CAPD, what have you done?

[crazyfordlr]

My odd was dx'd 2yrs ago and we've been actively working on it 1.5yrs. We've done Interactive Metronome, Perceptual Enrichment Program, Wilson Reading, WRTR, Making Math Real, and a few other things for remediation. We're currently doing VT and that is also going well.

 

We had an appt with our educational therapist today (she's the one who's done most of the work/remediation with our dd) has noticed the last few visits that her APD seems to really be getting in the way. She suggested maybe trying Fast Forward after she finishes what they're currently working on (can't remember now.)

 

Our therapist is very good. She is willing to try new things but keeps expectations realistic. She feels our dd is *close* but there's still room to work/improve. I'm confident that she will not keep us coming just to make a buck. Her schedule's too full to do that, and her personality too caring.

 

What have *you* done to help your child with CAPD? When did you feel you were done remediating? When do you say "this is where we are and this is what we're working with"?

 

Am I making sense? Thanks!

[Twinmom]

Our audiologist has us running through several of the HearBuilders programs with our CAPD twins before they look at FastForWord. They are cheaper, but still excellent. We haven't done our post testing yet, so I can't tell you what the results will be, but so far they seem to be improving. We are doing Orton Gillingham tutoring for reading, and one of my boys has an FM receiver for his left ear (very weak in processing on the left compared to the right...strangely, the other twin doesn't have that problem!). We have also done some OT work, as well as speech therapy. Speech therapy related to APD will resume after the first of the year.

[AliR]

DD10 has been working on FastForword for almost 4 months, and has completed 3 programs. Her speech therapist has noted that a big area of gain has been the ability to process much larger chunks of language like multi step instructions. Her written work has improved greatly as she can now 'hold' complete sentences in her working memory. Before, her brain was moving much faster than her ability to deal with language.

 

We will stop all therapy at the end of this month and have a two month break to see how she can use these skills. My best guess is that we will do another short spell of this therapy after the holiday season and then call it good for a while.

 

So far, we have not reached a point where remediation in total has stopped delivering gains, although we have switched between different therapies as soon as things are stagnating.

[lcook]

We did FFW, Interactive Metronome, The Listening Program and LOTS of exercises developed by our SLP.

 

FFW: We saw great jumps in phonemic awareness and auditory memory.

 

Interactive Metronome: Did two rounds of this and saw jumps in word retrieval, focus and I think maybe memory.

 

The Listening Progam and Samonas: I did not see any improvement with these. I've since heard that The Listening Program and other listening therapy may work better with those folks that have auditory issues due to sensory problems and not true CAPD? Not sure how accurate this is(or even understand it), but it would explain why we never saw success with these. My son certainly has CAPD.

 

We have spent the last 8 months doing an intensive at home program developed by our SLP to work my sons visiual processing, CAPD and motor processing skills. I now have a child that I can teach (he really was an unteachable child a year ago). So, for now, I'm going to use all my acquired knowledge and just pour academics in to him. So, we are done with remediation for the short term. I guess I should say we are done with professional remediation. My son still has APD and areas I want worked on, but I have all kinds of tools now to use with him on my own and they are enough to keep us pretty busy. :)

[Mukmuk]

We have done Interactive Metronome, Samonas, Cranial osteopathy, training with an SLT where exercises revolved around listening with distraction in the background, Fast Forword, and Cogmed.

 

Of these, Fast Forword and Cogmed worked the best. Cogmed is not a CAPD treatment per se, but helps with working memory. A friend's developmental ped recommended that Cogmed be done first to improve working memory, and then FFW so that the lessons learnt with regard to letter sounds can stick better. It worked dramatically for my son. He did 5 weeks of Cogmed, after which he did 9 weeks of FFW (the earliest pre-reading levels that focus on sound recognition). He started to process sounds more accurately, and faster too. At the pretest for FFW, it was clear that my son couldn't hear the difference between various letter sounds like "b" and "d". The program worked exclusive on retraining his ears to hear these differences. I don't think it's 100%, but he now has a sufficient base with which to process words through his ears, so speech isn't so confusing for him.

 

I agree with lcook- I finally have a son whom I can "teach". His learning has picked up with incredible speed. He still needs other therapy like for processing sounds in a distracting environment, and his visual processing is not being attended too (we're taking a breather from vision therapy), but we've made so much progress in the last 6months than ever before in the last several years. I'm grateful! To the OP and others here, I hope you see the same success and more.

[dtsmamtj]

We did Earobics, ST for about a year or so, and several different supplements from Linguasystems that helped on specific weak areas. We still do a little supplementing and are constantly working on "real life" weak areas. Since age 9 there has been great improvement - he is now 14.

 

T

[JadenCalebMom]

My son is 7 and was diagnosed in February of this year. We started with OT and he loves it and I see some improvement there. We has been working with visual tracking and core body strength and multi step processes.

 

We started speech therapy a few months ago and this is where I have seen the biggest improvement. She has been working hard with background noise discrimination, phonemic awareness, multi step commands and correct pronunciation.

 

We have used Earobics. He doesn't like parts of it and I can't say that I blame him.

 

We have been doing the hear builders free trial online and he really likes it.

 

We also use dyslexia quest, an app for the iPad. It is wonderful.

 

We switched our phonics to the Phonics Road to Reading. It is somewhat boring, but he is getting it!

 

I feel like the biggest help has been the speech therapist.

 

I would love to try fast forward but just don't have the money for it!

 

Good luck!

 

Dionne

[crazyfordlr]

Thanks for all your wonderful replies!!! I have to remember that we've only been doing this for a year and a half. When we first started her Woodcock-Johnson scores were 2nd and 3rd grade levels (2 yrs behind), now she's only a few months behind! She's teachable, but it's slow and frustrating for both of us.

 

I'm just trying to get a feel for where my daughter is and who she is. When do I say enough? None of us are ready to stop at this time, but I don't want this to go on forever kwim. I don't have unlimited resources of money and energy. Plus, I don't want my dd to think that she's never going to be good enough.

 

Ugh. This parenting thing is not for sissies!