Financial issues

It is a raw sore for many of us and one that many of us silently deal with. My husband and I are probably out close to $20K in remediating our child. I have thousands invested in my education, specialized training, my time has not been my own for over 3 years now, car has almost 100K miles on it from driving 100 miles a day to get specialized help for my daughter and I gave up my art career. Sacrifice is no stranger to any parent of a child with LD’s. We can’t even write the remediation bills off our taxes because it isn’t deductible according to the IRS. To help a child reach their potential is worth whatever sacrifice I have had to make.. I just wish the cost both emotionally and monetary wasn’t as high as it. We grow through our trials and I suppose that is what I have learned…. empathy and compassion for other children and their parents who face similar struggles.

I haven’t found the money tree either…

You aren’t alone. Can’t even begin to put a number on the costs of getting our son through the lower grades and then high school. Never got one dime of reimbursement. Vision Therapy, OT, Independent Evals, Tutoring, Non-Public Placement, 100 miles a day to and from school, working off school debts at the school, time spent in due process, money wasted on an attorney, time spent in federal court (no attorney)… all this prior to high school. High School also a non-public placement, gave up on help seeking from the public system or reimbursement by that point.

Was it expensive? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I do it over again to get our son where he is today? In a heart beat.

Andy

Hi
As of yet we have not incurred such large expenses, but a good friend did and she was able to deduct almost $30,000 in expenses under medical expense because she had a prescription for these services from her doctor. It might be something to look into. Good Luck

It’s important to try to plan out an overall strategy, so you can invest the limited $$$ you have to do the most good.

Does all of your son’s vision therapy have to be done in-office? Although there are some vision problems that need to be addressed in-office, usually many of the exercises can be done at home, reducing costs substantially. If your developmental vision specialist is not willing to design a primarily home-based program, you may want to check with others in your area.

I basically homeschool my daughter in important academic subjects (especially reading and math), but she is enrolled in a small public charter school. The public school as free, good quality daycare for us. If your son’s private school will be switching him from alphabet phonics to Saxon phonics (which has gotten the thumbs down from a couple of people on the homeschooling boards who have tried it), it may no longer be worth the money to you. Maybe you should opt for free daycare instead.

What kind of tutoring is your son getting? Many children respond just as well to a parent using a good, solid approach. I would think that if your son is responding to alphabet phonics, he would be highly likely to respond to the Phono-Graphix approach. For $16 you can buy the book “Reading Reflex” and become your son’s tutor. If PG isn’t enough, some homeschoolers have purchased Lindamood Bell LiPS to use at home (about $500). Similarly, with math, there are excellent homeschooling curriculums available that don’t require teacher training and one of the best — Singapore Math — costs only about $60 for an entire year’s curriculum of textbooks and workbooks.

Many of us have provided therapies ourselves. For example, for $100 it’s possible to buy a self-teaching tutorial and become a certified provider of FastForWord. If you buy the software when it’s discounted and already have the computer equipment, you can do the entire program at home for about $750. This saves a minimum of $850 where we are (training at home but using an outside provider). FFW done in an office setting costs $3,000 or more. If you have a college degree, after you are certified you can provide your services to other families for a fee. Interactive Metronome and PACE are two other therapies that can be done in this way — train to provide at home, and then it’s possible to provide the program to others for a fee. (Both also require college degrees — any field — to provide to other than your own child.)

For about $80 you can get everything you need to do cognitive training exercises at home (Audiblox). The biggest cost is time, as it requires working one-on-one with your child for half-an-hour a day. This is one program that you could actually hire a high school student to do, as the exercises are fairly simple.

It has been my experience that it’s much better to invest in yourself than in a school. (Our dd was in a private school. We took her out to homeschool and, with the money saved on tuition, were able to provide therapies such as PACE.) If you’re working full-time and do not have the support of friends and family, then there’s no way you can add on all kinds of homeschooling and therapy. In that case, I would pick one thing to do (Reading Reflex, or Audiblox, or ….) and get started. Doing some of the things yourself can become very empowering, as well as less of a drain on finances.

Mary

Also have you tried to submit Vision Therapy yourself under major medical?? Have been there myelf.

How do you get certified to provide IM?

First off, you need to have a college degree (any area) to buy the package. The package includes all of the materials — book, hardware to attach to computer, software — including enough computer practice hours to put 13 people through the program.

In order to become certified, you first have to put yourself through the training, and then two other people (could be your children, husband, whoever). At that point you can become certified to provide to others. You have already purchased enough hours to put 10 more people through IM, so there is nothing additional to purchase until you have used up all the hours. How much you charge other people for your services is up to you. Typically you charge them the cost of the computer hours to you ($10 per hour, or $100-150 per IM course) plus your time (anywhere from $30 to $70 per hour where I am).

The biggest problem is that you have to invest so much on the front-end. Cost of the package is around $2500, assuming you already have a computer. You can earn back probably the full amount by getting certified and putting other people through the program. It’s not a difficult program to get certified in and actually do, but of course you would have to find others willing to pay you to go through the program. Over the long run, it’s cheaper than putting a child through IM through an outside provider. Plus, you can give your child as many hours as you want. It can take awhile to earn back all of your monetary investment, however.

Anyway, if you are interested, you can go to http://www.interactivemetronome.com and email them.

Mary

Hi Kim,
I am a parent/teacher-in-training and hear your pleas. One comment on Alphabetic phonics vs. reading reflex. Alphabetic phonics is the cadillac of programs (extensive training and big
bucks to get it). I also have the reading reflex book and have
spent time looking into it. RR may work for some kids but it would not have worked for my severly dyslexic son—not nearly intensive enough for the severity of his problem. However, had
we been able to find someone to provide Alphabetic phonics for him that would have done a much better job.
I think we’ve finally found a private school that is helping him
which is a blessing because he only has 4 years left before he’s
out of school! Incidentally, we are able to deduct a portion of
his school, books, (transportation %), outside testing because we
have had a physician (with backup from a Phsycologist’s reports)
state that he is dyslexic and needed this special school to benefit from education….but you still have to be able to afford
the upfront money. There is always due process but again you have to have money upfront.
Unfair it is.
Donna

WOW! Thank you so much for all this information. I just recently started looking at this board and you are so wonderful to share so much valuable information. I hope you recognize what a help you have been to me and others!!! I have never really considered getting myself certified to teach some of these programs. But, the money issues are constant source of anxiety for me, especially since my husband is often in denial about our son’s challenges. I have a background in instructional design and some student-teaching experience. I think I can do it. My son is more and more compliant working with me as the years go by.

How hard was it to get certified with PACE? That is the program we have been considering. Would you start with Interactive Metronome first? I ordered BrainSkills to arrive next week, but now I’m rethinking my strategy since I’ve learned of so many new products out there.

My son (10 yrs.) has been working with an Academic Language Therapist using Alphabetic Phonics for the last year. His tutor is wonderful and comes to his school. But she suspects, as I do that it is not the right program for him. Another tutor has suggested we use LIPS. But, my son’s reading problems are not severe and seem to be more linked to comphrehension of vocabulary and maybe some visual tracking, versus decoding words. Processing, Memory, and fine-motor delays are his greatest challenges. He looks like an ADD kid at first glance, but, I’ve always considered attention problems a symptom, not a real source of his problems. He can’t process information effectively, so he tunes out. He knows a lot more than he can demonstrate because of his word retrieval problems and shyness. We know he is smart, and even he knows he’s smart (Praise the Lord!) But, it takes time for a teacher or tutor to connect with him and recognize it too.

Where would you start with all the products mentioned if you were me? BrainSkills, PACE, IM, Phono-Grafix, Neuronet, AudioBlox?

Sound like you have an earned a honorary Ph.D. in CAPD and learning differences. Thanks again Mary.

Rosie