Hello Little Listeners families! We are sure that when you look at your child’s PROGRESS NOTE at the end of each session, you have some questions as to what it all means. This blog post will tell you everything you need to know about all of those abbreviations and mystery words.
The first part of your child’s progress note will show their scores for the PASE Program Recordings which include the three tracks of words they listen to – Distorted Words, Words in Noise, and Competing Words. Distorted Words are words that are recorded in muffled speech. Words in Noise are words said in a noisy background. Competing Words are two words said at once – one word in each ear. To pass a track and move on to the next one, there are certain mastery levels. For Distorted Words and Competing Words, mastery level is 45 correct words out of 50. For Words in Noise, the mastery level is 40 correct words out of 50. If we see that kids are really struggling with the words then we might “cue” or do a “directed ear” attempt. “Cueing” is an approach used for Distorted Words and Words in Noise, when we will ask the kids two words they hear – one is the word on the recording and one is a word that sounds like it or a word they have said before which is incorrect. This is done to try to help them clean up the sounds they hear in hopes they will finally hear the correct sound. A “directed ear” approach is done for Competing Words. This task involves hearing both words, but only repeating the word they hear in their left ear then the track is played again, but only the right ear word is repeated. This helps to focus on one ear at a time, so putting them together again easier.
Rhythm Training or Interactive Metronome (IM) is the constant cow bell noise you hear in our office. It is an evidence-based assessment and training tool that measures and improves neuro timing, or the synchronization of neural impulses within key brain networks for cognitive, communicative, sensory and motor performance. As the kids clap or tap, they are activating a trigger with a steady beat. IM technology then provides real-time auditory and visual feedback for millisecond timing. Knowing if the child is hitting before, after, or exactly in sync with the beat to the millisecond allows the individual to make immediate corrections to improve timing and rhythm over the course of training. According to IM research, improving neuro timing may result in better function in the following areas: attention, processing speed, working memory, executive functions, self-regulation, expressive and amp; receptive language, reading comprehension, rate and amp; fluency, mathematics, motor coordination, and athletic performance.
Next to the IM section of the progress sheet, you will see columns under Secondary Training for PST or Phonological Synthesis Training, H & F or H and Friends, and Memory Training. We do not always work on these tasks every session, but they are great tools to improve phonological awareness and auditory memory skills. PST is done when we give the individual sounds of a word and the child has to blend the sounds and state the word we are saying. For example, the therapist would say C/A/T. The child would then respond CAT! H & F training focuses on repetitious sound discrimination to include vowels, consonant + vowels and consonant + vowel + consonant words. Memory training is used when the child needs to work on their auditory memory skills. We do this by saying anywhere from one to four words and have the child repeat these words back to us. We sometimes incorporate numbers or have them say the sequence backwards. Both of these practices will help your child’s score improve on their post-assessment. In the Other column, we usually write an activity we did such as coloring or what they did while listening like hanging out on the swing.
We hope all of this information will help you understand better what we do in therapy and how hard we all work to make our Little Listeners the best they can be.
