Need suggestions for problems with hearing sensitivity and processing speed.

[Paz]

My dd is dyslexic and we have made great strides in that area. She does still have some hearing sensitivity. Malls and loud music drive her crazy. She is 16 so this makes it difficult, at times, to hang out with her peers. Her testing this year also indicated processing issues. She does her written work very slowly, answers questions slowly, and her delayed reaction time is observable in other areas as well (sports and driving come to mind). Any suggestions about programs to help in these areas. I recently read about computer programs used for aging participants that helped with their memory and processing speed. Any thing that like around for teens?

[DebonLI]

There is a program that is recommended for better processing from http://www.scilearn.com. It's called Fast ForWord. I don't have personal experience with it other than the fact it's been recommended for my 8 year old with auditory processing issues. Hope this helps.

 

Debbie

[Mom22ns]

Fast Forward would be well below your dd's level. If you look through the thread on stopping school to do therapy just below (sorry I don't know how to link to it), you'll find quite a few people have posted what they have done for processing and what their success was with different therapies. My list is at the end.

 

Debbie

[Guest Fredydx]

I can relate to your child's problems. I dealt with the same issues as a child. How about the 'right brain' functions. I suspect your daughter might have excellent imaging skills; Drawing, painting, color awareness. The psychiatrist who worked with me said that the neural network at the base of the skull might be the source of the 'cross wiring' and hence the delayed response to external stimulus.IE.trouble catching a baseball or hitting one, balance issues, confusion about left and right. Sometimes pointing to strengths does wonders for working through difficulties. She may find math easier to learn with an emphasis on the visual implications. Pictures, graphing etc. Fred

[Paz]

Fred, this does sound a lot like her. She loves art and photography. She is extremely creative and anytime I can have her "see" things she does great. Hands on projects are important. She is athletic though, and good in softball but this comes from overlearning. She has to play a position again and again until it becomes automatic. I still notice her processing issue when the coach gives her a steal sign. It's like I can see her thinking "The coach said to steal" and then she reacts. Most people around her don't notice this. They just think she runs slower than she actually does.:lol: I am afraid of the whole driving thing because of this. I guess we will have to just put in a lot more hours until things become more automatic. Right now we live in a big tourist area and are waiting for the snowbirds to go home before she drives again.

[Alanae]

I have a daughter who has major issues with blocking out noise as well. In school if the air conditioner comes on it takes 10min to get her back on task since she simply can not block out background noise. One of the things that helped us was something a friend of mine who is an OT suggested. It sounded rather peculiar at the time but it has helped to lessen the problem. Gregorian Chants. I know it's weird but it did help us. Get a CD of Gregorian Chants and simply play it in the house. The child doesn't have to sit and listen or even pay attention to it. There is just something about the sounds that seems to work. I use it while we do homework or while she is sitting quietly playing with something or even while we read a book together. Not being able to handle loud noises is usually assiciated with SI (sensory integration) problems. It's a fancy word for - your child can't tune out background noises and it makes them nuts. Gregorian Chants area also used alot with autistic children who can't "fit in" with their envirnonment. From what I've seen they have had some pretty good success with it.

 

Now when I heard about and tried this was quite a long time ago. Mid 90s, but it might be worth looking into if it will help.

[Tara from Florida]

Hi. Just saw you post and wanted to share with you some of what we have done.

 

My daughter is 9 and has SPD. She also has hearing, visual and tactile defensiveness. In addition to the SPD she also first presented with significant auditory analysis problems (couldn’t spell or sound out words but had us all fooled as she had a gifted memory and had memorized over 2,000 sight words by 7). My husband had processing speed deficits and so my daughter has a high risk of that too.

 

The first thing we did was PACE and Master the Code (the full phonics reading program that is the companion to PACE). We were totally pleased and saw complete remediation of her auditory analysis skills and word attack skills up to the adult level. All the other skills she worked also improved, included a very depressed score in the executive functioning section (they called it logic and reasoning).

 

I was so impressed that I became a PACE trainers so that I could help others with this program and highlight the home study program they had at the time.

 

Since then we have been through OT (not bad but not as much change due to the infrequency with which it is routinely offered), had a full APD hearing evaluation and complete Woodcock-Johnson cognitive and achievement batteries, TOVA testing (for ADD like attention issues in visual and auditory situations which really stunk!), and CTOPP for dyslexia testing.

 

The repair we saw confirmed that what was worked in PACE really stuck from 2 years ago and is still strong and continuing to develop. We did see some other auditory distraction issues that went beyong the auditory analysis element remediated with PACE.

 

Just a month ago we did AIT (Auditory Integration Training) and had great results. I was surprised and pleased when she was less bothered by both auditory and tactile stimulus. I was impressed enough that my husband is going through it right now and he is ½ way through and just got his 2nd audiogram. He had up to 5 decibels of hearing improvement in some areas after only 10 half hour sessions. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 hours brings.

 

FastForward is a great program for auditory. It was developed by a guy named Merzenich (pronounced Mer zun ick). He was the one who created and developed the cochlear implant. He is a leader in the science of neural plasticity. I have taken the study to become a FastForward provider and only need to finish taking the test. As such I can say that the program is great for auditory and auditory processing speed, but I am not so sure it is geared toward general processing speed development outside of the auditory. There may well be some residual benefit though in those areas as we did see companion skills improve from PACE that were also not directly approached in the training.

 

Right now I am off to bed as I have spent the last few nights burning the midnight oil updating my web site to include information on the new online BrainSkills program and the on line skills assessment test, The Gibson Test of Brain Skills. Both of these are from the developer of PACE and I have to say that the cost, especially for the test, is remarkable for what you get. The test is only $29.95!

The new on line BrainSkills includes some similar auditory components to FastForward (high and low pitch and high and low volume) in addition to the sound and code component many are familiar with from the old paper version of BrainSkills and from PACE. Unlike, Fastforward, though, it also addresses memory, processing speed, visual processing, word attack skills and executive functioning (planning and organizing) skills. The executive functioning skills (logic and reasoning) section is much stronger that the old paper version and even surpassed PACE in this area, in my opinion.

I wish you well. Let us know what you decide to do and how it works out.

I have just added a new blog and forum section on my site so I would be thrilled if you sand others on this site would include anything you do and your results there for others to read about.

Have a great weekend.

 

PS. Where are you that you have snow birds? I'm in Florida so I fully understand and appreciate your driving situation. It can be tricky even without processing speed challenges:auto: