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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.
As a home educator, my oldest son was reading two grade levels above his
age but he could not write or spell. I did everything I could as a Speech-Language
Pathologist to help him, but it wasn't 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 problems. 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 oldest 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 mom, my youngest 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 youngest son's Auditory Processing Skills and
to my shock he flunked all my 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. So again, I have learned 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 Processing Deficits Checklist" and the
"Signs of Timing, Concentration and Motor
Processing Deficits Checklist" 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
