Ginger Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Another mom in our homeschool group used one of these 'therapists' and she claims the results were just amazing in her 11 yo dd (reading comp., reasoning, thinking). The website doesn't seem to give a whole lot of info on what exactly they do. She said I can borrow her tapes to listen too. I'd like to hear if anyone else is familar with their approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto4kings Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 The NACD is an organization using the same approach. You can learn more at www.nacd.org. And yes, the results can be amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becki in IN Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 We did it for a year. Youngest dd had phenominal increases in her processing speed. She raised the equivalent of 3 years in 3 months. This allowed her to learn to read. What we did for math was a total waste of time and she was a year behind in it once we we were done. On the flip side this time was the beginning of the end of homeschooling my eldest. We worked 3 hours a day on our ND program every week without fail. I had my eldest keep working too. She became sad during this time which got more and more pronounced. She is such a people person that we knew we would have to send her to school. Would I do it again? I don't know. I'm glad dd can read. I'm just not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginger Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 Hmmm, that is interesting. What kind of things did they have you do? What were the ages of your children. Do I understand that they plan out your whole homeschooling day, which curriculum to use and everything? My friend said they spent 4 hours a day on it, but that did include everything. Was it the program itself that put an end to homeschooling your older daughter..why did it make her so sad? Was it because you had to spend so much time with your other dd? I'm using Brainskills now, so I guess I should just continue with that, but I can already see roadblocks we are hitting, and think he might need something else. Do you feel most of the gains were up front and you could have ceased the program earlier than the full year and still had the benefits? Thanks for any information. Ginger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becki in IN Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Ginger, I did not explain myself well. I'm sorry. My youngest dd was on program. My eldest was not. At the time we homeschooled year round, but took weeks off as we went. You couldn't really do that while doing program. It had to be done every day and we had a couple of activities on weekends. I was stuck because my youngest hated what she was doing and if I had given the older dd time off as we normally did, she would have balked. So I kept both of them working. Oldest dd got burned out on school that developed into a deep sadness. As for quitting early, I don't know maybe. Britt made her phenominal jump in processing in the first 3 months. Others would say no though. The thing that was really key for her was teaching her to army crawl, do jumping jacks and doing the digit-spans. Here is a sample of what we did daily: Program Session #1 Fast Jumping Jacks - 1 min. Auditory Digit-Span (2 min.) & Visual Digit Span (1 min.) Reading Unknown Sight Word Cards Pathway Readers 1. Teach sight words 2. Read pages to Brittany 3. Brittany reads Deep Hugs Deep Pressure - 1.25 minutes per limb, total 5 min. Reading Known Sight Word Cards - 2 minutes Hop Right - 1 min. Math Fact Flash Cards - 2 minutes Whistle Deep Hugs Auditory Object Sequences - 2 minutes Hayes Math (50% visual instruction) Pictures with Conceptual and Visual Description - 5 minutes Skip Cross Pattern - 3 minutes Toe Walk - 2 min. Army Crawl - 3 minutes Fast Response game - 10 minutes Program #2 Fast Jumping Jacks - 1 min. Auditory Digit-Span (2 min.) & Visual Digit Span (1 min.) Reading Unknown Sight Word Flash Cards Pathway Readers 1. Teach sight words 2. Read pages to Brittany 3. Brittany reads Deep Hugs Deep Pressure - 1.25 minutes per limb Reading Known Sight Word Flash Cards - 2 minutes Pop Bubble Wrap with Right Hand - 1 minute Rapid Stroke Practice - 1 minute Handwriting with proper slant - 10 minutes Hop Right - 1 minute Math Fact Flash Cards - 2 minutes Deep Hugs Auditory Hunt - 2 minutes Pictures with Conceptual and Visual Description - 5 minutes Toe walk - 2 minutes Army crawl Skip Cross Pattern 3 Tapes - 2 minutes, 3 minutes, & 5 minutes Tactile stimulation on the Right Hand During Quiet Time Book or story on tape Program Session #3 Fast Jumping Jacks - 1 min. Auditory Digit-Span (2 min.) & Visual Digit Span (1 min.) Deep Hugs Reading Unknown Sight Word Flash Cards Read to Daddy and Alicia Reading Known Sight Word Flash Cards - 2 minutes Hop Right - 1 minute Pop Bubble Wrap with Right hand - 1 minute Math Facts Test Read Book to Brittany Math Fact Tape - 3 minutes Skip Counting Tape - 2 minutes Deep Hugs Tactile stimulation on the Right Hand 1 minute - Deep Pressure 12 seconds - Tap sharply 12 seconds - Tickle with feather 12 seconds - Warm washcloth 12 seconds - Cold pack 12 seconds - Vibrating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginger Posted April 24, 2008 Author Share Posted April 24, 2008 Wow! That is a lot! Thanks for expalining all that. Can you give me an example of the digit spans...is that where they repeat back several numbers to you? I started incorporating this into our Brainskills this week, and my ds(turning 8 in a few weeks) can do 4 numbers easily, but can't do 5 numbers. Other than just having him do it over and over again, I'm not sure how to work on increasing that. I told him to close his eyes and visualize the numbers. That got him up to a few correct out of 5 or 6. Is the Army Crawl just crawling on your tummy with your elbows--how long each day did you do that? Sorry for all the questions..I'm just thinking it wouldn't hurt to add in some of this stuff. Did your dd have any problems with eye dominance? The lady I know who was telling me about the program said that if you are right handed, you should be right eye dominant. However, this contradicts what I learned when I was being trained in NeuroNet. We were taught that your opposite eye should be the one that is dominant, because some things cross hemispheres, and others are the same side. All 3 of my kids, and myself are Right handed, Left eye. So either we are all totally messed up or I was taught wrong, of just got confused about what I learned, which could be very likely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto4kings Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 In the past we used Brain builder, a software, to work on digit spans. Now we use Simply Smarter, which much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becki in IN Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 She was right-handed, left-eyed, right eared and mixed dominance on the foot. She army crawled twice a day for 3 minutes each time. The kid crawled like a crippled person as a baby. I think this one was important. Your son should be doing 6's or 7's for digit spans for his age. Auditory Digit Spans you say a number then count 1001 between each number, never repeat a number. Britt could only do 3 when she started and got up to 6 at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom42terrificgirls Posted May 3, 2008 Share Posted May 3, 2008 We did this for 24 months. Dd had Irlens. Within 4 months it was completely gone, allowing her to read. However, she never did get right-eyed dominant or increase her digit spans. Now that she is almost a senior, she is blaming me for the therapy because she says it put her behind all of her friends academically. Looking back, I still would have done it but not for so long. I think whatever progress she was capable of making, she probably made in the first eight months, but how was I supposed to know that? The therapy did nothing for her math skills or processing skills, but we are very happy that her Irlens is gone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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