My then 11 year old son did four weeks of Seeing Stars last summer (following an intensive of Phono-graphix four months earlier). Last week we went back for follow up testing (he had been tested after end of program as well).
What was really encouraging to me is that my son’s decoding scores are actually higher now than they were at end of the program. He had a 109 standard score on the Woodcock Johnson Word Attack test. The LAC is now normed and he had a 98 standard score. He had not declined in any area and had improved in most (spelling is still grade 4, although I see improvements in real life). After five years of interventions, I think we finally have found stability and even some normal learning.
The only area that is still weak is fluency (standard score of 8), although it too has improved since last August. We are back doing Neuronet for fluency and hopefully we’ll get that piece too.
Beth
Re: update
Angela,
Yes, I know. Every other time we have done intensive work we have lost about half the gain over time. That is why I feel like we really have reached a milestone, especially since I have not followed up well. I kept working with him for about three months but then realized we had reached a wall with fluency. I bargained with him last November: no reading or other remedial work if he would do Neuronet again. So I have only read with him when it has been related to school but mostly he has worked on his own. So the growth we see has really been without my involvement.
I will keep Read Right in mind but my son does not have the sort of motivation your son did. He is 12 and had tons of therapy and sees no need for anything else, even if I do. He will have to be older and more mature. I am hoping Neuronet will do it because his problems have a large motor component and NN really works on that.
Beth
Re: update
Janis,
The exercises are a combination of listening and reading, all while doing a simple motor activity in rhythm to a metronome. For example, he stands on a balance board, tosses a ball, while repeating a sequence of three words ” able, cable, table”. (A cd has the words as well as the beat recorded on it). He also reads a sequence while walking back and forth in rhythm. The CD then repeats the sequence after him. Another exercise is to listen for a word, repeat it and underline it (having to choose each time between three words) to a the beat of a metronome.
The words started out very different from each other, now all rhyme, next having the same beginning, and finally the same end The rate which you have to do the tasks also changes.
We tried to do these exercises about a year and a half ago without success. I think he is going to make it through the whole program this time. Two things have contributed to that 1. his decoding is much better and a certain level of decoding profiency is necessary before going for fluency. 2. we went back and did more motor work with NN. This current program is more exact than what Nathan did initially and there obviously were gaps in his motor integration.
Hope this makes sense!
Beth
wow so wonderful!
I love hearing things like this! I’ve ‘chatted’ with you up here before about LMB and other motor-disability related things! So excited for you and your son!
When you say ‘intensive’ like with the phonographix, do you mean you pulled him out of school to do it? Is your son in a regular classroom for reading now? Soooo exciting!
I remember you said you did Seeing Stars over the summer. Do you do Neuronet after school?
We have a wilson tutor five days a week (after school) and we’re also finishing up Fast Forward (the 50 minute a day version, Sun.-Wed and only Tues is after school hours). I’m doing a LMB intensive this summer — LiPS/SI and then V/V — for 8 weeks. I’m nervous about the number of people I’ve heard say that their children regressed within a year after the LMB intensive — I don’t want to waste all that time, effort and money. We definitely plan to continue with Wilson but i have no way to continue with LMB in my city.
Sorry so many questions — I am ‘anticipating’ this summer. For the first time lately I feel that I’m burning hiim out with stuff — right as he needs his motivation the most! Did your son complain about the LMB intensive? I haven’t even told him yet… :(
Mary
Re: update
Thanks, Beth. That is interesting. I hope Nancy is keeping good pre- and post- data because fluency is difficult to improve in older kids, and if she is successful, she’ll need the data to prove it. And I say that meaning that everyone is waiting for a better fluency program, but the research has to be there. I’ll be very interested to hear how the fluency training turns out.
Mary, kids only regress after LMB if the parents don’t continue tutoring after the intensives. Even if the child does learn the decoding, fluency is developed over years. And if the child is not kept reading with error correction, they’ll fall into the same old bad habits. So tutoring needs to continue indefinitely after an intensive.
Janis
Re: update
Janis,
Nancy is one of these clinicians who keeps meticulous records (she is always on my case about my lack thereof) but she doesn’t necessarily use standardized tests to compare results (she has her own testing). We have scores from LMB testing that can serve that purpose for Nathan. I will let you know what we achieve. I know fluency is very difficult—I think we now have all the other pieces in place. If we don’t get it, well, we are light years from where we were a few years ago and I can be content with that.
Mary—
My son went to Orlando for a week of Phonographix in December of 2003. I took him out of school—it was the last week before Christmas so he didn’t miss too much and his teacher was very supportive. I kept working with him in the spring and then put him in the LMB intensive for 4 weeks. We only did SS, although they recommended VV also. I thought it was too much to do—more for my son and financially. iI followed up for about three months with my son and then made a deal with him to return to NN in leiu of reading with me. I felt like we had reached a wall after 3 months where he wasn’t getting any better.
Last summer I over heard conversations of parents at LMB who were back again with kids who had regressed during the year. In asking about this with the clinic director, the kids who did so were ones who didn’t do programs long enough and/or whose parents thought they had paid for it, so they were done.
My son didn’t like going to LMB but he worked hard there and I felt like you can’t expect any more than that.
We went in the afternoon, because it was all that was available, but it worked out very well. He didn’t have to keep a school like schedule. Where we live, it is very hot in the afternoon in the summer so he spent the hottest part of the day indoors. I tried to arrange something fun for the morning at least a few days a week and that helped too.
My son is in a regular fifth grade classroom at a parochial school. He gets A’s and B’s in reading. We had him repeat fourth grade when we moved from resource room in public school to the parochial school last year. It was a good move—socially he was somewhat immature and has many more friends now. It also gave us more time to improve his skills before middle school.
Beth
Excellent news! So often the scores are high when they immediately finish intensive training, but then the scores and skills slip in the everyday environment.
For fluency I would recommend you look at Read Right (www.readright.com). While it has taken a while, my son’s fluency is dramatically improved using this twice weekly home/telephone tutoring.
Thanks for the update. It is encouraging to hear that programs work and our children see results for their hard work.