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The Proper Diagnosis is Critical to Remediation

Why is our motto "The proper diagnosis is critical to remediation?" Actually, there are several reasons and here is "The Rest of the Story."

As a child, I had a speech impediment and went through eight years of speech therapy without any improvement on my "r's". Finally in the ninth grade, one Speech Pathologist diagnosed me as being "tongue-tied." I had my frenulum clipped by our family physician. I went through three more months of speech therapy, and my life was changed dramatically.

I became a Speech Language Pathologist, but my primary interest was not Developmental Disorders, no, it was the Rehabilitation of Stroke and Head Injury patients.

My oldest son was reading two grade levels above his age-level, but he could not write (dysgraphia) or spell. I did everything I could as a Speech-Language Pathologist to help him. We even pulled him out of an excellent private school to home school him, but that did not help either. It was not until we read an article by Paul Harvey entitled "Learning Disorders are Correctable" that I learned about Visual Processing Disorders. Once my son received the correct diagnosis and treatment, he walked out of his dysgraphia problem. One thing though, he still doesn't like to spell. Remediating a processing disorder does not mean that you can change an individual's personality type.

After my experience with my son, I became trained as a Vision Therapist. I grew frustrated that some of my visual patients did not make the radical improvement that my son had made. I began to do additional research about Auditory Processing Disorders. My research was leading me down three different paths. I believe the Lord gave me Ecclesiastes 3:7, "A time to listen, a time to speak," as confirmation that He wanted me to continue with the Fast ForWord approach to the remediation of Auditory Processing Disorders. So I took the required training and testing and became a certified Fast ForWord Provider in March, 1997.

As a home school mom, my younger son was now in the second grade and had not learned phonics. We tried every phonics program available, but nothing helped. I immediately screened my younger son's Auditory Processing Skills, and to my shock' he flunked all the tests. He did not fit the classic pattern for a child with an Auditory Processing Disorder. His articulation was good, his language skills were good, his vocabulary was extensive, and he had a high verbal IQ. However, it did not matter one bit; he still had an Auditory Processing Disorder that was causing him to have a Phonological Processing Disorder. He became my first Fast ForWord patient, and I was thrilled with his progress. However, my son's temporal-auditory processing deficit was so severe that he needed Fast ForWord II to enable him to discriminate blends and multisyllabic words. After his Auditory Processing skills were "up to speed," he had to learn phonics and how to read. It was hard work, but it was worth it.

Finally, as a Speech-Language Pathologist and a Visual Processing Therapist, I saw the majority of my patients make remarkable gains in their auditory and/or visual processing skills. But there were a few who did not reach criterion level with regards to speed in one of the therapies. Furthermore, these few children seemed "a little clumsy" or "slow to respond." In May, 2000, I attended a workshop about Interactive Metronome and learned about Timing, Concentration and Motor Processing Disorders. It made perfect sense to me. These children had a Timing, Concentration and Motor Processing deficit that was hindering their overall cognitive and communicative progress. I have since become trained as a Registered Interactive Metronome Therapist. I have seen amazing changes in the children/adolescents who have completed that program. I have re-affirmed my belief that "the proper diagnosis is critical to remediation."
I now firmly believe that there are three primary gates through which we receive our instruction: the eye gate, the ear gate, and the motor gate. If your child is struggling to learn, then go to the Signs of Auditory & Visual & Motor Processing Deficits Checklist" and the Questionnaire and see if my services may be of help to you.

Merritt Speech & Learning
Dana M. Merritt, M.S. CCC-SLP, IMT
904-721-4122