Do I need an audiologist evaluation?

I would have a CAPD evaluation. My son has many similar characteristics and has CAPD. Now my son was helped by FFW because of his decoding deficits but FFW does little or nothing to help other sorts of CAPD. My son still had CAPD after doing FFW but not the decoding subtype. His primary issue is auditory integration which comes with lots of balance, coordination issues, although they can be very subtle. He secondarily has organization deficits which include word retrieval. In terms of his reading he has had both problems with decoding and retrieving–much like your son.

I had my son tested by an OT specializing in sensory integration and was told that he had vestibular dysfunction. This is common, I have since learned, in kids with both vision and auditory issues. I have to admit I was shocked because he rode a bike at 4 and had no obvious balance issues. But what I have since learned is that kids can compenstate to some extent by going fast. And my son had already always done everything fast.

We have opted to do Neuronet therapy (http://www.neuroacoustics.com/)which focuses on the balance system with very good results. My son now can ride a bike slowly, hop on a pogo stick, walk on stilts, twirl with a hula hoop—all vestibular related. We are still working on the handwriting issues but he is doing much better academically. We have seen great improvements in retrieval too. This therapy is not widely available however. Other options I know about include OT with someone who specializes in sensory integration and Balametrics which uses a balance board. (Balametrics is incorporated into Neuronet).

Kids like ours are a great challenge. My son is truly catching up. We have done a lot of therapy but what we have done with Neuronet has been the most life changing. This is because the root of his problems has been at the sensory motor level and thus even good reading therapy didn’t take until some of these issues were resolved.

He is now pulled out only for reading and language arts. He had been in resource room for math in first and second grade (he is in third grade) but now is in the regular classroom and a midterm report showed an 87% average. He is working mosty independently now and has a low B average in both science and social studies. This is a great accomplishment for him because this means he is able to manage third grade material—mostly anyway. He is also able to learn, although it is still more work for him than other kids. This, however, is a child who finished first grade without learning to read and was still hopelessly behind last year.

Beth

I forgot another therapy option—Interactive Metronome. This is much more widely available than Neuronet. We actually did the pretesting for IM but he did so horrid when it came to coordinating the two sides of the body that the very new at IM therapist recommended other therapy first. It was at that point we started Neuronet. My son still has attentional issues and because of that, we will do IM after we finish Neuronet, unless attention is no longer an issue (wishful thinking!!!).

I’m glad to hear your son is doing well academically and working independently — it gives me some hope!!

I also live in Florida, in the Orlando area. I did find a speech/language center that offered Neuronet. Is this an expensive therapy? I noticed that much of the work is done at home.

I’m not sure who to see first — the audiologist or the occupational therapist.

I definitely see a need to deal with the balance and coordination issues. And I also see a need for OT — my son will be 10 soon and can not yet tie his shoes.

Wondering how you found your OT and audiologist. Is there some sort of board certification to look for?

Also, have you ever had your son evaluated by a neurologist? I’m wondering if they would be helpful.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. This really has been so difficult to deal with.

Hi,

I would recommend Dr. Deborah Moncrieff at the U of FL in Gainesville for the APD eval. She does a throrough test (specializes in APD), and the cost is somewhere around $250 which is less than most private audiologists. We just went there in Nov. and were very pleased. Then we had another APD specialist in Washington who is also a SLP help us with therapy goals.

Janis

I found the audiologist by using a web site that listed those specializing in CAPD. I settled on the one I did by the fact he works at the university that I do and had been trained in Buffalo which is a leading place for CAPD. I found the OT by an advertisement and the fact that she had certification in sensory integration.

If I were in your shoes, I’d get a good CAPD evaluation done first. I’d travel to Gainesville and use U of FL since you aren’t that far and you have a recommendation there. Then I would look into Neuronet. It is priced very much the same where I am as OT ($65/thereapy hour) and because you do work at home, you get more bang for the buck. For awhile, we went every week and then every other week. It is a major commitment to working with your child (15-30 minutes a day) but my son has liked Neuronet better than anything we have done and has given me very little grief about doing it. I think that is because he has been successful at and has been able to see the changes himself.

If you and the therapist think NN would be a good option for your child, you can skip the OT evaluation. It will tell you about particular sensory integration issues but you will find out much the same thing through the neuronet evaluation. I just so happened to have had it done before I ever heard of Neuronet. We have seen major coordination gains through doing NN and I don’t think you will need OT if you do NN.

We haven’t had a neurospych done but have thought of doing it because my son clearly still has some attentional issues. But even at this point, if we were told that he was ADD, I would start by doing Interactive Metronome before trying medication. So we’ve decided that we will do the IM and then see where we are at. But we need to finish Neuronet first. In fact, I had an audiologist who was getting the NN training (who does IM) tell me that NN should be first because it lies the foundation, and IM is like the icing on the cake.

Beth

I’m nearly 51 and still can’t stand on one foot for more than a second or two. I also never got the hang of a hula hoop. I did learn how to ski downhill and reached almost-expert level — still ski, and was out on the mountain yesterday — but it took me twelve years and quite a few private lessons to get there. Certainly give your kid all the help you can in all the areas you can, but after that, we all have to compensate for a few weaknesses. After you get all the help you can, get him involved in a sport he likes (skiing being my choice) and he will do his own work and learn some compensations.

I would “ditto” the idea of a neurolgist. While a one hour atention span for a 8 1/2 yr old sounds great to me , my whole family has ADD/ADHD and 15 min is long! My personal experience is that ADD, physical coordination, dyslexia, etc tend to be inter-related to some degree. You might invest in interactive computer video programs to see if they improve his interest in reading. Fantasy video games might spur interest in reading things such Tolkien’s Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. p.preston wrote:
>
> A year ago (my son was 8-1/2) I had my son evaluated by an
> educational psychologist recommended by the International
> Dyslexic association. He was reading then at a pre-primer
> level.
>
> The results of the many tests were an above average IQ with
> “double-deficit” dyslexia.
>
> A year later, he’s had up to Level 3 in Wilson Language,
> vision therapy, Fast Forward (which didn’t seem to help all
> that much) and we’re currently having him tutored and working
> at home with Phonographix (the advanced code).
>
> I’m noticing that his balance is still way off. I started to
> read about the vestibular system in some of the posts. I was
> trying to get him to balance on one foot today and he can’t
> do it. But, he can ride a bike and a scooter.
>
> He still has trouble with his attention span — one hour of
> tutoring is painful for him. Also, he hates writing,
> although he knows cursive and is a good writer and artist.
>
> Wondering if anyone has had similar problems and found answers.