Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: auditory processing, Language Processing Disorder, reading, reading comprehension, spelling

This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 5 months ago by pinkchopsticks.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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November 13, 2012 at 10:19 pm
Holly B
Participant
Our daughter appears to have a language processing disorder. I am having a heck of a time since the CM method is basicly literature based. I can’t give her a book and have her come narrate to me what she has read even in small sections. I don’t want to be a crutch and always read to her or with her, but she doesn’t seem to be able to “hear” her brain read.
> She’s 13 years old and I was hoping by now she would be more independent.
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> I have talked with a two speach pathologists who have recommended a highlighting technique where you pick the words out of each sentence that are important to get the main idea and blot out all of the other words. She seems to respond well to it, however, I don’t want to ruin all of our books doing this as I plan to use them with other children. We talked with another speech therapist who recommended we use fastforward and various other programs like The Listening Program. Both therapists charge $100/hour. The programs are extremely expensive as well. Being a one income family, budget is tight.
>
> I have applied the CM living book method all the way through. Recently, I looked into traditional education approach which is completely opposite from what we have done and she didn’t do so great. We spend a lot of time doing seat work because it takes so long for her to comprehend what she is reading. My days are consumed with school. I do my best to mix the subjects up. It doesn’t seem to help.
>
> I would love to hear if anyone else has encounted this and successfully applied the CM approach.
November 13, 2012 at 10:51 pm
JennNC
Participant
Holly — I’m not on here very much but happened to see your post. I wanted to let you know I have a son with APD/dyslexia. We are exclusively CM in our approach and he is doing well. He is 13. In our case it was CM methods that really changed things for him.
I don’t know anything about the programs you mentioned so I can’t offer you any help there. I do know that the specialist who worked with my son took the approach that in every subject we needed to find out what his functional level was, and work slowly from that point, always ensuring that he would experience success. Years later, when something becomes frustrating for my son, I still go back to that basic model. It works for him. If you want me to detail for you what that might look like, let me know.
I’m assuming you’ve already tried using audio books for your daughter to listen to while she reads along? We do a lot of that for our son and it helps him.
You can also use a white board to write down the important words/names/concepts of a passage before she reads it to help focus her mind and alert her to what is coming. That might cut down on the need to highlight everything.
If I think of anything more I’ll post again.
All the best,
Jenn
November 13, 2012 at 11:04 pm
chocodog
Participant
You know my oldest couldn’t comprehend. I noticed this in about 4th grade. She was doing fine in school so I really didn’t say a whole lot. I didn’t want to discourage her and I didn’t want to give her a crutch to say why she wasn’t learning. She never failed any of her classes in school but it wasn’t until she went to college that she realized that she had a problem. She came to me and said something. I told her why I never said anything and she was laughing because she was wondering why she always had problems.
Now, I don’t know what to say about what you can do. My youngest one seems to be like that too. So, I just take it one day at a time. It doesn’t matter what she does she doesn’t process it all the time. She is getting better but I know she has a really hard time with memorizing stuff. Other times her brain remembers everything. It is just like a faucet. I think the more exposure they have to many things the more the lightbulb goes off in their head. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to light even when you ask her a question.
I will try the underlining idea that sounds interesting. If she is doing fine in school then I wouldn’t worry. Just look up stuff on the interenet and read books about it and try some of their suggestions. I would just ask her more questions more frequently. I have to discuss it in detail to her even though we read it. It really helps her if she is drawing a picture of everything I read to her. I told her just to keep drawling everything she remembers in the story. Then, I have her tell me what the pictures are about. Then, I ask her to tell me what she remembers about the story that she didn’t draw.
Good luck and G-d Bless. Hopefully one day you will get over this hurdle. It may take several tries jumping though. 🙂
November 14, 2012 at 12:15 am
sheraz
Participant
I have an 11 yo dd with diagnosed APD – we knew something was wrong in public school for 3 years, but couldn’t figure out what. She was diagnosed at seven (which is very young!) and we struggled through the end of second grade…finally pulling her out to homeschool to meet her educational needs for one on one interaction. She is thriving using the Charlotte Mason methods – traditional school methods DO NOT and CAN NOT meet those needs due to the way it is structured and taught.
I recently went to a class about APD and it was very much on how to help re-train their brains – I blogged about it here:
http://mysouldothdelight.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/auditory-processing-disorder-another-tender-mercy-moment/
I have been amazed at the ability of my child to really get something and remember it since we started CM methods. Know and understand that reading is VERY difficult for these children and make those necessary changes to help her in your schooling. I use A LOT of audio books so as to not be “tied” to this child all the time and let her have some independence. She also remembers things a lot better if her hands are busy – usually drawing – while listening. She has improved so much since we started this journey!
Repetition, repetition, repetition is vital to your child, too. =) Hope this is encouraging and helpful – I meant it that way! 😉

November 14, 2012 at 12:34 am
sheraz
Participant
Tried to edit the last post, but it was too old. Here are some other things I thought of after I posted:
Often after we read I narrate a brief summary of the story with the main points and interesting details. Then I ask her to narrate. Between her drawing, my summary, and the time it takes to organize her info, she does very very well when I get her started at later dates. Also, everyday we review what material we covered the day before. One thing I did start was a drawn narration journal (in the same type of book we use for nature study – which she thrives on, btw) where she keeps those drawings of what she is listening to in one place. It is almost like a daily journal for her and is a great way for her to re-inforce her narrations. Repetition, repetition, repetition is vital to your child, too; even when it is driving us batty. =)
I have explained to her what is happening to that she isn’t always trying to figure out why she is stupid. She is not! When we hit a brick wall for a time, we skip that lesson for the day and try again the next. I will just say – “your APD is acting up, so we’ll try it again later” All of her sisters are considerate of this issue, so it doesn’t cause any issues that way.
She may never be strong in reading, but be sure to offer a full schedule of picture study (VERY helpful re-training tool), music study (classical music has been scientifically proven to bring brains to a resting point – EXTREMELY important to these over-active brains) and nature study. My dd LOVES nature study and is becoming quite an artist and naturalist. There are so many other ways to help her feel successful besides reading books. =)
November 14, 2012 at 12:51 am
Michelle Kelly
Participant
Holly, I am rarely on the forums but checked in today and saw your post. One of our daughters struggles with auditory processing defiency. We spend 1 1/2 years with a reading tutor who helped tremendously. We moved and didn’t have access to another similarly trained tutor, so we continued on our own the best we could
Once sweet girl was reading pretty smoothly we tackled spelling becuase she loves to write and really wants to be able to spell. I spoke with Jill Pike for some time and she sent me to All About Learning/All About Spelling. AAS has been wonderful for us, the format is very similar to what the reading tutor did. Sweet girl still has a long way to go in spelling, and now that she is reading more of the old classics herself, I am noticing that we need to find some help to make the jump to more difficult reading.
I encourage you to call Jill Pike at the Institue for Excellence in Writing. She is a wealth of information and encouragement. Also, check out All About Learning, they have a reading program as well as spelling.
May God direct your steps.
November 14, 2012 at 12:56 am
JennNC
Participant
Oh yes, Sheraz I’m so glad you mentioned that bit about you narrating to your student. I knew I was forgetting something vital. This has been so important for my son as well. I give model narrations for him often, and as time goes by he is more and more able to do this himself.
Also, remember that their brains usually process what they are taking in more slowly than you would expect, but that doesn’t always mean they aren’t processing at all. Someone recently advised me to consider waiting after the reading and letting his mind have time to sort out the information … then have him do a narration a bit later. That’s sometimes been helpful too.
November 14, 2012 at 1:32 am
Michaela
Participant
I had no idea something like APD existed, but after reading this post and the blog post you linked, and some other quick internet searching, I am wondering if my 7yo might have something like this.
Sheraz, I thought your blog post was very helpful in laying out some practical ways to help them. I’m going to be more aware of these things with my daughter. Even if she doesn’t actually have APD, she sure has a lot of the signs and it can’t hurt to try a few of those suggestions!
November 14, 2012 at 6:03 am
sheraz
Participant
I am glad to have been helpful – I was in a rush earlier and was afraid that I wasn’t sounding like I wanted to! =)
I wanted to mention that getting a diagnosis is a matter of seeing an audiologist who is trained in the testing – not all audiologists can test for it. We scheduled an appointment at our State School for the Deaf who administer the test for free. It was helpful in having that diagnosis for public school in trying to get her the help she needed. And while I hate to label a child unnecessarily, it has been helpful to KNOW what it is as that has really helped our abilities to meet her needs mentally, emotionally, and physically. Also, the audiologist recommended some things specific to my child that was helpful. There was no obligations for anything further with the school either. However, occasionally they invite me to special presentations and classes on APD that I may attend for free for further education and ideas on helping my child – which is where I got my blog post info. 😉
Another factor in her learning issues were unknown food allergies (can cause real problems in learning and memory). After changing our diet, bringing her home to school, and switching to CM methods, we have a totally different child.
Like you said, Michaela, it doesn’t hurt to try a few things and can really help you in the long run. We have another dd that I think may be borderline SPD (if that is possible, lol) and it really helps to use a few things with her as well, even without an official diagnosis.
November 14, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Holly B
Participant
Great suggestions everyone, thank you! Just knowing there are others facing the same issues helps. Certainly reading is not the only thing we do. Nature study, picture study and music are all included as well as others. It’s just that is where her greatest struggle lies. I look forward to hearing from more of you and have already begun looking into your suggestions. I completely believe she would not be where she is today without the CM approach. Whenever I want to take it to the next level, there always seems to be resistance. I like the Idea of going back got the basics when she gets stressed. May God bless all of us today as we love on His kids!
November 14, 2012 at 8:42 pm
pinkchopsticks
Participant
I have a 12 year old with Aud processing problems as well as dyslexia. I will throw a few random thoughts out to you:
-Have you looked at Earobics? It was recommended by my audiologist. It is computer based and not nearly as expensive as some programs.
-IEW may help with your desire to do some key word exercises as part of your writing program…that way you don’t have to disect the literature you are studying.
-An Orton Gilligham style phonics program has been extremely beneficial in helping her to hear those word sounds. Does your dd have trouble with spelling/reading?
-My dd is better able to capture the meaning of the story if there are some other senses involved….pictures, emotions, etc. I wonder if you might find the same thing.
-When I met with the people that tested my dd, I told them about my financial situation. After they gave me the test results and a slew of recommendations, I asked them to help me make a plan of what I could do at home that would best help her out. I also inquired about less expensive therapy options as well as what therapies they felt were the most beneficial if I had the money to spend. I think this helped me to focus my efforts and pinpoint where my dollars should go. I tried to concentrate on their top 3 recommendations for her.
Sorry to throw random thoughts at you…that is about where my brain is right now…lol. I hope you find something that works well for you and your dd.
Chris