The PACE program

We got great results from PACE. I think it works really well for dyslexics, especially those with visual processing issues.

It’s really hard to measure the improvements in terms of grade level or IQ score. There is tremendous variation in the nature and severity of problems children bring to the program, so outcomes vary greatly too. Since it’s not an academic program, you can’t measure success in terms of a grade level. My bet is IQ scores often improve as a result of the program, but I don’t have hard data for that.

PACE does not correct sensory level problems, so if a child goes into the program with major auditory or vision problems, you may not get big gains in those areas. All sensory level problems should be addressed as much as possible before doing PACE if you want to maximize gains from the program.

I have networked with quite a few parents who have put children through PACE. If you post more specifics about the child, I would be able to give you better information about whether PACE would be suitable. It is not a cure-all, but it does tend to help certain kinds of problems — sometimes dramatically. It helped our daughter a *lot*!

Mary

My son was just found out to have Central Auditory Processing Problems. Is this the type of program that would help him or not?

How was the CAPD diagnosed? If all he had was an evaluation at school or an evaluation by a speech and language pathologist, you really need to take him to an audiologist who specializes in CAPD to find out the exact nature and severity of his problems. Different types of CAPD respond to different interventions. You can find out more about CAPD (and a search engine to find CAPD audiologists in your area) at http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/

If he has the “decoding” subtype of CAPD, then the program of choice is FastForWord (http://www.scilearn.com).

If you decide to do FFW or other sound therapies, these should be done before PACE. PACE develops cognitive skills, which build on the foundation of sensory/motor development. A program such as FFW develops sensory/motor skills, and logically should be done before a cognitive training program such as PACE.

You might want to take a look at Audiblox. This is a home-based cognitive training program that is low-cost. It helps quite a variety of problems and, because it’s low-cost and can be done at home (you have to spend about 1/2 hour a day in one-on-one training with your child), it could be a useful supplement while you work on sensory/motor development.

Has your son been evaluated by an OT who is trained in sensory integration? Sensory integration problems are a common side effect of central auditory processing disorders.

Mary

Thanks for your response. My son has been just diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disability by a neuropsychologist. So, anything that is controlled by the right side of the brain is affected - cognitive ability, visual/spatial relationships, fine and gross motor skills, following multi-step directions. He reads in the average range and is a good speller.

He takes speech at school. He’s still a little below average in his receptive and expressive language.

His biggest problems in class is the math and being able to follow and understand multi-step directions especially when it is something new, even when the directions are repeated to him one-on-one.

Would PACE improve his ability to follow directions and be able to function in a classroom fairly independently? Also,would it help his understanding of math and his visual/spatial processing? Thanks.

My child’s IQ went down after PACE. However, he does seem more attentive.

My son has both Auditory and Visual Processing disability and was wondering if this PACE program would benefit him and how I go about getting more information on this. Please advise..

PACE website is http://www.learninginfo.com You can call the company, describe your child’s problems, and perhaps get some advice that way. Tanya is usually the most knowledgeable, or Ken Gibson himself if you get him on the line.

The thing is, if there are other therapies that will reduce the auditory and visual processing problems, these should be done before PACE. For example, FFW helps some auditory problems and vision therapy helps some vision problems. PACE is not designed to correct major sensory deficits in these systems. It assumes these systems are largely functional, and uses them as the foundation for developing cognitive skills — things such as short-term memory, sequencing, attention, reasoning, strategy, etc. A child with a major developmental vision problem will not be able to advance through the PACE exercises to make the kinds of gains that show up in significantly improved academic performance.

Mary