A parent has approached me asking for possible programs that would be effective for her 7th grade daughter. I have not personally worked with the student but others at my elementary school did when she was a student here. She was diagnosed with CAPD at some point. The mother says that she has difficulty with reading, mostly decoding and seems to have receptive language problems. She had speech services in elementary school. I have talked to her several times about getting a good current diagnosis so that we could evaluate possible programs for her. My question is this: If the parent is considering Lindamood-Bell (hugely expensive and a long drive from us), PACE (there is a provider in the area), and FastForward programs (I can provide these), what characteristics do you see in children or adolescents for whom you have provided these programs? In other words, if you provide PACE, what type of difficulties do you see improvement in with the students you teach? I’d like to give her some input from people who are knowledgeable teachers and parents, and who are not actually trying to sell a parent on a particular program. As you know, there’s a lot out there—and it costs a lot! I’d like to be as sure as we can, that we are recommending a program that has good chances for success.I know many of you will say that a good testing battery comes first, and I have recommended that, but any other input you have would be very welcome. Thanks! Ann
Re: Program opinions needed!
Personally, in seventh grade, I’d focus on the skill unless I had a really good reason to go down to the “underneath” processes that PACE and FFW address. I’ve found that with very intensive work with a program much like LMB, that the processing improved — and the improvements were being practiced through a desperately needed skill, reading and language development. I would definitely want to know specific strengths and weaknesses — because that would affect what I would focus on in the tutoring sessions (and that individual tinkering is one of the reasons it runs on the expensive side).
Keep in mind that intensity and frequency are critically important. A once-a-week *anything* has limited value — unless you treat it as you would a music or yoga lesson, where you take what you learned home and practice a bit every day and come back knowing them better than when you left, instead of having the entire week for the years of the-old-way-of-using-your-brain re-assert themselves.
Excellent Point, Sue
Sue, I couldn’t agree with you more. Intensity and frequency are the name of the game.
What is the relationship between these programs? I don’t know PACE at all, but do know LmB and FF. I believe you are comparing oranges and apples. FF isn’t a reading instructional program, but LmB is just that. Where’s the similarity? Sounds movement? That’s not reading instruction.
There isn’t enough data about the student here to make a decision on what program would suffice.