree that the focus on decoding may be the problem with the comprehension. However, because of her auditory processing issues, she usually requires repetition for comprehension when something is read aloud to her. I will say that her problems are on the mild side and I think she has an excellent chance of succeeding if we use the right strategies to teach her now.

Joan, I am so glad to find someone with experience in LB! I really do think it would be useful to me as a special ed. teacher as well as working with my own child. I take it from your post that you did the LB program with you own son, is that right? How much time did you spend on it each day? My little girl is tired after a long day at school and we already spend over an hour working on her phonics, reading, math, and spelling homework. I am also considering asking the school to get their resource teacher or SLP trained in LB. It is a charter school and they are very interested in improving programs to make them better than the regular public schools. It would help a lot of she were gettting some of it at school.

Janis

To be honest, it’s hard to do the LMB program in any group of more than 4. One year, I was assigned 8 first graders who needed the LMB program. It was a disaster from the start - too many kids for that program. I had to break them into two groups. Depending on your kids, even 4 at a time might be hard, esp. with just a half hour allotted for reading time. If I were doing it, I’d break them into two groups for 4 days of the week and only take them all together on the fifth, if that’s at all possible. That way, they’d all get 3 sessions a week anyhow. On the day that they’re together, you can play some games that consolidate their skills. LMB has a bingo game, for instance. Do you HAVE to work with all four at the same time every day?

Yes, I’ve also heard about 6 year olds going to their program 4 hours a day and I’ve wondered how it could be possible. Even the average 6 year old is inclined towards spaciness! I’d love to observe for a day at one of their regional centers to see how they do it with such a young child. Sounds like boot camp, doesn’t it?

I am in a wonderful situation because I am teaching children whose primary disability is hearing impairment (some have LD also, and they are from mild HI to profoundly deaf). I only have 6 kids on my caseload so I work with them all one-on-one. The LD resource teachers are the ones with caseloads of around 30, so they are forced to group in groups of 4 or 5. In my experience, I think 45 minutes of one-on-one is plenty for a 6 year old. LB did tell me that in the four hour intensive sessions they sometimes switch teachers. That strikes me as funny that they expect a child to sit through 4 hours of intense therapy while a teacher isn’t expected to do the same !

My own child is 6 (adopted from China at age 6 months) and she has an auditory processing disorder, so I am in an unusual situation where I can potentially learn some new methods which will help my child as well as some of my students. The only thing is that I do want her school to develop the right programs for the benefit of other children as well (it is a fairly new charter school). So I am going to try to get them to offer LB.

Janis

Charter schools are usually very amenable to trying new systems - that would be great if you could encourage them to look into LMB. When I took the training, there were some teachers from charter schools. Actually it was interesting to see that most of the people attending the course were speech and language pathologists.

At the LMB regional centers, I believe that a session with a teacher runs for 50 minutes with a 10 minute break in between before a new session with a new teacher begins. The room is set up with cubicles. Each student sits in a cubicle with their trainer. I believe there are about 20 or so cubicles in the room. It’s a fairly drab room because they want the kids to focus on the work itself. If a student began at, say, 9:00 am, their first session might be the LIPS program. After the break, they might move on to 50 minutes of V&V with a new trainer. Another 10 minute break follows and then they work with another trainer for 50 minutes on, say, Seeing Stars. Another break, then perhaps Cloud Nine for the final 50 minutes. The trainers continue to get new students all day long so although they’re working the whole time, it’s not with the same child for 4 hours. That part makes great sense for both student and teacher because the work is at such an intensive level.