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• by
  • cookiemay
  on May. 2, 2007 at 12:21 AM
• I am a mother of an almost 4year old, and an almost 2year old.  They were both just recently diagnosed with auditory processing disorder.  My youngest son is affected more by it, he doesn't have any words yet.  My older son has troubles with articulation, and expressive receptive language.  I can't help, but think there is more to it. My youngest son has eating issues too.  Anyway,  I am going to be trained on using PECS.  If anyone has any info on APD, I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks

• 
• by
  • goodasitgets
  on May. 2, 2007 at 1:22 PM
• 
  

  Quoting cookiemay:
  
  I am a mother of an almost 4year old, and an almost 2year old.  They were both just recently diagnosed with auditory processing disorder.  My youngest son is affected more by it, he doesn't have any words yet.  My older son has troubles with articulation, and expressive receptive language.  I can't help, but think there is more to it. My youngest son has eating issues too.  Anyway,  I am going to be trained on using PECS.  If anyone has any info on APD, I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks

       Welcome!  Can I ask how are their fine motor skills?  Is there a possibility they show signs of Apraxia?  Also by eating issues do you mean as in a picky eater or swallowing difficulty?  PECS is a good option. I would encourage them to vocalize in some way when using the PECS cards too...even if it is not even close just to help bring about verbal behaviors as a part of their overall communication.  My son was not originally developmentally ready for PECS when first introduced around the age of 2.  He later has used them as a part of his overall commmunication especially for visual schedules and learning receptive language.  He a lso used the toileting card for a time to let us know when he had to go tot he bathroom. I put strips of velcro up all over my house where I needed to use the cards!  We have some neat PECS magnets from Barker Creek that we use on cookie sheet trays to work on speech and on other language arts skills like answering questions and building sentences. 

• 
• by
  • goodasitgets
  on May. 2, 2007 at 2:11 PM
• 
  

     If anyone has any info on APD, I'd greatly appreciate it.  Thanks

        Also I just bought "Auditory Processing of Early Language Comprehension  Skills" and will let you know if we think it is a good product as soon as we have worked in it. 
  
  We used to think our son had an actual hearing impairment...the school was still asking about that this year, but a DPOAE (type of hearing test I can explain if you are interested) ruled out a true hearing impairment so we are back to Auditory processing problems instead.  We see our son confusing words that are presented orally which sound similar...like mouse and house, or snack and snap, etc.  It seems to be problematic at the beginning middle and end of words plus his auditory memory of long string of input...sign language or printed words really help him get more accurate meaning.   

• 
• by
  • cookiemay
  on May. 2, 2007 at 8:21 PM
• Thanks for the welcome, and the interest in our situation.  The eating issue is he has only eaten applesauce, and occassionally yogurt for the past year.  He will take pedisure through a bottle.  He has not ever eaten solid foods, he will lick them with his tongue coming out of his mouth to do it.  The developmental pediatrician said he has autistic things about him, and things that are not, so she doesn't know at this time.  We saw her just April 10th, and go back in June for a follow-up to discuss how the eating is going since she told me what to do about it.  As far as  fine motor skills go, my youngest I don't really know, he does feed himself the applesauce with a spoon, but doesn't have an interest in coloring.  He is in EI and receiving speech, and developmental therapy.  He is going to be starting a program 2 days a week where they will work with him using PECS, he'll be getting his theropies, also going to observe to see if he needs OT which I'm sure he does, and the big thing he'll be around other children.  At preschool they have been using pictures for transition, and bathroom for my older son. 

• 
• by
  • cookiemay
  on May. 2, 2007 at 8:30 PM
• My youngest son had a couple of hearing screenings where he didn't respond to as low of levels as the audiologist thought a person with normal hearing should so she recommended he have an auditory brainstem evaluation.  Is that something like what you were talking about?  Another audiologist did some more testing, and decided he didn't need that done because the levels he responded to for them were low enough it shouldn't effect his speech.  He responded better to a bear playing a drum rather than just a puppy.  I thought that was interesting.

• 
• by
  • cookiemay
  on May. 2, 2007 at 8:41 PM
• How old is your son, and what is his diagnosis? That is if you don't mind.

• 
• by
  • goodasitgets
  on May. 3, 2007 at 9:24 AM
• 
  

  Quoting cookiemay:
  
  How old is your son, and what is his diagnosis? That is if you don't mind.

   My son is turing 10 May 11th!  The year he was born May 11th was on Mother's Day, so I have always called him my "Mother's Day Boy".  My Birthday is just a week after his on May 18th...sigh...I'm turining 39 this year.  
  He was first diagnosed wtih PDD-NOS prior to turing two years old.  He really fits the classic Autism diagnosis but he is very social (YAY!) despite the verbal challenges.  He would prefer to be doing something w ith some one all day long if he could...I just can't to that...I try to get his two brothers to play with him more often too.  They don't always remember to include him.  (His brothers are age 6 and age 14).  Autism, Apraxia, and Hyperlexia are all aspects of the way his challenges present themselves.  His fine motor skills are delayed but he is able to write with a pencil although it is very difficult to read and takes a lot more paper than a kid should.  He does well enough with a pencil to do grade level worksheets well, but also uses a wireless keybaord (AlphaSmart 3000 at school for Spelling tests). Gross motor skills are pretty good...he climbs up and down the verticle ladder to our tree house like champ, and can do  jumping jacks etc.  We do a lot of vestibular activities at home ...I have a mini tramp in my living room we ALL use, hula hoops on the floor like a tire maze to hop step or walk through, a crawl through tunnel, a board on the floor to  walk on...it isn't out all the time but alot. 
    

• 
• by
  • goodasitgets
  on May. 3, 2007 at 9:48 AM
• 
  

  Quoting cookiemay:
  
  My youngest son had a couple of hearing screenings where he didn't respond to as low of levels as the audiologist thought a person with normal hearing should so she recommended he have an auditory brainstem evaluation.  Is that something like what you were talking about?  Another audiologist did some more testing, and decided he didn't need that done because the levels he responded to for them were low enough it shouldn't effect his speech.  He responded better to a bear playing a drum rather than just a puppy.  I thought that was interesting.

       That is interesting!  My son when he was about 2 would walk right past some sounds as if he didn't hear them at all.  Additionally he responded MUCH better with high levels of joint attention when I would SING. SINGING seemed to just draw him in ...I wondered if it was because singing stimulates both  sides of the brain, while speech stimulates only one side (supposedly). The other thing that really "got to him" when he was very young was reading Goddnight Moon...he would look right at my face and the book pages as any  kid should for that  book.   
  The brainstem response measures hearing in a different way than the DPOAE (from what I understand).  The Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions test measures coclear function through "amplitudes and signal to noise rations" for various frequencies.  The Brainstem Response or ABR will do an equally good job of knowing if your child is hearing, but NEITHER of these tests can tell us how the child is perceiving and processign what the ear is hearing.  In  my son's case if the problemm isn't in the ear itself that means the problems are neurological and happen "down the path" form the ear as the brain processes the auditory input.   It is still very important to identify or rule out a true hearing impairment because the treatment protocol will obviously be very different for one than the other. 

• 
• by
  • JarensMom
  on May. 8, 2007 at 7:49 PM
• I want to say hello to everyone here. My name is Maria. Live in Alaska. My little guy Jaren will be two at the end of this month. I have three boys. 17, 10 ( diagnosis of rare JRA at age 5), and Jaren 2 (diagnosed two weeks ago with autism). Just saying hey.. oh.. and thanks for the information. It is a true stress reliever to come here and find a link, an idea, or an informed opinion listed here. Keep up the awesome work. The effort does NOT go unnoticed. It may go thankless sometimes..but today.. THANK YOU.

• 
• by
  • goodasitgets
  on May. 9, 2007 at 2:41 PM
• 
  

  Quoting JarensMom:
  
  I want to say hello to everyone here. My name is Maria. Live in Alaska.
  

    THANK YOU SO MUCH for the kind post! 
  
   By the way one of my dogs is from Eagle River, Alaska -ha!  She is a retired sled dog, now ten years old.  Her musher participated in his first Iditarod two years ago.  Her name is Pepper Jubilation (her "middle" name was given by the musher who bred her and her "first" name by the musher I adopted her from who aquired her as a yearling.  Are you and Iditarod sleddog racing fan? 

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