Games/Apps for Auditory processing

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Hi,

Talking to my son's teacher and observing him, it has become clear that there are issues with our son's auditory processing.
He's not keeping up in class, despite the fact that we know he has the intelligence and know how. He is only in Prep (grade 0) and already we are concerned that he is struggling. It is also impacting his executive functioning.

Anyone got any games (computer or the good old fashioned kind) or apps that they can recommend to help? We need this to be fun rather than just another task he needs to do.

TIA

That old game Simon is supposed to be good for auditory processing skills. It's an electronic game that has you repeat sounds it plays. It's supposed to be good for attention too.

I bet learning an instrument would be really beneficial too.

An app is unlikely to do much to help a true auditory processing deficit. There is a program called something like Theraputic Listening, that is overseen by occupational therapists, that uses specific tones and special headphones to "retrain" the auditory system. It's expensive and time consuming and we didn't try it out. A friend with a nonverbal child said it seemed to be helpful while they kept up with it.

I can recommend a couple of general programs, though. "Letter School" is excellent app for learning how to write letters, and you can set it to Handwriting Without Tears style (and I highly recommend their wet-dry-try method of teaching letters on a slate).

Funnix is a PC based reading program that my DS has unexpectedly taken to. It is a step by step phonics program that goes pretty slowly with a lot of repetition. The graphics are simple and uncluttered. The program has a very clunky feel, but it has the child touching letters and saying things out loud, and my son picked up silent e and two vowels go walking quicker with this program than with other things we've tried.

Progressive Phonics is a series of free, printable books that teach phonics. You read it together, the parent reading the words in black, and the child reading words with the targeted sound in red. The stories are short and funny.

My preschoolers like MathSeeds. It's for age 3-6, so the advanced end of it might cover grade 0 math concepts. I thought ReadingEggs by the same company was a solid phonics program and very fun, but you do need to watch to see that your child isn't getting through the levels with random clicking (speaking from experience here!)

Yes, it is expensive and does not work for every kid. It is kind of 'hit or miss'. They used this on my son in school and it didn't really seem to make any difference.

Have you tried any other approaches in school? Like a sensory cushion or weighted vest? These helped my son more than the listening program. I would suggest trying out a variety of sensory tools, you never know which one works best for a kid.

Does your son receive occupational therapy?

Also, my son uses noise cancellation headphones in class while he is doing his work. He can still hear the teacher, but a lot of background noise is cancelled out. These work for him.

Sorry to stray from the original topic but Fitzi, can you tell me about the headphones? Are they the large one that cover the ears or ear-bud type headphones? DS won't wear the ones that cover his ears completely anymore and I am looking for some in-the-ear type noise cancellation ones that don't cost too much.

Now back to the originally scheduled program...

He wears the ones that cover his ears. I ordered them from some therapy toy/ tools place online. It may have been The Therapy Shoppe? But, just google it. I'm sure they have something that fits your description.

Edited to add: I found a place online (not sure if I can post links or not) called The Ear Plug Superstore. They have a large selection of the in the ear kind for kids.

Our daughter got a lot out of a program called "Earobics"--which was expensive, but not incredibly so. She had to spend time on it every day for a very long time (maybe 6 months). She hated doing it too, because it required her to listen carefully, but it helped quite a bit.

Sorry, now I'm straying .

TiredMom, what exactly is Earobics? Is it a teach you to read program? My older son has SPD and I don't think he has classic APD, but part of the SPD causes him to have a hard time filtering out background noise to hear all the sounds he needs to hear. So, he is a really terrible speller because he just doesn't seem to hear all the letters sounds in the words. He still (is will have a hard time with the 'str' sound, for example. However, he reads really well. I have tried lots of phonics and spelling things that don't help much. But, if this would help with his issue, I may try and get it.

My daughter was a terrible speller too, and that is still a weakness for her. But basically the Earobics things involved various "games" (I'm not sure how amusing they actually were) in which she had to practice distinguishing particular sounds as the level of ambient noise gradually increased. It's been a while, but if I recall correctly, they started with some of the sounds that are easier to distinguish like "k" and worked up to more subtle things like "sh" vs. "th." I don't know if Earobics is even out there any more, but it worked for us, and unlike an earlier poster, I believe that there are interventions that can help--not cure, but help-- kids with APD

I see that they are now marketing Earobics as something to help with reading, but when we got it, it was advertised for APD. Here is a link to several programs that might be useful. As I recall, we also considered FastForward.

http://www.thetherapyplace.net/metronome/

Just wanted to clarify that I didn't mean to say there weren't interventions that can help APD, just that you are unlikely to find an iPad app for $2.99 or even $5.99 that would suit this purpose.

Thanks, TiredMom, I'll check these out.

Thanks everyone.
We are currently working on exercises that the Speech therapist has given us but they are so much like school work, that I just thought we could find something that he may actually want to do.
I will have a look into earobics, and whether we can use our funding to buy it.