A TEACHER'S PERSPECTIVE (December 11, 2001):
Dear Sara,
Thank you for your very kind letter of Nov. 26th. I did indeed enjoy and benefit from Dr. Johansen's presentation. I've had four trainings in auditory integration, and his was by far the best.

I want to share with you my most recent "success story" because I'm so thrilled about the use of the techniques I've learned at MLRC. Early this Fall the Grade 1 teacher told me he had a little girl who seemed unteachable. Her family had put her in our school because she had "failed" kindergarten in another school, but she wasn't able to attend or learn anything. We tried her in our SMART program, and she couldn't do any of the physical things well, and seemed uninterested in making any effort. The teachers referred her for assessment, and her father agreed to it. Dad is a Hispanic single parent, on disability, and A is the 2nd youngest of 4 kids, and was born 3 months premature, so her start in life was hardly auspicious. I did a Brigance Inventory of Early Development. She could hardly do anything- didn't know letters, except A and O, and could count, but if she got mixed up she didn't even know it. Visual perceptual skills were extremely poor, also fine motor, and you name it, she couldn't do it and didn't have it. The psychologist tested her and got a Full Scale of 47! She told me, "That's a profoundly retarded child." But in spite of everything, I never believed that, I just felt she was extremely learning disabled. Her speech was also quite impaired, she spoke mostly in 2-word utterances and as it's a mixture of Spanish and English, she was very hard to understand - I had to guess most of the time as to what she said.

I started bringing her to my AVE room for her nap, and put her on the earphones with just the heartbeat and the generic Concentration tape. By the time she had had about 4 sessions like that, she began to show mind-boggling improvement. Today she had her 6th nap in my room, and is now expressing interest in her surroundings, seems to know letters and their sounds, and can even read a few words. She's still lively, but attending more, participating in classroom activities whereas before she sat quietly and watched everyone else or ran around quite out of control. Her teacher is really impressed. A is a very loving child, she hugs and kisses me, and yesterday she was telling everyone that I'm her sister. I said no, I'm grandma, but she wouldn't have that.

A's speech has improved remarkably - she is using full sentences now and articulation is greatly improved - I can understand her most of the time. Today at nap time she put stuffed animals on all the other mats and covered them up, and later, when she got up, she said, "I forgot to bring back the aminals" (sic). That may be her longest sentence so far. In my little group of auditory discrimination, she is sounding out words, blending, and actually reading. I do musical things too, and she is catching on quickly. I feel sure that A will prove herself not to be mentally retarded at all, and I think over time she will get over the LD to a very great extent, at least if I have anything to do with it!

I haven't given her much real instruction, but the AVE and Concentration tape seem to be working MAGIC! I'm thrilled beyond words, because I really love this child, and have even considered taking her to live with me for a year to see how far I could bring her along, but I fear she would miss her own family too much. Besides, just now I'm starting to work on getting my own charter school going here in Desert Hot Springs, and it's very time-consuming.

I also got a 5th grader in September who was a virtual non-reader, but a very sweet boy and highly motivated. After 3 weeks of AVE and tape, his reading was about 50% improved, and by 6 weeks about 80% improved. He's not at grade level yet but continues to improve and he is so thrilled, as are his mom and grandma and ME!

Please share this info with Michael and Nancy and anyone else who might be interested. I so GREATLY APPRECIATE that MLRC exits, and feel so lucky to have found it.

Sincerely,
Kay Taylor

MICHAEL & LUKE (May 29, 2001):
The HSAS Speech/Language and Auditory Therapy program at A Chance To Grow and Sara Cook have changed the lives of both our sons and whole family as well. Michael is 11 years old and has a language processing disorder. Listening to the HSAS tapes made for him, has retrained Michael's brain so that he actually perceives sounds, words and sentences clearer, as well as being able to distinguish between competing words. He hears more, misses less, comprehends better, and more quickly and accurately stores that information in his memory. This hasn't eliminated the whole disability - it is too complex. However, his school work, communication skills, social skills and self-confidence have all improved. His life is a little easier.

For Luke it was even more dramatic. At 14, he could no longer hide behind his photographic memory. Middle School required verbal learning, and he was lost and getting farther behind. Testing with Sara showed that Luke had trouble hearing over background noise, making out consonants and was left ear dominant. That means that the information is sent to the right half of the brain and then transferred to the left half for processing. By the time he processed and understood the first half the sentence, he'd have missed the second half of what was being said. Each day Luke was missing vital information and it showed in his grades as well as his behavior and attitude.

By the first follow-up visit, there was a marked improvement in differentiating and hearing the consonants. He could actually hear the words clearer, even in Spanish. A few weeks later thought the headphones had broken because the right ear was so loud. He was perceiving the sounds better in the right ear - dominance had actually changed. Sentences were now complete, lectures made sense, school was easier, grades and even his reading comprehension went up. He learned he was not dumb. With a good tutor to help him pick up what he had missed, school was no longer something to just survive, it has become an exciting part of his future.

Cheryl Bengston
Minneapolis, MN

August 2000

My son is 6 and 1/2 years old and started the HSAS program in December 1998. He has been diagnosed with a language processing disorder with some large, but mostly small motor delays, social awkwardness (mainly due to decreased processing), and noise sensitivity. Some professionals think possibly mild autism, but he does not fit in all the categories.

We noticed almost immediate results when he started the HSAS program.

Small motor. He now is very good with scissors and gluing. He paints what looks like a face and is able to write his name. Before he started the program he was not able to do anything with a crayon. This has helped his self-esteem since he is now able to write his name on his arts and crafts. In Spring 2000 he received a new maintenance tape, two weeks after he started it, the school OT called me and asked what had happened, he was able to write the whole alphabet that day and even in the little box.

Gross motor. We saw a significant change in this area. He does not run into other people anymore and is more aware of where he is in space. His OT had been gone for 2 months when he was on the HSAS program, when she came back she could not believe he was the same child. He is able to skip, hop, walk on the elevated edge of sidewalk, working on bicycle, perfect at scooter, beginning to swim and participates in relay games.

Language Development. The thing we noticed most was that he stopped coming home at noon tired from language overload. Before he had to work so hard trying to decipher what people were saying and trying to participate in activities, that he would come home exhausted. Now he is not as tired and does not need to “relax” as much. Expressive language has grown, he is more able to express himself and less worried to ask for assistance. He definitely has an easier time with kids too.

Social Development. This area is so dependent on language skills. I remember times at the playground when he was told something by a kid and all he could do was give a big smile in return. Still his responses are slower and he still can’t always find the appropriate words (when he didn’t initiate the idea), but there are always kids that are considerate of others and repeat instructions instinctively or will just pull him by the sleeve to let him know it’s his turn.

Noise Sensitivity. This began to be an issue around age 3.5. The static on TV, hand dryers in restrooms, and inside airplanes, etc. really bothered him. It was also very hard for him to focus on the speaker’s words especially in a large group and then try to filter out the background noise. Yesterday he was able to swim in the indoor pool during reparation, and the noise was very amplified.

The HSAS program also seemed to help with drooling and toilet training, though he did have brushing too.

Side effects. He became less overall obedient (it was too much for his own good), he now is able to say what he wants or feels. He is better able to defend his needs. He now picks up “Americanisms” and also not very desirable stuff from classmates. He went through a time of being very touchy, but slowly being better aware of sorting out his own and other peoples feelings.

Parent

Emails from a mother that had her 8 year old daughter participate in the HSAS program.

They live out of state so they had the testing done elsewhere. The results revealed significant expressive and receptive language delays, with low average auditory processing skills and average academic performance.

She started the program March 1st, 2003.

Email 4/17/03

-Her timed math tests have improved a lot!

-Her reading fluency has improved, and it seems like she’s trying to sound out words more than she had been.

-She seems like she’s retelling stories more and with more detail (“so and so was doing this and then this and then this and that at school today”) - Much more detail than before!

-She’s also working on “publishing” her own book, something she has never attempted before, and something that normally would be extremely difficult for her.

I’m seeing some improvements in socialization skills with peers, but she is still behind in that area!

Email June 9, 2003

Things are going well. Her expressive speech has seemed to have kicked in. A 2nd grade girl in her class told her mom one night, “Kristin can talk now.” So I think she is talking more at school (still not where she should be, but much more than what she had been). Her teacher just told me how nice her writing is coming along. And I think she’s been doing more pretend play. It’s as if the abstract thinking has kicked in that she can do the retelling stories, writing and pretend play. Her behavior has improved a lot! She’s just more content finding something to do on her own and playing longer. She still asks a lot of repetitive questions, but probably not as many as she used to.

Email July 29, 2003

Overall some of the things we’ve noticed are:

-She seems to be watching a little more TV..I’ve been interpreting some things to make sure she’s really understanding the story line though. She still tends to watch more preschool shows, and I’d like her to watch more age level.

-She seems to be able to retell daily experiences a little better.

-She still doesn’t show a lot of remorse. If she accidentally steps on someone’s foot and they cry, she’ll stand there and look at them and smile, instead of saying “I’m sorry”.

-I’ve seen some increased pretend play from her.

-She still has a hard time conversing with friends and continuing or adding on to conversations. She can tell a friend about something that happened to her (which is new for her), but she has a hard time adding onto other people’s conversations.

Email September 7, 2003

K is doing better at watching TV, she’s playing more independently, she just seems like she “gets it” now; where before it was like “the lights are on but nobody’s home” she’s always had a blank stare to her. Communication with friends is coming slowly. When a friend says something, I’ll cue her in as to how to respond and actually add to the conversation. Her comprehension with reading has improved dramatically too. (We did a phonics program this summer also.)

K has made improvements. She’s still behind for her age, but we see changes that are definitely for the better. I’m anxious to see how this school year goes.

Thanks,

Name Withheld

Jacob

(13 years old) has benefited significantly from listening to the audio tapes (HSAS program tapes). Upon completion of the first tape we noticed that Jacob began talking to us more. He shared his thoughts in complete sentences. He is now voicing his opinion, were as before he would just make sounds of frustration or anger.

After months of listening to the tapes, we now can distinguish when Jacob chooses not to respond to us, as opposed to him choosing to ignore us. We believe that listening to these tapes has made a significant change in Jacobs ability to converse, express himself and understand his world.

Peggy and Ed Andrajack