We took DS6 in for an appointment with an audiologist yesterday immediately before a recheck with an ENT to see whether the fluid he seems to have had in his ears since the spring had cleared up. All the physical/mechanical parts of his ears looked great and he does not have any fluid and the ENT just suggested a recheck in a few months. With one of his ears he heard perfectly, but with the other ear he gave some contridictory data. The audiologist didn't know if they possibly just weren't understanding him on some of his responses since he has some articulation issues or if he truly wasn't hearing some things or if maybe it was an APD (she admitted this is not a universally accepted idea). She suggested that we try Earobics to see if maybe that gave us any additional data (i.e., if he zoomed right through the exercises, he truly doesn't have an APD, but if he had some trouble that might tell us where).
So, I looked up Earobics online. From the descriptions, it seems like it focuses quite on bit on skills needed for reading, like phonemic awareness and rhyming, for example. DS6 is reading at a 4th grade level, is an awesome speller, and has been rhyming words since he was a year old. I never would have thought that he had an APD since, eventhough he does seem to have trouble hearing us sometimes, he still picks up on all kinds of peripheral things he hears us talking about. At $65 for the software, I'm not sure if it would be helpful to him. Does anyone else have experience with Earobics?
On a side note, I have considered APD for my DS11, but he has not had a full auditory work up (just a normal workup when he was 6ish that said his hearing was normal). Would you suggest Earobics as a way to see if he might have an APD, or would it just be best to have him get a full work-up. I guess I know the answer to that one, though.
