Perry Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 The author of PATH participates in an email list that I use. It sounds interesting but is very expensive ($1050) for a home user. Has anyone found this helpful for kids with Rapid Automatic Naming problems? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Everson Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I can't help, but there's been a pretty good discussion underway recently at the ReadNOW group at Yahoo/Groups. The author of PATH is in the discussion, so perhaps it's the same group you're in? If not, take a look. I think the messages can be read by anyone though it's possible you'll have to join to read them. Here's a link: ReadNOW Rod Everson OnTrack Reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 I'm a member of that group. I'm hoping to hear from those that have used it. Dr. Lawton obviously has a bias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Twinmom used it at the office of a developmental optometrist. She had good results. You could search for her posts. A friend of ours who is a brain scientist looked over the research and said that most of the research supporting the underlying theory of the program was really old. The research supporting the use of the program itself looked pretty decent to me, and it was intriguing because of the possibility of improving rapid naming/processing time. The cost is a factor that made me decide to put it further down the list. Right now, we're doing Brainware Safari, which is about $50 or so through Homeschool Buyers' Co-op. I've seen a huge change in ds's ability to concentrate (he has ADHD). I'm not sure whether it's improved his processing time. His cognitive skills development has been really amazing in some areas on the software. He's able to do many things now that I can't do, that's for sure! Following Brainware, we plan to do Cogmed, which is the software program used by the Swedish scientist who demonstrated through multiple, double-blind studies, that working memory could be improved. PATH will be the final step if we still think we need it. Why are you considering PATH? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 We just finished a course of VT, although we didn't see any improvement. They had him do one thing that I thought looked promising, so I'm going to buy the program (Vision Builder) and have him do it at home. I posted about it here. We started Brainware Safari last fall, and he did well up to a point, then stopped making progress and became extremely frustrated. We put it on hold until we finished VT, and will be starting it up again soon. We just aren't making much progress with fluency. We've been doing lots of phonics since removing him from ps last March, and his reading level has improved quite a bit. I'm sure he's made several years growth in decoding, but his speed hasn't changed much at all, even on text that is several years below grade level. We've done repeated readings (ad nauseum) but that hasn't helped at all. I just don't think we will make much progress unless we can figure out how to remediate the underlying problem. PATH claims to improve Rapid Automatic Naming. I've looked at the studies posted on the PATH website, but I am skeptical. I found Twinmom's posts but the last thing I read was that she was having trouble with the 30 minutes of reading after each session. I haven't seen a follow up. If my son could read 30 continuous minutes a day I don't think he would need PATH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Twinmom's VT was primarily PATH. The PATH protocol required 30 min of reading following each session. The sessions were long because they were doubling up on sessions. They solved the "30 min. of reading after a long therapy session" problem by having the therapist do the reading with the child, rather than the mom. Her children both made a number of years progress by the time they were done. Maybe you could PM her to see if her children's problems were with RAN or processing speed. PATH is the only thing on the market that I've found claims to improve rapid automatic naming. Most authorities will say that there is no way to increase it. If children also have processing speed issues in general (such as what would show up on a WISC), then I've read that these improve somewhat with medication if the issue is ADHD. I, too, have some skepticism about the research, but, as I said, we may give it a try in the future if it seems like he still needs it. My ds has a serious rapid automatic naming deficit and poor processing speed. His oral reading speed has improved over time and is pretty normal at this point. So at least for him, it wasn't necessary to address the underlying issues to get an improvement in reading. I still see the RAN and processing issues show up in other ways. Aside from the fluency, how is your child's comprehension? Can he comprehend grade level material, but is simply slow in reading aloud? Or is the fluency affecting comprehension? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 His reading speed is definitely affecting his comprehension, as well as his attitude. Reading is such a struggle and requires so much effort. His listening comprehension is better than reading comprehension, but neither are great. Both are improving though. I bought Idea Chain and we started it last fall, but it was too much with VT and Brainware and everything else we were doing. I decided to do them sequentially, with VT first, then Brainware, then Idea Chain, so we will probably get to that this summer. It looks good, but is time consuming. Last month we started Reading Detective, and that is going well. His language skills have always been below average, and I think his comprehension issues are a result of that and inadequate background knowledge. He just hasn't been interested in learning much, particularly if it comes from a book. His attention is fine if he is interested in the topic, but it's difficult to get him to listen to most books. He loathes fiction but will tolerate an occasional adventure story. It's really kind of difficult to gauge his comprehension ability, because if he is paying attention and is engaged, his comprehension is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen too often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 That is a lot to be working on at once. I totally understand the sequential approach. I think of it as peeling off layers of an onion. Eventually, it seems to come together. I'm guessing that if you know your child has RAN problems that you've had a comprehensive evaluation, with a WISC-IV included. If you haven't, given the breadth of what you've described, that would be a good idea. You mentioned attention issues--is there evidence of ADHD? Is his difficulty with attention possibly related to sensory issues? If you've had an evaluation done, were there working memory issues compared to the rest of the domains in his WISC scores? Difficulties with working memory are the most common cause of reading comprehension problems. There is some new thinking out there that the difficulties with working memory are the cause, rather than the effect, of attentional difficulties. Just thinking out loud with you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 I PM'd you with some more info on ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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