My 9-year old daughter was diagnosed ADHD a year ago and recently diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder. She has an IEP and I am trying to find some help for her outside the classroom. We live in a rural area and I am having trouble finding anyone to help me. I have heard of the Fast ForWord program and have done some research on it. I have also been told about PACE. We would have to administer the PACE program in our home to our daughter. There are no providers in our area. Has anyone put their child through the PACE program at home? What were the results? Does anyone know of any other options for CAPD kids? I’m getting really frustrated.
Re: Central Auditory Processing Disorder
I don’t know too much about CAPD but I thought I would give you this site in case it might help you.
http://www.theshop.net/campbell/central.htm
Re: Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Was your daughter assessed by a CAPD audiologist? If not, that’s the first thing you should do. You can find audiologists who specialize in CAPD at http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/ (go to links and scroll near bottom of page). Your medical insurance may cover this eval. Usually the audiologist’s office can tell you what you need to do to get coverage.
A CAPD audiologist can tell you what subtype(s) of CAPD your daughter has. If she has the decoding subtype, then FastForWord would be very likely to help a lot. You can do FFW at home yourself.
An alternative to PACE is Audiblox. Website is http://www.audiblox2000.com It’s not as comprehensive as PACE, but it can be helpful. Cost is about $80 to get started, but you have to be prepared to work one-on-one with your daughter for 1/2 hour a day for several weeks before seeing improvement. Also, PACE has just come out with a home-based program for $500. It has about 1/3rd of the exercises in a regular PACE program. Website for that is http://www.brainskills.com
TLP is sometimes helpful. This is a mild sound therapy using acoustically modfified classical music. Website is http://www.advancedbrain.com
Mary
Re: Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Thanks to all of you for the information. These messages have been a big help. My husband and I have decided to get a language assessment for our daughter. She has already been assessed by an audiologist and a developmental pediatrician. I guess we need to find out what her specific auditory problems are and then figure out what kind of therapy she needs. Again thanks for all your help.
Re: Central Auditory Processing Disorder
If the audiologist does not specialize in CAPD, you didn’t get the kinds of tests needed to assess subtype and severity. While a language assessment can be very valuable, it will not provide you with specific information about auditory problems. Most audiologists are not trained to assess CAPD. Language pathologists can only screen for CAPD (sort of like a vision screening indicates a need for glasses, but does not determine what kind).
I mention this because parents often think they have covered the auditory system with a trip to an audiologist, and that’s not the case with CAPD.
Mary
What are her specific CAPD issues? Fast Forward helps a lot with decoding problems but does nothing for some other problems like auditory integration. My son went through FFW last summer when he was 7 (I was provider) and it licked the decoding problem, resulting in much improved receptive language skills.
We are currently planning to do PACE this summer as a parent provider to deal primarily with his visual processing problems. PACE has an auditory component but my own feeling was that it was a less proven remedy than FFW. They have very limited data on the auditory component.