Audiblox

Julie,

First of all I would suggest using Reading Reflex to teach your son to read. It worked great with my daughter when she was 8 years old - she’s now 12. I thought if I got her to read everything would be okay, right? This is where Audiblox came in. I ordered it in July, 2000. We started working on it together in September - about 4 days a week for thirty minutes. We also used the language component that comes with audiblox. It’s available for children who have a speech/language problem. It took a long time to see results. By December, the principal of her school stopped me to tell me how well my daughter is doing and how happy the staff was. My daughter was in 5th grade and her principal never talked to me before. We’re still doing Audiblox, although we decided to stop at the end of February and start up again this summer. She has so much homework it was hard to fit Audiblox into her schedule. Is she cured? No. She will always be the special girl she is. She still has to learn how to apply herself and get school to work for her. She’s in middle school this year and she’s getting A’s and B’s in all of her subjects - except math. She’s getting a C in math. The teacher is going through the book so fast she barely has time to really, really learn each new concept. But she is keeping up.

I really think Audiblox would help your son. Besides using Reading Reflex to teach my daughter how to read, Audiblox is the only other program that has really helped her to think, comprehend, remember.

Go for it!

Julie some dyslexis can not understand phonix.No matter hou hard you try.If he is truly dyslexis call this number and talk to this person 18888905380 Cindy is her name she will get you on track Chris

I’d try Audiblox, but I’d order the customized program so you get maximum benefit from it. It does require a time commitment daily.
There are a variety of exercises that go with the program. They work on the foundational skills necessary for learning. This is not a reading program, but a cognitive skills program. When these skills are automized, learning can take place more readily. I’d use a good reading program, like PG, after doing Audiblox for awhile. On the Audiblox website, check out Kori’s diary. Kori’s mother is posting about their experience with the program as they go through it. Kori is a diagnosed dyslexic.

The exercises train a variety of skills. For example, there are exercises that train directionality, making it more automatic (and hopefully reducing b/d confusion). One exercise that works on developing visual sequencing and short-term memory skills requires the child to repeat a color sequence of blocks (after the original sequence has been hidden). The exercises are graduated so that, as a child masters one level, he is presented with something just slightly more challenging. Skills such as directionality, visual sequencing and short-term memory, pattern recognition, etc. all play a role in being able to read fluently.

The problem you mention with adding “l” or “r” to a word he is trying to decode is a phonological type of error. This is best corrected with a program such as Reading Reflex. If you haven’t gotten this book yet, I would highly recommend it ($16 in most bookstores, or remaindered sometimes for less). This approach is usually *much* more effective with dyslexics than traditional phonics approaches.

A combination of Reading Reflex and Audiblox is usually very helpful for dyslexics. Most dyslexics are good conceptual thinkers (good simultaneous processing skills) but need help to develop good sequential processing skills and good phonological processing skills. RR works on the phonological processing problems, while Audiblox works on the sequential processing skills necessary for fluent reading.

Mary

Where are your son’s deficits - auditory or visual? Audiblox really addresses the visual deficits - visual sequencing, visual memory are key. If your son has cognitive deficits in the visual modality - then Audiblox would be a good program.

The reading portion is more of a sight word method vs. phonics, so complementing it with Reading Reflex is a good strategy.

My dd is an auditory (high visual-spatial) dyslexic profile. We found the reading program of audiblox to reinforce her ‘look and guess’ habit and made it worse. We were even doing reading reflex at the same time (but probably not intense enough). Audiblox does not address auditory processing deficits at all. Even PACE did not really help address these - it was Master the Code that we have seen the greatest improvements in reading.

Dea,
That’s very interesting. This kind of information is most helpful. Now if only I could figure out if my kiddo has a more visual or auditory difficulty then I’d know what might be the most helpful combination. Thanks for sharing your experience!

I’d start by giving your child the tests in the Reading Reflex book. Those are auditory. If she or he has difficulty, you have the beginning of an answer.

Visual difficulties tend to show up as skipping words, lines, reversing letters, reading saw as was and so forth.

My son has both so it isn’t necessarily a matter of either or.

Beth

Helping Children Overcome Learning Difficulties by Jerome Rosner has test for both visual and auditory problems. It also suggest remediation strategies.

Thanks for both those suggestions! Beth, my son does seem to know all his sounds (phonics) very well so perhaps it is a visual thing. Also, he has always been extremely good with rhyming and word play.

Although what has confused me is that he’s extremely good with building directions (that’s visual) and when he was younger I had him taking piano lessons and he learned to read music very quickly (visual). One more thing, he’s good with chess and chess strategy (I would think that would be visual too).

A reason I’ve wondered about auditory processing is that there are times he doesn’t seem to hear me or hear others speaking to him. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when this is a choise or actually “not hearing.” I did glance through the book “When the Brain Can’t Hear” and what I read at the time didn’t sound like my son.

However, sometimes it seems like it’s really hard to pin point what’s going on. I’m beginning to think that perhaps these kids learn to compensate and that can really throw us off from seeing where their difficulties actually start.

Annie, I’m going to try and look for that book!

Laura,

I am not familiar with the book Annie recommends but the Reading Reflex book has tests for auditory processing as well. It is possible the problem is at this level. Not hearing name ect. can be a sign of a central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), as you know but could also be an attention thing—ADD. Could also be normal childhood behavior, depending how often it occurs.

Our kids are a bit like a puzzle I think. You just have to keep trying to solve it!!

Beth

If you’ve had a WISC IQ test - the VIQ is more auditory in nature and the performance is more visual. So if you show a big discrepancy or split between the 2 IQ’s, you can get a pretty good feel for if there is a problem in one modality vs. the other.

The best test I’ve seen is the PACE Gibson Cognitive Test. PACE let’s you do this test over the internet for a fee. Or you can go to a provider and have it done (the PACE tests are typically free from a provider).

This test will show you the strengths/weaknesses in processing speed, visual processing, auditory processing, word attack, reason/logic and working memory (both auditory and visual).

I did have him take the tests in Reading Reflex and he scored quite adequately on all of them. A teacher mentioned ADD, but he has absolutely no behavioral problems within the classroom (aside from not being able to read, so he cannot always finish his work —however, he’s pulled out of class so much this also makes it difficult for him to complete all of his assignments).

I would classify him as slow and methodical. When he’s interested in something he has extremely good focus. It has always been difficult to figure out how much of his “differences” stem from personality or a learning disorder. But every year it seems like some teacher or educator is extremely worried about it and we go through the same process of trying to figure out what’s wrong.

You are soooo right about these kids being a puzzle. Mine is like a huge multi-dimensional one whose pieces just don’t quite fit.

Thanks again for your suggestions!

Great idea! I’ll pull his schooltests out and take a look at those scores. From what I recall, there were no big disprepancies, but perhaps I can figure something out from the numbers.

Thank you for that suggestion!

Being extremely focused on things a child is interested in but not in other, more mundane things, is actually characteristic of kids with ADD. If your son is not a behavioral problem is most likely to have ADD-inattentive type (if he has any—which of course I don’t know) which does not involve hyperactivity.

We’re pursuing the ADD route (with my son’s CAPD there are tons of attention issues that come with it so it is hard to sort out and he too is not a behavioral problem) so I have done some research. Don’t assume that the kid bouncing off the wall is the only one with ADD.

Beth

Umm … being focused on what you’re personally interested in and not on what other people are trying to make you do is *normal*. Tell me, how much time do you spend on the internet discussing education? And how much time improving your math skills, doing your income tax, filing your papers, cleaning your basement? ‘Nuff said.

I am consistently amazed at how cooperative most kids are, at how much dull and repetitive and meaningless stuff they can be conned into doing in school. The people in our family all tend to have very strong personalities (closely related to mules with a dash of grizzly) and it is a real trial to get the kids through school. Most of us do pretty well by convincing the teachers we really know our stuff and getting them to let us do our own things — the eccentric genius/artistic temperament approach. A couple have been unlucky and have ended up dropping out of school.

Before trying to make your child do something, it’s a good thing to ask yourself *why* he has to do it. What is the goal? Is it necessary for health and safety? Required to develop into a responsible citizen? A necessary skill to move forward in education and learn other things of value? In that case, grit your teeth and go for it. If on the other hand the activity he’s interested in is worthwhile (building a complete model of an antique arplane for example) and the activity he is “supposed” to be doing is merely a hoop that kids jump through as a ritual (filling out yet another worksheet copying answers from one page to another), then will it be a disaster if it is delayed or omitted?

Once you start looking at activities in a spirit of constructive criticism and at your child as an intelligent person making choices for reasons, a lot of difficulties are greatly reduced. You still have to fight battles over the important issues, but you can drop the conflicts over many others.

This doesn’t cure ADD or anything else, but it’s a lot more positive and successful approach to life.

HOw did you know I still haven’t finished my taxes (didn’t help that hubby could n’t find his W2 which speaks to his organization as well)?

All kidding aside, I understand where you are coming from. When I asked my LD son in first grade why he knew all the names of the dinosaurs but not the letter names, he looked at me like I was nuts. He said,”but mommy, dinosaurs are so much more interesting.”

He learned the continents but not any bones to the body because “if I was going to be a doctor, I would need to know this but I am not, so I don’t.” Some of it sounds like splendid rationalization.

Personally, I don’t pay too much attention to it. I only care about reading and math–even if it is “boring” he has to do it. Can’t fight every battle so I save myself for the important ones (and besides he is probably the only kid in his class who still knows the continents 6 months later).

Beth