Which one?? Audiblox, FF, IM.....

I think he is too young for IM, but maybe others wouldn’t agree. My son was nine when he did it and that worked well.

Fast Forward is good if he has receptive language issues in particular. Very demanding though and fairly pricey. My son did it before doing PG. Afterwards, his receptive language tested normal and we saw major differences in his ability to understand what was going on around him. He was 7. If you haven’t already, you might want to read “Like Sound through Water” by Karen Foli. She describes her family’s experiences with auditory processing disorder, including doing Fast Forward. Her son had just finished K. I think it is ideal to do it at that age because they don’t get as far behind (first grade was a waste for my son) but I am not sure he could have done it then.

Haven’t done Audioblox but I think it is often used with younger children. Requires a longer term commitment than either FFW or IM but not as intense.

Beth

What about his apraxia? How severe is it? Does he have a history of ear infections? Does he have any oral motor weaknesses? What sounds can he articulate… I would do Lindamood-Bell Lips for a child with Apraxia before I would even go to the other programs you have mentioned..

Actually, Audiblox was created as a preschool program initially. It is a great program for little ones. My 4 year old does it and thinks it is fun. We play it as a game, he asks me to do a pattern and I ask him to do a pattern. I don’t do it intensively with him but I don’t really need to. I see gains in him by just doing it once in awhile because we are building the skills that should normally develop at this age level. Skills my 9 year old did not develop when he was little because of his undiagnosed sensory deficits.
Now I don’t think my 4 year old has sensory deficits so there is no sensory remediation needed. We can just strengthen the cognitive areas. It actually pushes him into the gifted area as he can do many things other 4 year olds can not do cognitively. His preschool thinks he is amazing.

I would recommend the sensory deficits be dealt with before cognitive deficits. I think the cognitive piece will come much quicker if you do it that way.

I would think in terms of the long term. You can do several programs but don’t try to do them all at once especially if your child is fairly young. You are way ahead of the game starting this early.

I agree with Patti regarding LMB.

Patti,

I tried LIPS with my son last summer (private tutor) and it was a disaster. A therapist who has worked with my son for some time told me that LIPS was designed for a child with a different profile than mine—and add the inflexible tutor—I was courting disaster. My son has some small motor oral issues—she describes it as auditory—motor—can’t always reproduce what he hears. Anyway, feeling the sounds did not seem to give him extra information but rather became only an extra layer of information to remember. Made me think that LIPS would not be good for a kid with apraxia—but you know a lot more than I do???

Beth

Patti M

His appraxia is now probably mild to maybe moderate. Our SLP tested him in Nov. and he tested moderate for a phonological processing disorder. We tested him due to his problems in K with blending, sequencing etc…

I am on my way out the door for 5 days. If I can get online I’ll stay in touch. Otherwise could you email me with your email addy so I can contact you when I return (conjoin5@bellsouthnet) Thanks for your suggestions.

I have found singing rhymes to be beneficial for kids with Apraxia and oral motor issues. I have to sing the music slowly so they can see and hear the individual sounds. Oral motor therapy helps the sequencing of the movements in their mouth to articulate phonemes. LiPS can be incorporated with this approach…in a fun way.

If you son just happens to have any mild expressive langauge difficulties or word retrival problems, I recommend “Language Wise” (by the author of PG). It has some fun language games that are good for helping build overall language skills. It’s something you’d use in addition to other programs

In fact, we play the word games while traveling in the car from one activity to another.

My child is apraxic and the Lips program improved his articualtion greatly altho we were in it for the reading/decoding piece. It sounds like your tutor was a “lemon”.