Neuronet vs Brain Skills

Update:
I decided to try neuronet. We had our eval the other day and I met with the therapist today. My dd is kinda on the edge. The therapist seems great though—she called Nancy Rowe to discuss my dd with her before she finished her recommendation. My dd seemed to have difficulty multi tasking. She could do the motions until they add the verbal. The therapist also noticed that she was already making a number of accomodations. So, though it isn’t as clear cut as I hoped, I am going to continue onward and give this a try. I will update as I can.

I hope to find something to work on her “working memory” skills as well. But, I don’t want to interfere with this therapy. So, anyone have any great ideas for that—or should I just wait and see how neuronet helps her.

Amy

Welcome to LDonline.

Do you think your child is having more difficulty with the visual or auditory processing piece of the equation?

If it is related to auditory processing, I would suggest you look at this website for information on an Orton Gillingham based type of reading instruction: www.brightsolutions.us

I am familiar with the Barton program. I am thinking about starting it this fall. We had been using phono-graphix. Originally, I didn’t jump on the Barton program because I felt it was time consuming—I thought that since it requires the spelling to be understood too before moving on that it might just take forever. However, turns out that my dd is now much better at spelling than she is at reading so that shouldn’t be an issue.

I can’t say which is more problematic for her (auditoryl vs vision). She was born with a morning glory optic nerve which is very rare. Never the less, she only uses her left eye. She doesn’t seem to have any vision issues except some difficulty with visual discrimination. However, I am sure I don’t understand the effect of monocular vision on brain development. I always suspected she had APD to some degree—we are on the waiting list for testing. We expect to get to the top of that list in about 9 months.

When we had her IQ done, she has an average full scale IQ. However, when you look at the subtest scores, her “working memory” was VERY low and her processing speed was low too—just not as low as working memory. Verbal Comp and Perceptual Reasoning were above average.

It is this “working memory” and “processing speed” that has me looking at something else. I have come across several kinds of programs that seem to target these areas, two of which are neuronet and brainskills. I thought that perhaps if I were to do this, we would fill in the piece that seems to be missing.

So, can anyone compare these two?

Thanks,

Amy
[Modified by: AmyP on July 29, 2010 10:17 AM]

My now 17 year old son did both Neuronet and PACE. I assume you are talking about the Neuronet program developed by Nancy Rowe in Ft. Lauderdale. I vote for Neuronet. My son had a combination of auditory and visual processing issues and Neuronet is more sensory based than PACE. We hit road blocks with PACE that we couldn’t get through. If you do PACE, I would make sure you do The Listening Program first. It makes a big difference with the auditory exercises. We did not and were sorry. I later did TLP and it also helped.

My son has done almost every program around (or at least around when he was six or seven). We did Neuronet, Interactive Metronome, PACE, The Listening Program, Reading REflex, Seeing Stars (Lindamood Bell) & vision therapy. I think PACE helped him the least and Neuronet the most.

Just to encourage you a bit—my son finished first grade without reading or writing. He was in special ed for reading, writing, and math. He is now a junior in a Catholic college prep high school. On his last report card, he got five A’s and one C. The C was in Spanish which was a gift—the effect of learning disabilities was certainly felt there. I did have to tutor him all the way through geometry but he got an A in an honors World History Class all on his own.

This was a kid who we seriously wondered would graduate from high school when he was in early elementary school.

Beth

Thanks Beth, that was really helpful. I have looked into just about everything you have listed (and more). It is nice to hear that neuronet helped your son. Right now, I need to try something. We have a local, certified person in Neuronet (yes, the program from Nancy Rowe). I think I will try it out.

Amy

Amy,

You are really fortunate to have a local provider. I really would do that. Let me pass on a bit of the wisdom I learned over the years of working with my son.

You want to start at the most basic sensory level. PACE isn’t is more cognitive than NN, which is good for some kids but my son’s problems were “deeper”. If you hit a wall, try something else. The programs often are different enough that it helps. My son had serious word finding (retreival) issues. At one point we were stuck with NN. We went and did Interactive Metronome and then we were able to move forward with NN. IM is a great program if your child’s program have a motor component. My son’s did. In fact, we tried IM first but he tested so poorly that the therapist recommended we do something else first. We did NN.

We also did Fast Forward. I had forgotton about that! After that he could eavesdrop!

What I like about NN is that it is individualized to the child. We live in Ft. Lauderdale and worked with Nancy Rowe. She is wonderful.

Good luck with your child. It is a lot of work but worth it.

Beth

AmyP-

If you do try neuronet, please report back and share with other parents your experience.

Thanks and best wishes.

Welcome! Glad to have you and we are looking forward to your contributions related to LD and ADHD topics.
[Modified by: dhfl143 on September 07, 2010 09:32 PM]

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[Modified by: chriscstevens1988 on September 07, 2010 04:14 AM]

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If you do try neuronet, please report back and share with other parents your experience.