Auditory Processing Evaluation

I took Jonathan to an auditory processing and speech therapist for an evaluation on Thursday. Since my new goal is to fully recovery his language now that all his other autistic type symptoms are 90% recovered, my next approach is to go back to the beginning: Tomatis. We did 7 loops 3 years ago (each loop is 10 days with a 2-month break). That was the very first therapy we did after his diagnosis, even before we started the gluten free/casein free diet. And he was a good responder. No miracles, but good improvements were observed, particularly in the area of motor skills.

I know that language is the last thing to fully recover. He did 2.3 years of ABA and learned a large vocabulary from that. But even with speech therapy, his language is still not where it should be. He currently is 3 waiting lists for speech therapy. One is about 2 years old and they still have not placed him. Due to his school and activities schedule, I can only do late afternoons and speech therapists that participate in my insurance are booked. But he received speech at school plus as I mentioned above, 2.3 years of ABA.

My biggest concern is expressive language. He does not speak like a 6-year old. He speaks like someone that is learning a new language. He needs to think through his sentences before he speaks or when he speaks without thinking, we switches words and makes some grammatically mistakes. And his tone is someone flat - 80% of it lacks melody. My other biggest concern is that his DAN! Dr. said that his flat tone will probably stay forever. And since I am more optimistic than that, I need to find a way to bring melody to his voice. The fact that he can demonstrate that he is capable of speaking with melody leads me to believe that I can bring that out. But it won't be easy. That I know. I am shooting for 1.5 years.

So, my two choices right now (besides continuing biomedical interventions) are auditory processing and neurofeedback. I already did the neurofeedback evaluation and I need to find the time to take him to therapy sessions. The other important one is auditory processing. I took him for an evaluation and I was very happy with the outcome. I like knowing where the physical problems are so I can concentrate on those areas. I don't do well without a target.

During the evaluation, the first thing that both the Occupational Therapist (OT) and the Speech Therapist (ST) told me is that "there is no autism in him". The one therapist that first helped me back in 2004 when we did the first loop was still there. And she had tears in her eyes watching the new Jonathan speak to her. "He is talking!!!". She hadn't seen Jonathan in 2 years. But when she met him, things were really bad (and no language). So her comments are a great benchmark. I remember when Jonathan first communicated his feelings during the second loop through drawing a happy and sad face. She was there and was amazed to see that. Now, he was telling her all about summer camp, and played beautifully and did all the exercises they asked, was always engaged, happy, humorous, etc.

After the evaluation was done, the OT and ST explained the tests. In the visual evaluations, he did very well and rated as a 9 year old. Except for an exercise where he had to follow a pen with his eyes, and he had his whole head follow the pen. However, in his auditory processing and sequencing test, he only reached the standard deviation for 1 of the 5 major tests they did (was in the 47th percentile which is just 3 points below the standard deviation of 50 and very normal). The other 4 were below 10th percentile. They noticed that if they introduced visual help, he could do them and reach the 50th percentile. But ears only are not working optimally. That is great news so I can concentrate on this. It actually explains a lot.

They proposed one 10-day loop and a re-evaluation in 6 months with a home program. I am excited about it. I need to get everything setup to do it the last 2 weeks in august. I have confidence that the insurance will cover a large portion. Once this is done and I have received payments from the insurance, I'll do the neurofeedback.

The fact that these therapists told me that they don't see autism anymore (although they do see other problems like auditory processing and sequencing problem) is very encouraging. I am having Children's Hospital do a re-evaluation on August 4th. Same department that gave him the High Functioning Autism 3 years ago (almost a year after the first pediatric neurologist diagnosed him with severe autism). That way I can match apples to apples. I do believe he is still in the spectrum, he is still hyperlexic (reads and writes but has problems with pragmatics), has some social problems (particularly due to language), and has some obsessions. His DAN! believes he will be re-diagnosed with aspergers. I'll keep you all posted.