Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Hi,

Hope you don't mind me singling you out for a question.

My son will be assessed for Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) in the near future. ( still saving the fortune it will cost) On another thread the FastForword program was discussed and I wondered if you had used this with your son and what the results were.

I feel I am beating my head against a brick wall trying to get help. Zac was assessed for language disorders two years ago and scored high average for receptive language and above average for expressive.

What a joke. He can't tell you what he did this morning without it sounding like a garbled version of War and Peace.

I believe that the discrepancy between his scores and his actual functioning is evidence of a disability, but to the Ed Dept. here in Australia the scores show he doesn't need help.

I would love to try FastForword or something but don't want to spend a lot of money and give him more work to do if it isn't going to help.

I realise you can't tell me it will definitely work, but would love some input regarding strategies I can implement.

Thanks,
Vicki

 

Glad to share with-you what I know -- or at least what I think I know. lol

difficult child's audiologist originally recommended FastForward. On the FastForward website, you'll find that they have providers -- luckily this works via telephone conferences. lol In any event, I called two of the FastForward providers. One told me about another program called Earbonics.

I wasn't familiar with-Earbonics, so I re-contacted the audiologist. She wasn't familiar with-the program either and did some checking. The SPL who recommended it and difficult child's audiologist also telephoned conferenced about it. End result: audiologist said to go for it.

The best I can tell is that the deficiency a child has with-Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) could be the determining factor in which program a child needs. Might check with-your child's audiologist but I think the following covers the various categories:

"1. Auditory Figure-Ground Problems: This is when the child cannot pay attention when there is noise in the background. Noisy, low-structured classrooms could be very frustrating to this child.

2. Auditory Memory Problems: This is when the child has difficulty remembering information such as directions, lists or study materials. It can exist on an immediate basis ("I can't remember it now") and/or a deferred basis ("I can't remember it when I need it for later").

3. Auditory Discrimination Problems: This is when the child has difficulty hearing the difference between sounds or words that are similar (COAT/BOAT or CH/SH). This problem can affect following directions, reading, spelling, and writing skills, among others.

4. Auditory Attention Problems: This is when the child cannot maintain focus for listening long enough to complete a task or requirement (listening to a lecture in school). Although health, motivation and attitude may also affect attention,among other factors, a child with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) cannot (not will not) maintain attention.

5. Auditory Cohesion Problems: This is when higher level listening tasks are difficult. Auditory cohesion skills - drawing inferences from conversations, understanding riddles, or comprehending verbal math problems - require heightened auditory processing and language levels. They develop best when all the other skills (levels one through four above) are intact.

FastForward has a much better tracking/analysis system for the child's progress and of course there's the "provider" available to help with-technical assistance and input. The provider will also come to your home and help get the program installed and setup if necessary. (If you go this route, check with several providers -- I got a price range from $1,200 to $1,800 for the same program -- and that's just the first phase.)

The Earbonics tracking system is much simpler, but it does what I need it to do. It will not let the child advance to the next level until s/he has mastered that section. If the child misses a certain percent at the next level up, it automatically drops down to the next lower level.

There are no guarantees with either program. The info I located on FastForward indicated they have good success. Same with-Earbonics.

I ordered the Earbonics software off the internet -- the SPL told me which one to order. It costs about $59.00 + shipping and handling. I believe the FastForward software alone is $850 per level. There's quite a bit of difference in the price. I'm thinking some of the price difference is "name brand," but also there's the tracking, etc.

Anyway, the SPL told me to set the program up to be "intensive." That means 1 1/2 hrs per day, 5 days per week for 2 months. She said improvement will not be seen immediately -- could take 2 to 6 months. She indicated that it is the intensiveness that re-wires the brain, then it takes a while for the child to learn how to use the re-wiring. She said after 4 to 6 months to have him retested by the audiologist -- the testing will indicate how successful the training was.

The SPL also said that if the Earbonics was not as successful as we hoped, we could then follow through with-the FastForward program.

My "plan." lol We're going to do the Earbonics first. It will do no harm. If nothing else, I feel pretty confident that Earbonics will at least prep difficult child for the 2nd phase of FastForward. (If your child completes the 1st phase of FastForward within a certain amt of time, they'll send the 2nd phase at no extra charge).

I'm hopeful I've selected the right one -- just can't afford the FastForward presently and Earbonics sounded very promising. I do know it's already zoned in on some of difficult child's weaknesses. Ironically, we started working with-the program yesterday. I posted about it in the girlfriend.

by the way, difficult child was diagnosis with auditory cohesion (rated moderate).

Hopefully, your child's audiologist can help you with your decision. Another avenue of info: Audiologist diagnoses, Speech-Language Pathologist provides treatment.

 

OTE asked that this thread be archived.

Wanted to add additional info.

Fast ForWord: http://www.scientificlearning.com/

The following information is from the booklet we received with-the Earbonics (Step 2) software. It may be on their website also.

Calling All Engines
Primary Skills:
Auditory Attention
Auditory Short-Term Memory
Auditory Sequential Memory
Auditory Performance with Competing Signals
Following Oral Directions
Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

Related Skills:
Auditory & Phoneme Discrimination
Sound-Symbol Correspondence

Paint by Penguin
Primary Skills:
Auditory Short-Term Memory
Auditory Sequential Memory
Auditory Temporal Resolution
Auditory Temporal Ordering
Auditory Pattern Recognition
Phonological Sequencing
Phonological Segmentation
Phonological Manipulation

Related Skills:
Auditory Attention
Auditory & Phoneme Discrimination
Following Oral Directions
Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

Pesky Parrots
Primary Skills:
Auditory Short-Term Memory
Phonological Blending
Auditory & Phoneme Discrimination
Word Closure
Auditory Performance with Degraded Signals

Related Skills:
Auditory Sequential Memory
Auditory Attention
Auditory Temporal Ordering
Following Oral Directions
Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

Hippo Hoops
Primary Skills:
Auditory Vigilance
Auditory & Phoneme Discrimination
Phoneme Identification
Phonological Sequencing

Related Skills:
Auditory Attention
Auditory Short-Term Memory
Sound-Symbol Correspondence
Following Oral Directions
Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

Duck Luck
Primary Skills:
Auditory Sequential Memory
Auditory Short-Term Memory
Phoneme Identification
Rhyming
Auditory & Phoneme Discrimination
Phonological Blending
Phonological Segmentation & Manipulation
Word Closure
Sound-Symbol Correspondence

Related Skills:
Auditory Attention
Sound-Symbol Correspondence
Auditory Short-Term Memory
Phonological Sequencing
Follow Oral Directions
Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts
Sight Recognition

Handout from the SPL re: Earbonics. This appears to be info tendered to providers.

Earbonics Step 1 - for developmental ages 4-7. Teaches children how to:

*Focus on spoken soundes over extended periods of time with background noise.
*Determine whether two or more sounds are the same or different
*Remember sounds and words in sequential order
*Detect the silent intervals between sounds
*Recognize a sequence of sounds
*Blend sounds into syllables and syllables into words
*Recognize rhyming sound patterns in words
*Identify the position of a target sound in a word
*Associate a sound with a letter or group of letters
*Understand the meanings of words
*Follow spoken directions

Earobics - Step 2 is for developmental ages 7 - 10. Teaches child how to:

*Follow increasingly complex directions with and without background noise
*Remember sounds and words in sequential order
*Sound out individual sounds in a word
*Blend sounds into syllables and syllables into words
*Identify the position of a target sound in a word
*Add, delete, substitute and rearrange sounds to create new words
*Reconize a word when a syllable or sound has been omitted
*Associate a sound with a letter or group of letters
*Understand the meanings of words
*Recognize printed syllable (can't read the rest - sorry).

Earobics is suppose to be a good tool to help with-reading, auditory processing and, according to the SPL, ADHD.

Another document I have indicates Earbonics works on the following Auditory Processing skill training:

Auditory pattern recognition
Consonant discrimination
Vowel discrimination
Figure-ground discrimination
Auditory sequential memory
Auditory attention
Sound-symbol correspondence

 

Thanks so much,

After I posted the question I went to the girlfriend and realised you had just posted about the program you are using.

He has an appointment next week for the Sp/L pathologist and we will finally set the audiologist appointment.

Will let you know what we decide and what sort of results etc.

Again, Thaaaank you.

Vicki