The listening program

Twice a week Andrew goes to Children's Therapy. He gets to work for an hour working with an occupational therapist and then a half hour with a speech specialist. He is making huge improvements in his speech (we are just starting the OT piece, those big improvements are still to come..).

Our speech specialist is wonderful. I feel like she really likes Andrew. She gets excited about his successes. Now that it is easier to understand the kid, we are all realizing that Andrew is a clever and funny guy.

She recommended that we look into a new kind of treatment program. It is called The Listening Program. She explained that she has seen results in each of her clients that use the program. We researched some and decided to give it a try. Basically it is a music-based auditory stimulation method that provides engaging brain stimulation to improve performance in school, work and life. Here's some of what they say:

The Listening Program’s psychoacoustically modified music and patent-pending production techniques are designed to stimulate or “exercise” the different functions of the auditory processing system. This enables the brain to better receive, process, store and utilize the valuable information provided through the varied soundscapes in our lives such as music, language and the environment in which we live.

Systematic training is provided through listening to psychoacoustically modified classical music which trains the brain to process sound more efficiently. This leads to improvements in:

Learning Attention Communication Reading

Listening Sensory Processing Social Engagement Behavior

Self Regulation Musical Ability Brain Fitness Daily Living

Basically he listens to these CDs for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. We decided that Ryan would participate in this program too.

We are on week two. He is not allowed to eat, watch TV, sleep or play video games while doing his listening. We have found some fun activities.

Sticker books are fun.

So is Shaving Cream.

If you guys have any other fun activities let me know. Also I will let you all know how the program works for us : ) It seems pretty cool.