PACE info?

There are several people who come to this board who are currently doing PACE with their kids, or have done it in the past.

I was like you. I first pursued the home program which is called Brainskills. Try the site: www.brainskills.com. Both PACE and Brainskills are developed by Growth Strategies. I did a lot of research before deciding to do PACE. In fact, I ordered the BrainSkills program and ended up returning it so that I could let my son go through the more comphrehensive program PACE. My son’s problems are pretty involved, especially struggles with short-term memory. Even with PACE and a provider, you will be doing 1/2 of the sessions. There is alot of overlap between the 2 programs. For the most part, BrainSkills is a subset of the PACE program. Although, BrainSkills does have some unique exercises.

BrainSkills looks like an excellent program after my review. I also have an education background and years of experience parenting a child with special needs. The price differential for BrainSkills versus PACE is very significant. BrainSkills is only $500. We are paying almost $3000 for PACE with a provider who is willing to come to our house. It was a difficult decision for me. I ended up canceling our family vacation and borrowing money from a college savings account to help fund PACE. Now that we are 4 1/2 weeks into the program. I am glad that I did. My son has been very cooperative working with me in his sessions. But, I can’t imagine doing it without the help of a provider. I think we are getting more out of the program this way. But, if I could not have gotten the funds together, I would have certainly done BrainSkills.

One friend of mine describes the program as “Cognitive Therapy with teeth.” I agree. Even though I discovered this on the internet, and the website has a salesy spin to it… the program itself is really solid and worth looking in to. I called the folks at Growth Strategies directly. They were very helpful in giving me good information to help me decide. Even, if you want to do the home program, you might want to find a local provider to coach you in the beginning. I was going to do that before we decided to go with the full blown program.

If you go back in the threads, you find my posts asking people here to help me decide about PACE. Just search for posts with my name. Also, MaryMN is a PACE provider. She taught her own child. She is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Good Luck.

- Rosie

Just want to add to rosie’s post.

Brainskills is generally recommended for children without learning disabilities who just want a boost in skills. PACE is generally recommended for children with moderate to severe learning disabilities, because it is considerably more comprehensive. PACE has about three times the variety of exercises as Brainskills.

Brainskills can be purchased and used without training. A video demonstrates how to do the various exercises.

PACE requires a trained tutor. You can either go through an outside provider, as rosie is, or you can train to become your child’s own provider. The company gives a substantial discount to parents who train in order to provide for their own child, but total costs including air-fare and hotel to attend the training can make it as expensive as going through an outside provider.

Going through the PACE training yourself does have advantages. If you have more than one child, you can put them all through PACE. Also, you can put a child through PACE more than once. And, if you have a college degree and pay an additional licensing fee, you can become a certified provider to children other than your own — giving yourself an opportunity to earn back the costs. I know two mothers who have done this.

If you email or call the company, they will be very responsive with information.

Mary

Rosie, how old is your child and how old was he/she when you started the PACE program?

Carol

Hi, Mary. When you go into the website, look at the Learninginfo.com link. That’s the one that explains PACE, which you can provide (after training) or you can hire someone else to provide. I’m one of those people who trained my own child, and it was a very positive experience. We made a commitment to each other to work at a specific time each day and to stick it out until we got through PACE and the related reading program, Master the Code. There were times each of us got mad and wanted to quit, but we hung in there, and the results were excellent. (Two or three years of reading improvement; one or two years of writing improved; lots of related gains in attention, strategy, coordination.) We finished the program in May, and my son’s reading has continued to improve all summer. I like the program a lot and think the concentrated effort and money are well worth it for the quick, solid gains.

Good luck in your decision making.

Connie,

I am currently the provider doing PACE with my 8 year old son. We are in the middle of week 10. He has a long ways to go, although he has made a lot of progress. I was thinking about getting the training for MTC but my son had a fit about another program. I was wondering if you just kept on going with MTC and how long you spent on it. Also, did you get your son to age level on all the exercises on PACE?

Beth

Hi, Beth.We started MTC when my son finished the 9th Auditory Processing level of PACE. After that, I did part PACE and part MTC. Toward the end, it was primarily MTC. We started with PACE in mid-December and finished (all but one lesson) mid-May.At least two of those months were primarily MTC. We quit for the summer and plan to go back to do a bit more in his hardest areas of PACE and then finish up MTC. He did get to his age level in nearly all the procedures, but I’m thinking that may be coincidence as much as anything. I’ve done the whole program with 3 kids now, and each of them has progressed about three years (past the place it got hard for them) in most procedures. All of them have progressed all the way to the adult level in some of the favorites—golf and Set. MTC is a harder program to do than PACE because there is a lot less variety and no real games. If you decide to do it, be sure to mix in PACE liberally. I do think it is very well worth the effort.

One trick that worked for me to regain interest when it had flagged was to make my son the trainer for a while. He likes to be in charge, so he did a few sessions with me as the student. It kind of broke our stalemate, and he was willing to resume work.

Good luck!

Connie,

I am impressed with the progress you are getting with PACE. My son is only 8, maybe that has something to do with it. Except in a very few areas, level six was hard for him. He is at an adult level in visual golf now though. He was good at it to start with and he loves it. I can’t see him getting through level 9 on most games, at least in the next few weeks. I am hoping to get to level 7 or 8 in most areas. We are in week 10 and he still has a number of areas where he is still at level 6 like Memory Divided Attention.

We haven’t progressed very fast in the AP work either. He is at AP-4 in most of the activities. I spoke to someone in Sarasota yesterday, where I was trained, and she told me she never has a client move that slow. Some may be my inexperience but I am sure some is my son. He has severe auditory processing problems. PACE is helping, that I am sure. And she gave me a few ideas about how to modify the exercises to help move him along.

Do you homeschool your son? If not, how did you do PACE and MTC through the school year?

My son went to a PG intensive early last fall after he failed to learn to read in first grade. He did learn to read but his many underlying problems have prevented him from reaching grade level. In the past year though we have made approx. 1 1/2 years progress which puts him about six months behind (he is entering third grade). I have been debating between repeating PG intensive (am feeling we need some additional help or training) or doing MTC. The Sarasota people who do both PG and MTC told me that they put the young ones through PG and if that doesn’t stick, they do MTC. So I do think MTC is a surer bet but I think we are both feeling a bit burned out. I can see that undertaking MTC is as much of a commitment as PACE. We started a year ago May (when I gave up on the school) and have done Fast Forward, PG, Neuronet (which we are still doing) and now PACE. When I mentioned MTC to him, he said “not another program.” He is much more amenable to go back to Orlando. I think, frankly, that is because he got to stay in a hotel ect. while another program with Mom means missing time with his friends. We live in Florida so it isn’t as difficult for us.

Beth

Hi again, Beth. You’ve been working hard! My reaction is that your son’s progress is quite slow, but he is making progress, and that’s good. He is not going to be ready to do MTC or Phonographix until he makes substantial progress with the auditory processing issue. Two of the kids I worked with have had severe auditory processing problems, so I know how slow going it is.

Let me give you a few reminders about the way to get the best results…you may be already doing things this way. With the auditory processing procedures, you should be working entirely in one lesson and doing all the procedures in that lesson before moving onto the next lesson. Keep the intensity high. Make sure you are starting with the one procedure that’s easiest, drill on it until he gets it. Move to the next easiest, next easiest, and so on. I almost always leave the actual drill until the last. You should be doing at least 30 minutes of the AP work each session. You might want to break that 30 minutes into 10 minute chunks at the beginning, middle and end of your hour. If some of those tips help, feel free to send me your e-mail, and I would be glad to try to dig out some further advice.

We do not homeschool, although sometimes it feels like we do. We did PACE and MTC in the hour before school started. We were blessed with a 9:10 school start time. It was perfect. I told my son it was like a doctor’s appt, and it was his job to arrive on time. He was never more than a minute or so late.

MaryMN always reminds people to check out whether you are dealing with CAPD. That is Central Auditory Processing Disorder. Its harder to get good PACE results if that is not dealt with first. You have to go to an audiologist who tests for CAPD—not all do. Here’s the link where you can find an audiologist in your area. http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/capd-rf1.html

Good luck!

Connie, I am confused. What do you mean by doing all of the procedures in one lesson? Do you mean that you do all of the AP procedures in one session with the child? That is, you do ASW, AST, ABP, ABP, AAD, AAR, AAS, and AIC drill? I must have been asleep during training when they discussed that!

Mary

Sorry, Mary. I confused both you and Beth. I was talking about doing all the procedures for AP-6 before moving onto the procedures for AP-7. I should have said “level” instead of “lesson.”Beth told me in a separate e-mail that she was told a child could go on in one AP procedure—say ABO—even if they hadn’t passed the other procedures in that AP level. I better get clarification on this. It’s worked well how I’m doing it, but maybe a child could be faster doing it the other way. Thanks for asking.