I don't know how to multi quote, but will try to answer what evals we've done. I had a neuropsyc eval done in 1st grade along with auditory and vision. Neuropsych was low everywhere, with vision and auditory subsets in like 4-5%. Auditory eval done showed huge weaknesses. Neuropsych was a crook who pretty much refused to look at any additional evals done outside his office (vision and auditory), thus, no diagnosis. We did a year of vision therapy at a SUNY institute of optometry, and Earobix and other exercises for auditory, Audiblox, etc. A year later 2nd grade, I repeated auditory eval, and the improvements were huge. DD scored near low end of normal. Audiologist recommended to continue with assessments annually, but we switched insurances at that point, and the new one did not cover it any longer, so I did not go back. Mid 3rd grade, DD switched schools and had evals done at school. They refused auditory eval, but did WISC, speech, OT. WISC was very similar to 1st grade done by neuropsych - disappointing after so much work. Visual subtest was still in low single digits. Speech eval - and that's the biggest surprise - came in better than expected. She scored low ave on many subtests, with vocab and figurative language being the lowest. We haven't done any evals since then. I did a number of things at home, including Brainware safari, C8kids, movement program, various workbooks, etc. I am convinced she has a language processing disorder - the description in the linguisystems book matches one for one. I've been on the fence about doing another round of evals, but they are so expensive.... it's hard to decide. The evals done in the past haven't been that helpful, but at least with good insurance, we paid only a small part. Now with our new insurance, we'll have to pay in full. I was looking at resources on linguisystem site, but they have so many... I did not know which one would help the most.

My DD is in 5th grade in PS. She has been receiving ST for years, in resource room since 4th grade. A bit of a background: We've done a million things at home to alleviate auditory processing issues, vision therapy, memory work, etc. All seemed to help a bit, but nothing seems to help with her speech. It's like that part of the brain just does not function. Her sentences lack grammar no matter how many times i correct her. She forgets new words no matter how many times I repeat them. Her comprehension is low. So, her special ed. teacher just assessed her reading and placed her on level 30 (DRA). That's early 3rd grade. The only problem with that is that's the same level she's been placed at since early 3rd grade. She LOVES to read!!! She enjoys reading 3rd/4th grade books and reads at least an hour a day. She says she understands what she read. I am totally lost. I expected her to be behind but she surely improved since 3rd grade. Her accuracy was 99%, she made just one mistake. Her fluency was a bit low but not terrible. The teacher said she did OK on comprehension questions but poorly on summarizing. How can she be stuck on the same level for 2 years when she reads so much????? What am I missing? What should I be doing at home? We need to somehow get through this brick wall and move forward. I am totally lost what to focus on. Where would you put your time and efforts?

Yes, I've used it and found it to be a really good program that was super easy to follow. The woman who developed it was very helpful and willing to talk through questions and issues on the phone. I still have the program in great shape and would be interested in selling if you are interested. Let me know.

Can someone link Heathermomster's posts? I would like to check them out as well

There was another good book I used for visual spatial exercises and phonemic awareness which I thought layed out a very easy hands on intervention, but I can't find it on amazon now. I borrowed it from the library and have some copies at home. If this is something you want to work on, I can look it up and post later.

I've tried a fair number of these, though probably too early. We are backtracking now and working on primitive reflexes, but here is my run down: Audiblox - this was the first thing we did, DD was around 8. The program is simple and OK even for younger kids, but repetitive, gets boring quickly, and requires a huge commitment on the parents part. However, I saw noticable changes after doing it for 11 months. DD who couldn't memorize addition up to 10 for 6 months, but after Audiblox, learned multiplication tables in a matter of a few weeks ahead of all her classmates. It mostly improves memory, works on right and left, direction. It does not do anything for processing speed. Brainware safari - this is a step up from Audiblox. The best thing about it is that it's computer based and easy on the parent. The downside is that you can't modify it slightly or break it up into smaller steps when a child is stuck. It's challenging, gets frustrating when a child can't pass a level, and results are questionable. We stuck with it for around 10 months, and while it did not hurt, I can't say that i noticed any major changes. Learning Breakthrough program from Balametrics - easy to do, DD did not mind so much as this was "fun". This is mostly balance based. We sticked with it for 12 months. Balance improved significantly. DD finally learned to ride a bike, can walk on a log on a playground, bounce a ball, etc. However, she is still awkward in her movements, and academically, I don't think it did anything despite all the promise and explanation in the manuals. Science8kids - the biggest benefit is price -- you donate whatever you can. DD is finishing this one up. She's on level 100 and it took about 3.5 months to get there. This one seems to work on processing speed and classification skills, I did not see much training on memory. DD sees this as a fun game and does not mind doing it, but honestly, I haven't noticed any changes or improvements in anything except the tasks performed in the game. Neuronet - i registered and got the first 4 weeks for free. DD tried it. This is another movement program, but different from the balametrics one. It seemed a bit more challenging. DD did not stay with it long enough to see any changes, but it looked like a good thing to try. However, it's not readily available and you obtaining requires training to do it at home. In a nutshell, none of these and other things have been miracle cures, but it seems that each one helps a little bit with something. It's hard to really know because it's not like I can go back and compare to what would've been were we not to do it. A lot of things help with memory -- that's probably the easiest to address; none seem to help with slow processing speed. If you are looking just for working memory, than working memory book might be sufficient. Google Addie Cusimano's books on amazon. It's much cheaper than a $200 cognitive training software. If your child gets easily frustrated, and you are patient and good at encouraging, than Audiblox will be a good fit. If you get easily frustrated, and your child prefers to work on his own, get something computer based. Learning style and personal preferences are just as much a consideration as the program itself. Hope this helps.

Ladies, if you were able to focus on just one Linguisystem workbook, which would be most helpful? I was able to find 100% Vocab one that Marie mentioned above. I was also looking at Language Wise Method book from Reading Reflex author and it seems to have a lot of the same activities bundled in a plain book and not a fancy workbook. Anyone has any opinion on that?

DD is working with a school therapist. She has an IEP and has goals written. If they actually met those goals, she'd be in great place, but semester after semester I get a progress report stating that goals have not been met with no reason or explanation. I spoke about it with the Special Ed person at school, explaining that this is unacceptable, I want to know why they were not met, or what was met, but nothing changes. It's supposed to be a good school, but special ed is horrible. No wilson trained person or anyone for that matter. No use of any programs in the resource room, they use the same curriculum as gen ed and just skip half of it. I've never seen any O-G methods or work, any reading or comprehension programs being used, writing, etc.

Thank you for great suggestions. Unfortunately my dd's speech therapist is not doing those things you mentioned. Will try REWARDS, already doing Critical thinking, did EPS's paragraph book series which was fantastic, will look into the rest of things.

Thank you all for suggestions. Yes, she had IQ testing, I posted results above. She had PT and OT for a few years through EI and then school, but graduated from both. The school would not provide any more as they are not interfering with learning at this point. She is still clumsy when doing chores... Can you recommend specific resources or programs to try based on the scores above? I feel like we've tried a lot of things with mixed results... not sure what would be most helpful now.

Marie, thanks so much. I posted raw scores above as well. Vision therapy was finished about 6 months prior to this evaluation. She did 24 sessions at the SUNY college of optometry. Her doctor told me that she made gains and was doing OK, but I did not see any changes. She still skips lines when reading, and says she finds it very difficult to read books with small font. Last time my daughter had an assessment in both english and second language was when she was aging out of EI, so maybe around age of 3 or so. At that time, the therapist agreed with me that her language skills were equal. Since then, she barely made any progress on it (not that we tried hard); she can barely string a sentence together. She understands pretty well, and so she is able to listen and understand, but almost always responds in english. She learned the language from grandparents and since they helped with child care in the early years, she got most of it then. Since age 4, she's been in in preschools, etc, and so second language hasn't really developed much. Social skills seem OK. She is naturally shy and quiet, but gets along well with kids at school, and has a few friends. Life/adaptive skills - seem OK, though probably a bit behind. She seems clumsy and poorly coordinated, having difficulties with some stuff in the kitchen. Problem solving skills - not so great, she gives up too easily, gets frustrated, and asks for help.

Marie, thanks for the information. Yes, my daughter has an IEP. The only two accommodations she has is preferential seating and extra time for state testing. No school curriculum for building vocabulary that I've ever seen. Can you recommend some resources? I looked up some more test results if anyone is willing to take a shot at interpreting them and advising. WISC - IV Similarities - 25% Vocab - 5% Comprehension - 9% Block design - 2% Picture Concepts - 9% Matrix Reasoning - 37% Digit Span - 37% Letter Number Sequencing - 63% Coding - 16% Symbol Search - 16% CELF - 4: Concepts and Following directions - 42, 50% Word structure - 27, 37% Recalling sentences - 36, 9% Formulating sentences - 34, 50% World Classes Expressive - 1, 5% Word Classes Receptive - 6, 25% Word Classes Total - 7, 9% Sentence structure - 26, 84% Expressive Vocabulary - 33, 25% Core language Score - 93, 32% Receptive Lang index - 101, 53% Expressive Lang. index - 91, 27% CASL (assessment of spoken language) Antonyms - 17, 10% Syntax structure - 25, 14% Paragraph Comprehension - 41, 84% Nonliteral language - 2, 5% Pragmatic judgement - 30, 23% Overall IQ score based on WISC was 8% though I truly don't believe it accurately reflects her abilities and potential. Thank you all in advance.

All, thank you so much for advise. Education therapist sounds like a good idea. How would I go about finding a qualified one? I am posting auditory eval results from 1st and 2nd rounds. The audiologist gave us the results but no diagnosis. Speech evals are all at home, so I will be able to post later in the eve or tomorrow morning. thanks for any opinions. 1st round of evals: Filtered words: 16th percentile Auditory Figure-Ground: 9th Competing Words: 1st (that's where she got all of the 100 questions wrong) Competing Sentences: 37th 2nd round of evals by the same doctor a year later: Filtered words: 25h percentile Auditory Figure-Ground: 16th Competing Words: 16th Competing Sentences: 91st The final impressions stated: "E. still exhibits difficulties in tolerance-fading memory (TFM) and decoding of auditory stimuli. However, scores from this evaluation are significantly better than for her previous evaluation." Overall, the audiologist said the improvements were great, and she almost never sees such great gains. That was a couple of years ago, and we've continued with doing various auditory exercises through Brainware safari and other programs, so while I have no confirmation of that, I expect that my daughter did not regress. I don't know how to quote, but wanted to respond to holding my daughter back and her grades. Her grades were mostly Bs, with one C, and a couple of As. Her tests ranged from high 90s to 60s, depending on how difficult the tests were, with a fair number of them being in 80s and 90s. I can see my daughter having difficulty closer to high school as volume of homework increases, but holding her back at this point would not really gain her much unless she is spending a year doing nothing but therapy (and I have thought of doing Arrowsmith program for a year, but results seemed anecdotal, school could not really provide much data, and my husband was against it).

All, thanks for responding. All advise is very appreciated. No, i haven't looked into a private eval, but perhaps I should. She's had so many done by all the therapists she's worked with, I figured that an eval is an eval. It's the interpretation of the results that's lacking. All the scores were consistently 1-2 years behind what they should be with figurative speech being the worst one. I can post them here if anyone can help with interpretation. Since she is in a public school, grade adjustment is not easy -- the only way it hold her back. Being that she is in 5th grade, March bday (so on the older side), and tall, holding her a year back seems like a bad choice. Daughter did have an auditory eval which came back with terrible results. The test where she had information read in both ears (don't know the name), she got 0 answers right. We did hours and hours of earobics and Audiblox and the following year, the improvements were amazing. So I am sure she still has some deficiencies, but I felt that a big chunk of it was addressed.

Hello All, thank you for responding. A few more details that I missed in the original post to clarify. Yes, my daughter has been seeing a speech therapist for years through the school system. Unfortunately, I am yet to see a good or even a decent one. They just seem to reiterate through the material she covers in class in LA or science, with no actual speech therapy. To make things worse, the school kept on insisting on putting her into ESL class as a way to deal with her language issues. I refused explaining that there are no studies indicating that ESL is an effective way of treating language disorders, but that provided the school with a convenient excuse to explain away all lack of progress. She's also had OT for a few years to help with fine motor skills but graduated from that. No diagnoses was ever given, PDD was never mentioned, EI evaluations early on mentioned developmental delays, and IEP stated language disorder (or something like that). The neurosphyc who did the first eval was rude and unhelpful and at our last appointment said that if, with the visual and auditory deficits shown by the testing, she is keeping up with school, whatever we are doing is working, and we should stick with that -- needless to say, that's not super helfpul. Homeschooling would probably benefit her greatly, but I work full time, and would not be able to fit in school in the eve in an acceptable way. I try to do as much afterschooling as I can fit, focusing on various programs and therapies, math, and reading, and that's the best I can do at the moment.

Hello All, This is my first time posting, but I’ve been reading the boards for a long time and have seen so much good advice on here. (sorry if it gets a bit long) I need advice on what to do with my daughter. She is 10 and just finished 4th grade at our local PS. This daughter has been slow to mature from the start and always in the catch up mode as far as milestones – late to talk, late to learn colors, late to learn ABCs, etc. Her most struggles early on were language related, both receptive and expressive. However, most teachers brushed it off as to be expected bc. we are a dual language family (though I pointed out many times that she is equally weak in the second language). As she entered 1st grade, it became clear that something was very wrong. Homework that should’ve taken 10-15 min would take 3 hours. She couldn’t understand math at all. Progress in reading was terribly slow. We got a lot of evaluations done by neuropsychologist in the middle of 1st grade, which rendered no diagnoses but a galore of problems. Every single area assessed had weaknesses. Both auditory and visual subsections were below 5th percentile. We spent the next 2 years doing a number of programs/therapies: vision therapy, Audiblox, Earobics, Phonics instruction, and lots of math remediation. Things got much better schoolwise in 2nd grade, she caught up with reading and math. However, as she entered 3rd grade, she started falling behind again. Another round of evals done by school this time at the middle of 3rd grade showed little to no improvement in scores compared to 1st grade evals. Again, listening, comprehension, and visual subsections were very low. Memory was the only thing in 50th %. We spend another year doing brainware safari, learning breakthrough movement program, visual spatial exercises, Idea Chain for comprehension, and homeschooling math curriculum as school just gave up on her altogether. Not sure what helped or did not. She finished 4th grade with a mix of Bs and Cs. Her biggest struggle that’s holding her back is reading and comprehension. She LOVES to read, reads at least 2 books a week, but according to school, only on the early 3rd grade level. She has been on the same level for the past 2 years. Despite lots of (silent) reading, she is not making any progress. Her comprehension is poor. She has poor vocabulary, struggles to understand longer sentences, etc. Her decoding and accuracy are pretty good. She knows her phonics, can decode 3-4 syllables words when asked, but in a sentence would frequently misread, not understand, and not even pick up on the fact that what she misread makes no sense. So my question is, what do I do. It’s summer now, and she is out of school, I can work with her later in the eve when other kids are sleeping. I am at a loss what to do. Her memory is OK (and we’ve done a lot of work on it), yet she seems unable to retain new vocabulary. Her language skills are at least 2 years behind, as her reading and comprehension. Idea chain did not seem to help much with this particular issue. What can we try?