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Little Giant Steps - has anyone used this? neurodevelopmental stuff??


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For those not familiar they are neurodevelopmental specialist at http://www.littlegiantsteps.com (they may only be here in Texas - I dont know).

 

Anyway they had a booth at the San Antonio curr fair and I took my son in for a free screening (a "quick functional neurodevelopmental screening report") - his screening showed the following (all of which is greek to me):

 

Brain Organization:

Pons level was complete

midbrain level was incomplete

cortex level was incomplete

 

Visual:

incomplete - macular developement with tracking and seeing the middle of his words was not there (pediatrician has never discussed a tracking issue but he is a late reader and he HATES reading)

 

Processing:

Emotional/Maturity at a 5 1/2 (this is how many items he could remember verbally - like short term memory, I guess)

 

Long Term Memory:

Auditory - right side

Visual - right side

manual - right side

foot - mixed sided

so incomplete

 

So what does this all MEAN?!? Their program is $350 to cover the above issues at home but does not cover the macular issues - they said that he would need a personalized program to help with that - starts at $700 (NOT including supplies) and then $450 every 4 months...OUCH!!

 

Thoughts? I am a little overwhelmed...

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I always refused their "testings". and ignore their many emails.

 

BUT-- I have bought a few of their materials. I LOVE their multiplication program. (Doing a quick search, I didn't find it, maybe discontinued???)

 

I liked their addition/subtraction program too, but know for sure that the one I used was discontinued years ago.

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Ok, here's your problem. They're touching on a lot of good areas that you SHOULD pursue. And what they've found is probably legit. The PROBLEM comes in with their qualifications to fix these things. For instance they came to the Cincinnati convention a few years ago, right as we were really hitting the wall with my dd and trying to sort things out. Their answer to my dd's issues? Buy their $$ kit and crawl and it will solve your problems.

 

I have no issue with the crawling and the exercises they recommend. They're actually useful, yes. But if I had done all that and NOT gone to a developmental optometrist and actually gotten her EYES checked by someone who was QUALIFIED to evaluate the development of vision, I would have totally missed the REST of the issues that were going on. These people have NO qualifications. They are self-proclaimed. Look it up. I'm not taking issue with what they said, and I think they're probably seeing areas that you need to pursue. But when it says vision tracking problems, that is your BIG CLUE to flee and go get a developmental optometrist. When they say your kids working memory is low, what they should be saying is that he has undiagnosed adhd or LDs and needs to go to a neuropsych for a full, proper eval. When they're saying he has mixed dominances, what they should be saying is that he has bilaterality issues and needs to be evaluated by an OT who does sensory to see if there are retained primitive reflexes, sensory integration, or other problems going on.

 

I have NO ISSUE with what they've found. I just have an issue with someone self-proclaiming their qualifications, taking money from people, and then telling them they WON'T need those other, more thorough evals. Sorry, I'm getting irate. They told me, and I kid you not, that if my dd crawled every day her vision problems would reverse and she wouldn't need a developmental optometrist. In the flesh, to my face. Just make her crawl and the developmental problems will reverse. Sorry, but sometimes the kid needs some THERAPY and they need it from someone who knows how to do it. I have no issue with the stuff they would have you do. Digit spans are good and you'll probably end up doing them. SLPs do them, VT does them, etc. I have no issue with exercises for brain integration and bilaterality. Brain Gym, the OT, lots of people do and recommend this. But if you do this stuff and think you've nailed everything and HAVEN'T, then it's sort of like saying my (admittedly good) bandaid will stop the deep laceration, kwim? Sometimes you need a SURGEON.

 

If you do that stuff, it's all good, no harm. If you do that stuff and don't go on to get the full evals for the deeper issues, that's a problem. If you do their stuff and create splinter skills that make it harder for the real professionals to sort out, that's going to be frustrating for you. But sure, go ahead and do it. You can do that just like you can do Dianne Craft or Brain Gym or the Linguisystems workbooks or anything else. But PLEASE make sure you get some actual evals from real professionals who can give you the proper labels identify ALL the issues. PLEASE don't treat developmental vision problems just by crawling. Please go on and get full, proper evals.

 

COVD is where you find a developmental optometrist. That's the kind you want when you're seeing indications of developmental vision problems. There's WAY more to it than tracking. You can start with a regular appointment and let them just *screen* for the developmental stuff. Then they have a full developmental exam that goes into all the parameters (convergence, depth perception, visual processing, etc.).

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OhElizabeth - I have read enough of your posts to know that you aren't yelling at me - you just feel very strongly about certain things and you want to help educate me and others reading this post. Today you were my ANGEL!! I had never even heard of COVD but I immediately googled it, found a provider in my area (not covered by my insurance but the charge was not what I consider outrageous to pay out of pocket). Now here is the cool God part - I am leaving for vacation until September on Thursday. WHILE I was on the phone with the developmental optometrists office someone on the other line was canceling an appt for TOMORROW so I am going to be able to get my son screen BEFORE we leave for 2 months!!! Isn't that awesome!!!

 

So, from the bottom of my heart - thank you, thank you, thank you for your post and its timing :D

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  • 3 months later...

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