Susan Barton said it took her $100,000.00 of her own money to develop the app. Apple keeps 30% of sales. At this rate she would have to sell 4762 apps in order to break even....well maybe come close to breaking even...she probably has attorney fees and who knows what other fees went in to it. It is also 100% geared towards Barton. From what I've read, I can't imagine someone who isn't using Barton purchasing it. Thus, the customer base is severely limited (Barton users only). I empathize with you. The financial burden of dyslexia is huge. I would love to purchase the app, but first I need an Ipad. Every direction I look is $$$$$.

We have done Interactive Metronome twice with two different providers. I found myself in a similar position as you. Our VERY experienced provider was 6 hours away and our local provider had about 2 years of experience. For our second round of IM we used the closer provider and it helped, but after reviewing his final scores with the other provider I found she would have pushed him even further. Our situation was different in that our providers were out of two different practices and did not work together....if the more experienced IM therapist could have imparted her knowledge (via phone/email) during the sessions we most certainly would have had even more success. If my experienced provider lived only an hour away we would have hands down made the drive to her. She really is quite exceptional and has put many, many children through the program. Unfortunately, 6 hours would have required a temporary move. Depending on the experience level, I lean towards using the experienced OT. Given the time and effort of IM, I would want to get the absolute most out of it. You will already be setting aside a chunk of your day and it is for a short period of time. It is also a lot of work for the child....why not give him the best teacher. Assuming you home school this is the perfect time to cut back on school work. Has the inexperienced OT gone through the IM training? I would express your concerns with the experienced IM provider and confirm that he/she is VERY comfortable with your child seeing the inexperienced provider. Ask if you could switch providers part way through if the expected progress is not on track. The great thing about IM is that progress IS measured. Find out where your son is expected to be at during and the end of the program. Yes, every child does progress at different rates, but certainly the experienced OT will have some idea of the expected progress. This way if your son is far off, you can look at whether it is just his normal progression or the OT's lack of experience.

Yes, I've been wondering about why there is so little EPA/DHA in it. I wish I would have realized this when I was with the neurologist and asked him. There is a difference between taking Vayarin and taking Omega3 and Phosphatidylserine separately. In Vayarin the Omegas and Phosphatidylserine are bonded together in one molecule. From what I understand this is what helps transport the Omegas directly to the brain. If you take them separately they remain different molecules. This is what separates Vayarin from a supplement....we can't get Vayarin from eating food. This chemical bonding is one reason I can think of that might justify having less Omegas. When you take just a regular Omega supplement it gets transported all over the body....some can go to the heart and else where with just a portion going to the brain. Maybe since this goes directly to the brain less Omega is needed??? I have no data to back this....it is just a thought that I've been pondering.

Our neurologist has recommended this for my son. He said it may help with his processing issues and memory problems. Just curious if anyone else has used it and where *specifically* have you seen progress, if any? Thanks!

This leads in exactly to what I always tell my husband. It takes a team of individuals to properly diagnose these complex LDs and wouldn't it be nice if there was some communication between them!! For a 100% complete evaluation of APD I think we need an SLP, OT, audiologist and psychologist. OhElizabeth, just to clarify I’m only a parent and don’t have any authority on this subject. I’m still trying to determine whether my son has ADD in addition to APD. I can forward Dr. Jay’s email address to you. He seemed very open to responding to emails. Not sure if you have heard about him, but he has been working with APD for over 30 years. I've always heard age 7 is the magic testing age for APD . My son was tested at 7. I suspected APD even earlier and he certainly showed clear signs prior to age 7. Dr. Jay referred to working with children as young as 5 (this was in the context of research studies). Dr. Maxine Young, audiologist that moderates an APD yahoo group, says that there are APD tests with normative data for kids as young as 4.5. The ACPT test is really just a screening. The test itself doesn’t take very long (10 minutes)…it is just one of the many tests that are performed during the testing. Again, it is just a screening and that is why I think you need a good audiologist who can look at information from parents/teachers and the results of the other tests to help you determine if further testing for ADD is necessary. I’ve read that some kids have passed the ACPT test and still have ADD and that some young children can fail the test, but not have ADD…helpful right?! Again I think it takes a good Dr to look at everything on a case-by-case basis. My son is one of the latter. He failed the ACPT test, but I’m not convinced that he has ADD. Unfortunately, our audiologist was one that can administer a test but not help with the interpretation. Sighhh. Our audiologist experience is what I have heard from other parents and an area that Dr. Jay also touched on. Finding the right doctor/therapist for my son has been one of the most frustrating parts of this journey. Now, I generally interview the therapists/Drs that I work with. A couple of quick questions with our audiologist would have told me she doesn’t have much experience with APD. I ask questions such as, “How do you test for this?†“How do you distinguish this from this?†“How many kids have you worked with that have this condition?†“How do you generally treat this?†and the most revealing question “Why, do you recommend this treatment?â€

Yes, much of this is what Dr Jay Lucker discussed at the workshop I attended. Dr. Jay couldn't stress enough that if we leave with knowing only one thing it is that APD is not singular auditory processing disorder. It is auditory processing disorders (plural). Which reaffirmed what I heard in another workshop with a psychologist that presented on APD. She had indicated that of all the clients she has tested with APD, no two looked alike.

I recently attended an APD teacher workshop presented by Dr. Jay Lucker. He also indicated how difficult it is to distinguish ADD from APD attention problems. He did give an example situation to help us understand the difference. A child is sitting in class listening to the teacher and some kids start playing outside. The child with APD attention problems will change focus to the children outside, but will revert focus back to the teacher. The competing outside sound will make it difficult to "hear" the teacher. This child will have got about 50% of what the teacher discussed. On the other hand, the child with ADD will change focus to the children outside and never revert back to the teacher. The ADD child will have got 0% of what the teacher discussed. I know this is a simple example, but it provides some ideas. I don't believe it is possible via a forum to rule one out over the other...even the professionals have difficulty. If you decide to see an audiologist, I would find an audiologist VERY experienced in dealing with APD. Don't just find an audiologist who can test for it, but someone who can INTERPRET the results. So many will say they can perform an APD evaluation, but they don't know how to interpret the scores. Performing the evaluation is the easy part (we could do it with a couple of hours of instruction). Unfortunately, this is all too common and in the end you will have scores, some canned printout of what to do next and lots of confusion. The APD tests will include an Auditory Continuous Performance Test. This is a screening test for ADD. A good audiologist will know enough about ADD and can interpret your results enough to refer you to a psych for further ADD testing if necessary. BTW: There are different types of APD and it is really important to determine what type of APD (if any) your daugher has. Just saying a child has APD is not enough to determine what issues the child has and more importantly how to treat.

I second the post about looking into the signs of dyslexia. Since you feel in your mommy gut that something else is going on with reading at least be aware of the specific dyslexia signs. Susan Barton has a great video on her website about the signs of dyslexia. You can also call her and she will answer any questions you have. Also do some research on the signs of Auditory Processing Disorders/Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD). An audiologist (who has experience with CAPD) can evaluate for CAPD. As someone else mentioned call for the appt now. It took us 4 months to get into our local audiologist. I would also find out the CAPD experience level of the audiologist. Our local audiologist performed the CAPD tests for us, but after just a few questions I found that she really wasn't that experienced. A good SLP can help as well.

Yes, we also used Interactive Metronome and had success. Although, I'm not sure that we got any success in motor planning and my son also has motor planning issues. I saw success in word retrieval, focus and he just seemed much more with it during school work. We used it two different times and both times I saw similar gains. I'm happy to report it has been a couple of months and he hasn't lost it. In fact, he continues to improve with his attentiveness. The one practitioner who has been using IM for a while now (she has used it on 100s of kids) says that we should see more improvements over the next several months. IM was covered 90% with my insurance when we did it through an in network OT. It was one of our cheaper therapies. Again, I don’t know what kind of motor planning benefits my son received from it, if any. However, we did absolutely see success in other areas. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a one glove fits all method to this madness of choosing the right therapies?!

We had a year of vision therapy covered through United Healthcare. We also got a gap exception.

Thank you for this link! I'm going to have my husband make one. Of course, we just got rid of some crutches laying around....arghhh. I've aways had problems with my son's posture. My OT suggested a therapy ball, but I think this might work better.

We have Brain Safari and I know that it incoroporates some sort of timing and tapping. I haven't looked at it in a year so not sure how much focus is on it. I know when we did IM we had to do it at least 3 times a week for about 50 minutes each time. Both our providers stressed that this was necessary to achieve the brain rewiring. This seems to be the case for most neuro work that I read about. Frequency, intensity and repetition seem to be key.

Interesting...there is a clinical study under way that is looking at Strattera and its affects on reading in children wih Dyslexia. http://dyslexia.yale...rchStudy08.html

Both providers we saw for IM charged per session and the number of sessions depended on the severity of the client. Our first IM provider charged $95 per session. She is an SLP and this is her standard in-office rate regardless of what she is doing. The second IM round was through and OT and her in-network rate was $77.00 per session. Our insurance covered most of this because she is in network. It took us 22 sessions for my son to perform in the normal range for most of the IM activities with the OT. He was considered in the severe range. We sent the scores to our SLP (who is out of state....the reason we didn't use her). She is preparing us to do the program at home when he has better endurance. She thinks he can make even more gains if he can get his reps increased. If you can do it with a provider I would highly recommend it. They will probably have a better time motivating your child. I'm dreading the home program.

Awww, certainly more food for thought. A VT told us my son does have retained primitive reflexes. We worked on them for a year and made no progress (my son simply stalled at that pigeon walk, nothing we did would get him to master it). After a year, I felt we gave as good as we could and I tried a different VT. Anyway, sounds like your therapist would never have even recommended TLP for my son.