CAPD--wwhat's worked for you?

[Reya]

My DS is gifted but has pretty severe auditory processing problems--this is a kid who said his first word at 7 months and first 2-word string (actually, it was four words because one was repeated for emphasis!) at 9 mo but couldn't hear the endings on over 50% of words or any un-emphasized words in casual speech at two years. I've done some serious intervention work with him since he was about 1.5 in both speech and then reading (he's dyslexic, too) and then fine motor skills (dysgraphic, though making AMAZING strides), and now at 5, he reads at a 6th grade level even if he doesn't read like a *normal* sixth grader. I think we're getting the fluency issues dealt with (also severe...), though it's still hard work, but listening comprehension is a HUGE struggle. We've pretty much got auditory discrimination down--FINALLY, after more than three years of work. And raw auditory memory hasn't ever been big problem.

 

But.....

 

DS is completely paralyzed by auditory figure-ground issues in auditory comprehension in settings that wouldn't bother most people at all and has a somewhat lower level of interference for other non-listening tasks. He also has big auditory attention problems that require lots of discussion of every paragraph we read in science and history so that he "buys" the time to be able to put all the words in order in his head before going on. And don't get me started on auditory cohesion.... RightStart works great for math, and with a RightStart foundation, he can process everything with any other presentation, too, so we're okay there.

 

The figure-ground, attention, and cohesion problems make life so much harder for him. I knew how to fix the discrimination, but these are harder. Working part of the time with a level of background noise that makes things harder but not impossible will help him slowly gain tolerance for figure-ground, I think. And through comprehension and analysis questions and narration exercises, I'm working on the others. But I'm wondering if other people have had success with specific approaches to helping auditory cohesion and attention. These are so much harder to grapple directly!

 

I'm not really interested in approaches that avoid challenging his deficits. (Why not do less reading and more activities in history? etc.) These are things that MUST be strengthened, one way or another. I'd just like to do it as painlessly as possible.

[JFSinIL]

FastForword.

 

Also - two of my kids had severe auditory processing delays (documented by a specialized audiologist with a cordically-evoked potential) improved on medication. Our pediatric neurologist calls the condition LKSV - Landau Kleffner Syndrome Varient. He treated it with prednisone and valproic acid (Depakene/Depakote). I am hoping he includes this info in his new book (due ot this month).

[Claire]

I agree that FastForWord would likely be helpful. I would follow it up with a cognitive skills training program such as PACE or LearningRx. FFW would address the underlying auditory processing deficits. PACE or LearningRx would stimulate development of the cognitive skills that have been delayed because of the APD deficits.

[Reya]

Thanks!