Progress: Improving Auditory Processing

We are so excited, we are seeing a lot of progress. Miss C., Tommy's private paid OT, and I have been very focused on helping Tommy with his sensory issues. Miss C. checked Tommy's file last week and realized Tommy has met all the goals. Tommy really likes her, so he works for her without struggles. She is wonderful! Se has suggested to decrease therapy services. Which it will work great because I won't feel overwhelm with all the other things I am planing for Tommy. I truly appreciate my boy's therapists because I can talk to them specifically about Tommy's issues and get solution on how to help him. Even we won't see Miss C. every week, we will still see her often.


I have set personal goals for Tommy to achieve out of the school settings. Because a child's environment is not just about home and school. It is more complex than that, specially with a child who has sensory processing disorder.


Improving Auditory Processing
Tommy didn't have serious auditory processing issue previous to the hospitalization. I got really concern because we went from a child that we didn't work so much on language comprehension because he was doing good on this area, while in the early intervention program, to a child that bearly responded to his name. This was chocking to me! 


Currently, his auditory processing has enormously improved. I saw Miss C. giving instructions to him while in the therapy session last week and I felt my heart went back to its place. It was a relief! He followed her directions really good. This is how Tommy was. I am glad that other person, who doen't have a background while he was in the early intervention program, is also seeing what I was used to.


Tools that are being used to improved auditory processing:

• The Listening program.
Tommy uses the listening program once a week at the therapy center. As well as, working with private paid OT on targeting his vestibular system. The auditory, the vestibular and the visual systems are interconected. So his private paid OT has been working on organizing his vestibular system because it will simultaneously help to organized his auditory and visual system. But she also targets the auditory and the visual system independently. 

• Different people reading the same material.
I ask to our relatives, who help us with baby sitting, to read the same books to Tommy. The mixture of enviromental sounds or voices are audio sources and information in a kid's world. Hearing the same word coming from different people's voice or source sound help a child recognize the speech pattern. It's like teaching the same and different. When you show a picture of a white cow and a brown cow, the look different, but they are the same animal. It is the same criteria with sounds.

• Audio Books.
They are great to expand imagination, as well as, generalization. One of Tommy's favorite story is the Three Little Pig. There are two people reading the same story in the CD we have, so it applies the concept of The same speech sound different voice. He listened to this audiobook many times before I presented to him visually. He loves so much to hear the story, that I just tell him 'go to your room that we are going to listen to The Three Tittle pigs.' In not time, he is sitting on his bed to listening the story. He has made connection between the audio and the paper book. Grandma has helped on this because she did a puppet show for him about the Three little Pigs. Last night, I put the book on the bed, and he saw it, he said 'The Pig', meaning The Three Little Pigs. His favorite part is when the pigs say "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin." I will be working with other audio books over the summer. 

• iTunes.
We have a huge selection of kids songs saved in our computer. When I am busy doing things around the house, I pick any song and we sing and dance if possible. One of our favorite, it is a bilingual song (English and Spanish) 'Somebody is hungry'. Tommy listens to the song from the computer, but also from my voice, while I incorporate hand play that I make up. Meal time is a good time in our house to listen to music.

• Song games.
This type of game are wonderful for body awareness and auditory processing. Our favorite one is Ring around the Rosie. We do the version that is in the  book, "Gymboree-The parents' guide to play". We also do Turn around which is also in this book. I got a new CD created by a group of Occupational Therapists to work on sensory processing while improving fine motor and gross motor skills. I am waiting for the CD to come in the mail. I will give more detail after we learn a few song games. 

I use technology to do 'mammy's therapy time' because I work full time, so I need tools that make my life easier and the therapies efficient, as well as, taking in consideration what things are appealing to Tommy. Since he was very little he has shown interest for electronic devices, so anything that it is electronic is very appealing to him. For example: He has been successful several times putting the Elmos' DVDs on. The TV and the DVD are already set, but they are off. So my smart boy knows it! He turns them on, and them, hits 'play'. He already broke a DVD player because he stocked many DVDs in the compartment trying to watch the Elmo's DVDs —Daddy did the same thing when he was a child (Like father like son). Other example, the first time he used an iPad, he impressed his OT and me because he knew what to do. So I just follow my boy's lead. In the future, I will write a post about the iPad and sensory processing as a tool to help my son.

This picture says more than what you see.

The swing does not have a tube around,

this means Tommy has gained enough

strength in his cord muscles. Before there was

 a tube around because he could fall.

Now, he can keep his body in a nice straight posture.

When he gets tiered, his torso gets a C shape.

But he corrected himself often. 

In this picture his OT is working on the vestibular system,

as well as, the auditory system and language.

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!

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Thanks to my mother-in-law, our audiobook library has increased.