When all the sensory issues are resolved, how

[kRenee]

does one know if there are cognitive issues that need to be worked on? Is there a test? Who administers it? And how you know which program to chose?

PACE, Learning RX, the upcoming Cognitive Calisthenics, AudioBlox, Captains Log ...are there any others?

[Claire]

does one know if there are cognitive issues that need to be worked on? Is there a test? Who administers it? And how you know which program to chose?

PACE, Learning RX, the upcoming Cognitive Calisthenics, AudioBlox, Captains Log ...are there any others?

PACE and LearningRx have a set of quick "thumbnail" tests for processing that are typically offered free-of-charge so you can see where your child is in a variety of areas compared to others his age. The company normed these tests on quite a large group, and from what I have heard they seem to be very accurate. Since cognitive skills are developed on the sensory foundation, very often children who have experienced long-term sensory deficits will be lagging in a number of cognitive skills. Many will acquire those cognitive skills over time. The advantage of doing cognitive skills training is that the exercises will develop a wide variety of skills to optimal levels quickly, giving the child an almost immediate boost in function which in terms helps self-esteem and motivation.

Instrumental Enrichment is not often mentioned because it is such an expensive program, but this was the original cognitive skills training program developed in Israel. IE has a center in Chicago. I once met someone who was trained in both IE and PACE. He said that IE is good at developing the very foundational cognitive skills (would be similar to Audiblox in this respect), but that PACE is better at developing the higher-level cognitive skills.

I downloaded Captain's Log many years ago to try out. I found it too boring to be useful. They may have changed the program radically since then, so that may no longer be true, but the fact that I have seen no one post about using and completing the program makes me suspicious of it. I would not invest in this program without first talking to or corresponding with someone who had actually used it. There are enough people who have used PACE or LearningRx that you can get a really good idea of how they work in actual practice.