Hi, everyone! I’ve been lurking on the forums for a while, now. My 8-year old son recently barely didn’t qualify for services, but everyone’s guess is that as soon as the academics get more strenuous in 3rd grade, he’ll present as LD.
Will is a former micro-preemie, and perhaps as a result, has had gross and fine motor delays, poor core strength, and balance issues practically his whole life. He’s had private OT, which we’d taken a break from for a bit, and now I’m back to looking at therapies which might address the balance/motor and hopefully the processing/focus issues as well.
My question (long-winded though it is) is this: It seems like there are about a zillion therapies out there. I’ve checked out Balametrics, Neuronet, integrated metronome, PACE and a host of others. Is there some book or clearing house that covers them all with pros and cons? And if not, is that a need that could be met? I’m a writer by trade, so would appreciate any feedback on if this is a project that would help families out there, and any concerns or advice people might have.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Various LD/ADHD Therapies
I wasted $6,500 on the Davis dyslexia method, because it was recommended by a neuropsychologist, of all people!
From that experience, I learned that you have to be really careful who you believe. I KNEW that there was not one shred of scientific evidence showing the Davis method is effective, but I decided to trust the neuropsych.
So, one thing you can do is go to www.pubmed.gov, which is the National Library of Medicine’s medical literature web site. It has abstracts of articles published in thousands of medical journals, including psychological and school journals. I found a couple abstracts on interactive metronome that found that it is not effective in control group clinical trials.
My young adult child, dx with dyslexia and ADHD after high school graduation, is going to start doing the Cogmed program. This program, that aims to increase working memory, has several clinical trials showing its effectiveness for improving working memory and processing speed, even up to a year after finishing training. It is now endorsed by the American Medical Association. I am hopeful that will help my dtr’s function with working memory.
It is a wild west on the internet regarding the number of “programs” to “fix” your kid. There are so many claims and testimonials. When I was actively looking around, I’d find 2-3 new web sites per week of vendors selling their “fix” for Ld’s. Practically none of these have controlled clinical trials, only “testimonials.” The testimonial giver may be the company owner’s cousin. Also, there can be a strong placebo effect. My dtr had a strong placebo effect from the Davis method at first. But the improvement wore off fast, and the Davis officials said the problem was that my dtr did not try hard enough to work their program, that she was not motivated enough. This was B.S.
If all these programs are so great, why do the creators not do scientific, statistical research on their methods?
Various LD/ADHD Therapies
Thanks Leo for sharing you insights. I am interested to hear how the cogged works for your daughter. Many posters have asked about the effectiveness of this program. If you find specific articles on the studies showing it’s effectiveness, I’d love to have them for reference to share with other parents who ask.
Keep us posted on your daughters progress.
I did 3/4 therapies you mention with my son and am familiar with the fourth. This is my two cents.
First, do not do PACE, at least first. PACE has both a cognitive and motor component but is a much better fit for a child whose difficulties are more cognitively based than motor based. My son had both difficulties and we had done a lot of motor based therapy but still we hit a wall with PACE.
Second, we did Interactive Metronome but not until we did some Neuronet first. What happened was I did a pretest with my son with IM, and he was so far off that the therapist thought he would be better off doing some other therapy first. We did NN and then later did IM and then more NN.
NN is a wonderful therapy that is balance based. Nancy Rowe is the developer who happens to live in my area. You have to do it through a certified therapist but I think she has developed it now to be something you can even do long distance. It is the broadest sensory based therapy that I know of.
IM is more exact but not as broad based. It is an excellent therapy for a kid with motor based attention problems. But depending on your son, you may see faster progress, if you do something else first.
Balametrics is also motor based. The advantage of it is that it is done at home without a therapist and thus would be the cheapest. NN incorporates some Balametrics.
If you don’t have access to NN, I would do Balametrics and then IM. If you can do NN, I would do it and then IM.
Hope this helps.
Beth
[Modified by: dhfl143 on June 22, 2011 02:22 PM]