Re: [SPAM] Reading fluency testing questions in re: to apraxia

[Guest guest]

I am from Canada not the US but here is my experience with 'system' SLP.

They do anything and everything to give you the 'boot'. There are so many kids

needing services and if they can talk you out of them (because you are naive,

innocent and unaware) then you get discharged and this is one less kid they have

to worry about.

I have spent a lot of time arguing with SLP's in the public system over the

years about whether or not my child 'needed' services. Often futher into the

conversation, I would get an admision of some sort..... " well the usual SLP for

that district is gone on maturnity leave " or " we can't find a time slot for that

school " ..... etc. etc.

Those SLP's know perfectly well that your child needs funding and services but

they are 'strapped' and if you don't fight, they let you go.....

I have done this year after year.... sigh, roll up my sleeves, write letters, go

over peoples head, bargain, badger, cajole (they had my child.... I had to play

nice) and beg for services. Finally in grade 6, my son aged out and that was

that.

The auditory processing 'issue' is an absolutely valid concern. Probably most

of our kids here have auditory processing issues. When you bring it up to age

level you see an amazing increase in language fluency, story telling ability,

ability to follow instructions and general overall awareness of 'everything'

that is going on around them. Instead of being in 'la-la-land' (you all know

what I mean....), your child actually is 'hearing' and 'comprehending' and

'remembering' all of the subtle contexts of language and is able to function so

much better in daily life. It is an amazing difference!

We used The Listening Program for Mark to work his auditory tonal processing and

then used digit spans (you can use a cheap program called Brainbuilder or Simply

Smarter to work these as well) to bring up Mark's auditory memory to normal

levels. I like to use a whiteboard and do them myself..... to start, do them 4

X a day and then taper down once normal digit spans are attained. It was cheap,

and we did this in about 8 months all total to normalize him after 11 years of

'unrecognized' APD! Wonderful difference for him.... just wonderful!

I have never heard of this 'colour test' you SLP talks about but I would suppose

that there are many ways to test APD. Some of the therapies are crazy expensive

so make sure that you 'try' before you 'buy'. There is one program that has

great reviews called FastForward but it requires 45 minutes (plus) per day.

There is absolutely no way this would have worked for our family. Digit spans

are boring but we knock them off in about 3 minutes and then do them about 4

times a day...... so the total time spent was 12 minutes a day..... but we were

very committed and got them done.

Janice

[sPAM][ ] Reading fluency testing questions in re:

to apraxia

I have just had a therapist do an extensive evaluation on our 6.9

year old son. He did not qualify for public school speech services

after the school gave him one vocab test. I felt that he was still

struggling some so I sought a recommended private SLP to do more

testing.

I don't have all the results of the tests yet but she did tell me

quickly that along with auditory processing issues his fluency was

very low. She said that his phonemic and phonological awareness were

both slightly above average but his fluency was 2%. I asked how that

was tested and she said that the test has the child (because he's

under 7) " read " colors. They determine that the child knows all the

colors in the test and then there are lines of colored squares that

the child must read. My question to her and to this community is

wouldn't his having apraxia affect his ability to say the

colors/words out loud? I struggled with this with his K teacher.

She would continually test him verbally and the test would be

skewed. Is anyone familiar with the above testing? The therapist is

a licenced SLP and she has other degrees behind her. I would assume

that she would know how apraxia would affect fluency? She did

tell me that he tests as having a moderate to severe communication

impairment and she was shocked that the school never picked up on the

processing issues. She told me she was embarrassed that someone in

her profession would release him from services.

She also told me that he tested differently than any child she has

ever seen. I guess he would answer several question incorrectly and

then just before the test would ceiling out, he would get one right.

She said he kept doing that until he went well above his age group.

She said it's almost like his processing or what ever would be there,

then drop off, then come back in. She said she's never seen anything

like it before.

I'd love to hear from others who have gone this route. I am home

schooling so I don't have to push right now and the therapist has

asked me to stop teaching him to read until we can develop a specific

program to fit his needs. I'd just like to hear from others on how

apraxia affects reading fluency. I guess I'm more concerned that he

will be able to read silently and comprehend what he is reading more

than I'm worried about his ability to read out loud. Does that sound

crazy?

Sorry for rambling. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around moderate

to severe communication impairment, processing issues and a 2%

fluency test. I KNOW that people said apraxia is NEVER alone, that

other issues would surface. It just feels so damn defeating when you

think things are going better and then a test shows big huge holes.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you feel that this is a

better topic for off list please email me at smccann@...

All the best,

McCann