What type of child would Audioblox/PACE help? I've never...

Hi
As a parent who has been there/done that over the past 5 years for my now 11 year old dyslexic son, I have one overriding piece of advice. Whatever you do, get a good evaluation from a reputable professsional (developmental pediatrician, neurologist, etc). Heed his/her advice. It is very tempting to sign onto programs that sound good with interesting stories from parents who have tried them. Please select programs with a scientific basis and that have been proven over a period of time. PACE (and a good many other programs you will see mentioned on this bulletin board) sound good and may have looked like they helped a child, but have no science behind them. I know. I wasted a lot of money (and time, which is much more important for my son, and probably for your child as well) on the PACE program. We wasted an entire summer when I could have had him getting real reading tutoring at Lindamood Bell or the like. If I can be of further help, just post a response. Best of luck. Kathleen

Couldn’t agree more with kathleen. You also need to know that transposing numbers or letters is not in and of itsself a sign of dyslexia, and the absence of it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have dyslexic qualities or a language based disability. Get an evaluation so you know where to concentrate your efforts.

Hi! Your son sounds so similar to my dysgraphic son. We homeschool since the school wouldn’t help us. It has been so much better for my son to be here where he can accelerate his learning without having to worry about spelling and writing in EVERYTHING he does.We do try to do writing and we are using AVKO spelling which seems to have helped some. He made great on spelling test but could never use it when it came to his writing. It is so frustrating not only for you, but also your child. Michael used to dictate to me and it was much better for him since he couldn’t keep his thought if he had to write at the same time. My son is 11 almost 12 and we have been dealing with this since 2nd grade. There is no magic bullet. Handwriting Without Tears was a godsend for us even though if you looked at his writing today you probably wouldn’t think so. HA! Before using that it was completely illegible.Good luck and let me know if I can help in any way. Also,Michael has pretty good typing skills so we use the computer a lot for certain assignments. Jan :D :D

Are you going to a developmental optometrist for therapy regarding the convergence problem? He may continue to have difficulty with both reading and writing if that is not resolved. www.covd.org

If he is struggling with reading, you need to resolve that first (after the visual issues). Dyslexia, as someone already pointed out, is not about reversing letters. Here is the definition according to the International Dyslexia Association:

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”

I use a combination of Lindamood Bell and Phono-Graphix. Some people like Orton Gillingham based methods. Regardless, my personal preference is to use methods that work directly on the weak skills. I know there are parents here that love PACE or Audiblox, but I’m sticking with my multi-sensory structured reading programs! (And Handwriting Without Tears is the only thing I know to help handwriting).

Janis

If you haven’t already, I recommend that you get a developmental vision evaluation because so many of his problems could be related to vision. See http://www.childrensvision.com for more information about this type of problem (which is not evaluated in regular vision exams), and http://www.covd.org to find developmental optometrists in your area.

If there are underlying neurological problems, unremediated visual or auditory processing disorders, and/or moderate-to-severe sensory integration problems, cognitive training programs such as PACE and Audiblox may provide no results. These programs work on the intermediate level of learning development — the skills level sandwiched in between sensory level development and the academic learning. Any kind of physical or sensory level problem will limit cognitive skills gains from training — in much the same way that physical limitations will limit gains from physical training.

Just as most of us who are not in peak physical condition would benefit from a well-rounded physical training program, most children with non-optimal cognitive skills would benefit from cognitive training programs. Cognitive skills include areas such as visual short-term memory, auditory short-term memory, visual sequencing, auditory sequencing, pattern recognition, logic and reasoning, attention skills (ability to sustain attention, ability to sustain attention in the presence of distractions, ability to multi-task), etc.

Physical training is not a cure-all for all physical problems, and cognitive skills training is not a cure-all for all cognitive level problems. It can be very helpful, though — especially if you have already made certain that visual efficiency skills are in place (convergence, accommodation, etc.), sensory integration is not a problem (occupational therapists evaluate and treat sensory integration disorders), and auditory processing problems have been appropriately addressed (sometimes with sound therapy and bodywork).

Audiblox is relatively inexpensive (about $150 for a kit) and can be done at home an hour a day five days a week. Most children will start demonstrating significant gains after 40 to 60 hours of training.

Be aware that everything has an associated risk. I have met families who invested thousands of dollars in neuro-psychological evaluations and came away with nothing of practical value. Really, it’s up to you to decide what represents high risk or low risk to you in terms of time, effort and monetary investment. Every child, and every family, has a different set of circumstances.

Nancy

nancy, I’m curious about how you would decide if the underlying neurological/ sensory etc issues have been resolved enough to persue a pace or audioblox type of intervention.

I ask b/c we’ve done many types of interventions over the years, and although we’ve seen gains , my son is never fully remediated. For example, he did OT at the age of 5 and achieved appropriate performance for the things we were measuring back then. But at 9, he still doesn’t have great fine motor or vestibular function. Its OK, and certainly wouldn’t be as good as it is had we not done OT, but these are still weak areas. Same for visual processing - he’s currently doing VT and we are seeing improvements but I doubt even when he graduates from VT that these areas will be anything more than adequate.

>nancy, I’m curious about how you would decide if the underlying >neurological/ sensory etc issues have been resolved enough to persue a >pace or audioblox type of intervention.

>I ask b/c we’ve done many types of interventions over the years, and >although we’ve seen gains , my son is never fully remediated. For >example, he did OT at the age of 5 and achieved appropriate >performance for the things we were measuring back then. But at 9, he >still doesn’t have great fine motor or vestibular function. Its OK, and >certainly wouldn’t be as good as it is had we not done OT, but these are >still weak areas. Same for visual processing - he’s currently doing VT >and we are seeing improvements but I doubt even when he graduates >from VT that these areas will be anything more than adequate.

Mostly it’s just reasoned guesswork. Often I have a good idea after working with a child for two or three sessions. The best candidates seem to be children who perform much more poorly in academic areas than I would expect from their level of intelligence — especially if they have already had appropriate evaluations and/or therapy in the areas of vision, auditory processing, and motor development.

In the situation you describe, I would give Audiblox a try. It’s a relatively small investment of time and money, and most children will get sufficient gains to make it worthwhile. Even if it doesn’t work perfectly, it can provide valuable clues about foundational levels that need work. For example, a child who makes gains in the visual exercises but does not make comparable gains in the auditory exercises would be a good candidate and auditory processing evaluation — which might reveal the need for sound therapies.

The biggest failure with Audiblox is parents who do not stick with the program long enough for a training effect to occur (40 to 60 hours for most children).

Nancy

Thanks, that makes alot of sense.

Karen,

I would agree with Nancy. We did PACE and knew what Nancy posted going in. We and the therapist we were working with misjudged the extent to which his sensory motor issues had been resolved. PACE showed us better where his weaknesses were but it was an expensive way to do it. Audioblox is much less expensive and from that stand point alone a better risk. Do it until you hit a ceiling you can’t get through and then go back to more sensory based therapies. That was our mistake. We kept pounding at it, even when we were getting minimal progress. Basically, it was a twelve week program and we made little progress after 6 weeks.

Beth

LLD,

I think Nancy did a really nice job laying out the role of cognitive therapies. And from personal experience, I would agree that you need to address sensory motor issues before cognitive ones.

My child was very similar to yours in terms of the handwriting. We did some therapy to address letter formation (to automate it). But what made the biggest difference was Interactive Metronome. My son has motor based issues and IM was very good for him. We did it for attention, mostly, with good results, but a side benefit was that he suddenly could write. He could not write a paragraph at age 9 despite even individual instruction (it had been an IEP goal the previous year). After IM, he suddenly could write a five paragraph essay. I was amazed as was his special ed teacher. It was like he had absorbed the instruction but motor issues kept him from writing.

He is now at the low end of normal with handwriting. He still wears out more than most kids. We have some accomodations because of it but he is functional which he was not before.

Beth

You’ve had a lot of great replies here! I think it’s a difficult task trying to figure out what a child needs and for how long. Taking into account that your son has a variety of areas he’s struggling with, starting at the sensory integration level (motor) seems like a reasonable beginning and then working upward (particularly vision in your son’s case) sounds logical.

Unfortunately I’ve found there are no easy answers or magic solutions.

Why not wait to hear and see the University evaluation report and recommendations before you embark on a commercial-type therapy? Ask questions of the evaluators like what is his level of ability and how can we help him achieve closer to this level, etc. Do you have a diagnosis of learning disability? There is some great reading on this site under LD in Depth under assessment, processing , etc. Also look at For Teachers and link for the latest research. Before you decide on a therapy, I would wait for the diagnosis and recs.