Need help for my son with CAPD

I don’t want to write a lot about homeschooling if it is totally out of the question in your situation. A lot of the frustrations and inadequacies you mention could be eliminated by homeschooling. You would be able to work with your son as he is now, rather than having to deal with others’ expectations of where he should be.

Has your son had a CAPD evaluation by an audiologist? Are you familiar with TLP, FastForWord, Balametrics, NeuroNet?

If you are interested in doing things yourself — investigating therapies that may help, homeschooling, etc. — then I can post a lot of information that you can start researching. On the other hand, if your primary interest is in getting the school to provide what your son needs, then others who post here are more likely to be of help.

My personal take on your description is that the school situation is hostile to your son. Even if you invest significant amounts of time and energy into “educating” the school and fighting for what your son needs, his needs will still remain unmet and he will continue to fall further behind. If you haven’t considered homeschooling, I would certainly urge you to do so.

Mary

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced their child “pause” when reading. My 10 year old dyslexic, possibly CAPD, possibly ADD-inattentive daughter consistently reads fairly fluently for about a short paragraph or so, and then stops for 5-10 seconds, or until I prompt her. It’s sort of like the power goes out abruptly and for a short period.

I can’t quite determine how consciously she is doing this. Do you think this is an ADD symptom? CAPD? just her not wanting to read?

Thanks,
Laura

Hi Sharon:

First off you’re not alone! Secondly, it’s not hopeless. Being a parent with a child with CAPD as well as hearing loss & dyslexia I’ve been battling the battle now for 8 years in the schools and the first four were a nightmare. I found that I had to find out what worked for my son because the school system didn’t have the resources or willingness to do so. LDOnline is a great place to start.

Your post doesn’t give a lot of information as to what, if any, accomodations your son has in his IEP (does he even have one?). The fact that his teachers have such a negative attitude shows that they clearly don’t recognize or understand CAPD or perhaps any other LD.

There are many things you and your son’s teachers can do to help him. First and foremost is the use of an FM trainer to focus the teacher’s voice and eliminate outside distractions. Furthermore the teachers need to make sure that all the vocabulary used in a lesson is familar to him before they present it orally and they need to make sure he understood everything after the lesson is presented. Here is where you come in. You can volunteer to PREVIEW material with your son (e.g., reading a chapter in a text the class will be using, etc.). Make sure he understands the vocabulary and any strange names. If your son is familiar with the material and vocabulary he will be more at ease listening to the lecture and participating in any class discussion. Here’s the Catch-22, sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint elementary school teachers to give you the information because they sometimes play it by ear within a specific time frame. However, request copies of any and all textbooks (have this included in an IEP) and get a general idea of the material the class will be studying in the next two weeks and try to go over the general concepts and vocabulary. See if this can be your son’s “homework”.

You don’t say if your son has any problems reading or spelling. I would venture to say there is a problem or he probably wouldn’t have been retained. If this is the case it is imperative he gets help in these areas.

Jeanette

Jeanette

I am in the same exact boat with my son who is nine and just started the 4th grade. I am now in the process of waiting for a hearing concerning my son and I am hoping (but trying to be realistic) that they will put him in this wonderful school I have found. I can tell you all out there that they had told me since my son was in kindergarten that they would never provide a reading tutor for my son and finally after much fighting with the district, they have agreed to paying for one, unfortuneatly you do have to fight for it and all that means is (you don’t need a lawyer to get it) you have to be a pain in the butt. And they are paying for a tutor who is a trained orton-gillingham reading specialist which I was shelling out $50 an hour for the last two years. Feel free to email me with any questions, I will do my best to answere you. Lizjrn wrote:
>
> Hi Sharon:
>
> First off you’re not alone! Secondly, it’s not hopeless.
> Being a parent with a child with CAPD as well as hearing loss
> & dyslexia I’ve been battling the battle now for 8 years in
> the schools and the first four were a nightmare. I found
> that I had to find out what worked for my son because the
> school system didn’t have the resources or willingness to do
> so. LDOnline is a great place to start.
>
> Your post doesn’t give a lot of information as to what, if
> any, accomodations your son has in his IEP (does he even have
> one?). The fact that his teachers have such a negative
> attitude shows that they clearly don’t recognize or
> understand CAPD or perhaps any other LD.
>
> There are many things you and your son’s teachers can do to
> help him. First and foremost is the use of an FM trainer to
> focus the teacher’s voice and eliminate outside
> distractions. Furthermore the teachers need to make sure
> that all the vocabulary used in a lesson is familar to him
> before they present it orally and they need to make sure he
> understood everything after the lesson is presented. Here is
> where you come in. You can volunteer to PREVIEW material
> with your son (e.g., reading a chapter in a text the class
> will be using, etc.). Make sure he understands the
> vocabulary and any strange names. If your son is familiar
> with the material and vocabulary he will be more at ease
> listening to the lecture and participating in any class
> discussion. Here’s the Catch-22, sometimes it’s hard to
> pinpoint elementary school teachers to give you the
> information because they sometimes play it by ear within a
> specific time frame. However, request copies of any and all
> textbooks (have this included in an IEP) and get a general
> idea of the material the class will be studying in the next
> two weeks and try to go over the general concepts and
> vocabulary. See if this can be your son’s “homework”.
>
> You don’t say if your son has any problems reading or
> spelling. I would venture to say there is a problem or he
> probably wouldn’t have been retained. If this is the case it
> is imperative he gets help in these areas.
>
> Jeanette
>
> Jeanette

Sounds like you need a conference with the teacher to share some of your worries. Is the school counselor any help to you? Perhaps you could meet with the counselor first to let off steam, then meet with the teacher. You need to get the teacher on your team!

Although, you don’t want your child to get overwhelmed, you might look back on this year and be grateful that this teacher pushed your son to a new level. Part of the learning in 3rd and 4th grade is the fact that work has to be completed and turned in on time. This is an important lesson. If your son can’t do this (which my son can’t either much of the time) find ways to reduce the assignment, so that he CAN meet the deadline and learn to work independently. See if you can find some ways for your son to work ahead on some assignments or work just 1/2 of an assignment for a grade. He can gradually work more and more as the year goes by.

You might want to suggest this year’s teacher talk to last year’s teacher to give her some of her insights and tips for helping him suceed.

Is your son showing signs of stress? If his teachers say that he is happy… that is a good sign that he is not overloaded. Does he care a lot about his grades? or worry about them? Sometimes, I think I feel more stress than my son does, and that his primary source of stress is me, rather than his schoolwork or teacher.

Although, we want our kids to do their best and strive for As, many kids do not have the “drive” or motivation at this age. Grades are just too abstract for them. That doesn’t mean that they won’t learn to be motivated later on. In 3rd grade, we started rewarding our son for good grades. $5 for a “A” and $3 for a “B”. We never acted sad or disappointed about low grades. In fact, before 3rd grade, our son barely saw his report card. The money helped create a little motivation that wasn’t there naturally.

2 years ago, my son was allowed to work during recess or bring home all the work or tests that he did not finish at school. The idea really back fired on us. He started procrastinating work and not focusing even more. Our homework sessions at home were hell, because we had homework plus all the work he didn’t finish too. Last year, we made it clear to him that he was to try to finish all his work AT SCHOOL. Occassionally, his teacher would keep him after school for 30-45 minutes to catch up on work. She also reduced lists of vocabulary words or writing assignments for him. I was not able to coach him as much on the “content” of his work since he was not bringing it home. But, he really made a big leap in his ability to work faster and more independently.

We’ve been doing PACE since July and will finish in a few weeks. I have also seen another BIG leap in his maturity, concentration, and taking responsibility for his school work. He still has difficulty finishing some assignments, especially those with lots of writing. But, he is not procrastinating and going “off in to the ozones” as much as he used to do. PACE and some gentle discipline has trained him to stay on-task more and strive to finish every assignment. My son used to be considered severely ADD- inattentive. It is only considered a mild problem at this point.

We’ve told his teacher that we are not afraid to see him struggle with his school work. We all learn from being challenged to work harder, faster, smarter. But, everyone is on alert to watch for signs of stress and overload. There are times when I have to send a note to school that homework could not be finished on-time. There will be times when our son will make a poor grade and have to live with it. It doesn’t help him in the long run for us to always accomodate for his challenges.

Good Luck. I don’t know if any of my situation is similar to yours or not. Please don’t take my comments as a personal judgement of how you should handle your son’s situation. As parents and teachers, we are manuevering tricky terrain. I’ve learned from the PACE program how to “push” my child to a level just UNDER frustration, so that he pushes himself to do something he couldn’t do before. I’ve been amazed at the level of attention and concentration my son CAN achieve when a little pressure is on. He gains so much confidence too when he achieves a goal.

It is natural for parents of LD kids to want to make the world easier for our kids. But, it is easy to over-compensate too. I don’t want to cheat my son of that sense of satisfaction of overcoming a really tough challenge. Every kid is different. My son’s emotional well-being is more important to me than overcoming any learning disability. I generally think that “pushing” a child to work really hard is looked down upon. We assume that the child will suffer. But, by “pushing” my son and having high expectations, I’ve seen him gain confidence and become a responsible, hard worker.

Good Luck
Rosie

Funny you should mention the FM trainer. His pediatrician suggested it over three years ago and we could not get the school to agree to trying it. Finally, last November in the ARD they brought it up and suggested he be evaluated for the use of one. We were delighted to finally give it a try. Nothing happened before the holidays and then nothing happened after the holidays and I kept putting off calling for fear of alienating myself from those who are in a postion to help. When I did finally call in about March the diagnostician sheepisly admitted that she had dropped the ball on it and would get it going. I patiently waited another month and called again. She stuttered a few times and then said she would check on the progress. I gathered from that that she had dropped the ball again. Finally, a couple of weeks before school let out a member of the assistive technology team came to evaluate him for it and the only reason I know this is because his MTA teacher (who really is trying to help him) called to let me know. She also told me that this assistive tech person said she thought my son’s problem was mostly ADD and not CAPD. In fact, previous to this I had spoken with this tech and she told me that in looking through his records she could see that he had been diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder but not a CENTRAL auditory processing disorder. I told her I thought it was the same thing and she said that they are not. If I remember her lame description, she said that APD is where they hear but don’t process it correctly and that CAPD is where they hear it but something in the brain gets mixed up and they don’t process it correctly. Maybe I have the same problem, because it sure sounds like the same thing to me. Anyway, here it is September and I have not received any word on whether he has been approved or not. The only reason I have been patient this year is because this fall he is due to re-take all of his tests and be completely re-evaluated so I thought I would bring it up then.

However, my patience ran out last Friday when I got a form letter from his teacher informing me that my child does not know his math facts and asked me to sign and return the form. I signed it and continued writing and writing letting loose all of my frustrations and really stressed the delay on the FM trainer. I even told her to feel free to show my letter around to anyone who could possibly help. By 9:30 am I received an email back that said she had done some “detective work” and figured out the problem and that they would try to schedule a “quickie ARD” for this week as soon as they got some signtures to get him started on the FM trainer. I’m glad that something is finally being done, but I am also still mad. It shouldn’t have come to this. I can’t wait for this ARD! I am going to try to be calm and polite but I am also going to finally push and not stop.

I have a kid with capd, dyslexia, and adhd. I UNDERSTAND……..
I can’t give you much hope on his educational needs but I can say you need to have a talk to the teacher about how she is treating him when he doesn’t do as the other children because our children need to feel like they are sucessful even at the things that are hardest for them, my son actually gave up and he got a few teachers that cared about him and boosted his self esteem and he started trying againand like your child works very hard at doing well. That is all I expect. Do you have testing procedures set out in his IEP? He shouldn’t be removed from the class because he can’t finish or doesn’t do well that embaresses him in front of his peers, with my daughter they choose other times that are not educationally necessary to complete her test.
Also his IEP should be designed do be at his ability, that way he is not doing bad on his test all the time, just the best he can.Good luck!

I’m glad to hear he’s finally getting one. Now you need to make sure that it’s used and cared for properly. Don’t let the school and/or teachers say that your son is resonsble for his unit.

- An adult must be in charge of it.
- It needs to be in a safe place overnight and recharged.
- The teacher or other adult should do a sound check every morning to make sure the unit is functioning properly.
- The school should get a list of spare parts from the service rep of whatever company they purchase the unit from and have on hand replacements for certain wires, batteries, mike baffles, etc. that wear out easily.
- Find out what kind of service contract is in place and have a procedure and time frame in place for shipping, etc.
- Is there a spare in the school in the event of breakdown?
- Teachers need to be informed that they cannot wear jewelry around the head and neck area when miked (it causes static).
- Check out your son’s room for anything that might cause ambient noise such as loud aquarium filters, buzzing flourescent lights, etc.
- The teacher should make sure that hallway and street noise isn’t fitering into the room through an open door or window.

Some other things your child’s regular teacher should do when teaching him.

- Ask the teacher not to speak and write at the blackboard with her back to the class. It helps CAPD children to see the face of the person speaking. Overhead projectors are a preferred method of presentation because the teacher can write and face the class.

- Ask the teacher to give instructions one at a time so that your son can “process” it.

As for the math facts. My son is in 6th grade and still has trouble with it. Higher math concepts aren’t a problem! So he uses a calculator when needed. We’re also using an abacus which presupposes that you can count by fives (which he does) and is multisensory. You might also ask your school if they utilize touch math or other multisensory program to help kids with math.

As for the comment made about your son’s problem being ADHD rather than CAPD. Retort by telling them: “Yes, many of the symptoms are the same and CAPd is frequently misdiagnozed as ADHD. A medical professional determined what my son has and ADHD needs to be diagnosed by medical professionals as well. Until I see a medical degree on your wall please do not make diagnoses.”

Sharon,

Is your son on an IEP? If so, accomodations should be written in so that he doesn’t have to fail first and then go to the resource room and redo it for a reduced grade. Third grade is a big change from second, I know. A few pages back I posted under science and social studies (I think) and gathered some good ideas about how to cope with the fact that reading is much more a part of the whole circul. by third grade. You could scan the bulletin board, search under science or my name. What we are doing is having the science book sent home the weekend before the material is covered in class. He, with our help, reads the material. This seem to help his retention from class. We also reread the material to him a couple times. His teacher also read part of the test to him. He got an 83 on his first science test so this is working.

His teacher also gives him and another student who is hearing impaired directions individually after she gives them to the class. I read on one of the other bulletin board about the idea of having the student tell the teacher what the directions were before she would begin. I think there is a lot more that the teacher could do with directions to help your son. Does she write things on the board? Depending on your son’s level of reading, that could be a big help.

I think sending papers with low grades home to be signed is very common. However, if the school is dealing with your son correctly this should not be happening on a regular basis because he should not be getting failing grades.

Assuming your son is on an IEP, I would call the director of exceptional education and request an interim IEP meeting because of the difficulties your son is having in class. Then hammar out with the committee the types of accomodations that will allow your son to be more successful.

I would also look into ways of improving your son’s auditory memory. My son is now “normal” after interventions by us. But he still has to pay attention more than the average kid to catch things and we still have some attention issues. We did Fast Forward the summer between first and second grade and it improved our son’s ability to pay attention and follow directions. Both the resource teacher and slt who had him both years noticed a big difference. Fast Forward is targeted to kids who have problems decoding oral language which my son did. We have also done Neuronet therapy because of auditory integration difficulties as well. We have seen big gains across the board here—it has helped with auditory memory as well. We happen to be located where the developer is but it is not widely available. Other people I know have used sound therapy with good results. This has been in conjunction with other therapies specifically designed to help memory. Earobics is another possibility—although my son couldn’t do it until after FFW. But if he can, it is cheap (about $50) and can be done easily at home.

Mary MN is right about homeschooling being a good option for kids like this but not everyone can pull it off. It takes a lot of pressure off of trying to compete when you don’t have the skills and allows the child to acquire the skills. We partially homeschooled our son last year when we could not reach any agreement on implementing his IEP. It was a big relief to not to have to deal with so much at school. This year there is a new resource teacher so we are going to try again after we finish PACE. PACE has a wonderful auditory processing component, although I don’t know if your son would need it after doing LIPS. We are keeping him home until 9 am to do this because the school will never provide such intensive services and it is critical to his success.

Believe me, you are not alone!!!

Beth

The terminology is inter-changeable. The assistive tech person was feeding you a line of utter rubbish.

You were put off for so long because you did not put your requests in writing. Verbal requests are not legally binding on the school. Written requests are. From now on, document everything in writing. With phone calls, follow-up with a letter saying something like “This is to recap our telephone conversation of ….”. This is how you can document all verbal promises, to make it legally binding on the school to follow up on them in a timely manner. When you have a paper trail, the law is on your side. When you don’t, the law is on their side.

Mary

I think it was Patti who posted 6 months ago or so a great site on assistive listening devices— I shared it with a teacher who had never been trained to use the “top of the line” device that a student’s parents were able to get the district to purchase— what good is the device if the teacher is using it incorrectly?

Liz,
I have been trying to get a reading tutor for my son also he is in the same grade with capd how on earth did you convince them?

Lisa

It is demystifying assistive listening devices..just type in that on google.com and it will come up…
I don’t have the web address