Thankful for Dr. Stout and LGHAs! They have been life changing for my son!

Post from Carissa Diane Weth

Hi all! I joined this group when my son was diagnosed with APD at the end of 2022. He is diagnosed with severe speech disorder, chronic insomnia, ADHD, ASD, APD, and dyslexia. He started speech at age 2 and for years was extremely unintelligible, but he slowly made progress. When he reached 1st grade we did a full educational evaluation and learned our son has dyslexia and he started dyslexia therapy. He made very minimal progress that year, so we held him back. He did great his second year in 1st grade but made zero progress in dyslexia therapy, then struggled in 2nd graded. We revisited his evaluation and noticed he had very low auditory processing scores. We got him evaluated and was diagnosed with APD. We were provided with recommended accommodations, but he still wasn’t making progress. Our dyslexia therapist suggested we treat his APD, which at the time I didn’t know what that entailed.

I looked for support groups and found this group and Dr. Rae Stout This was the first time I heard about LGHAs and after reading success story after success story and all of Dr. Stouts posts, I knew we needed to look into them for my son. I went to Dr. Stout’s website, looking into her services and what the process looked like. I loved that she could do virtual evaluations and appts bc we are not in the same state.Before making an appt with Dr. Stout, I wanted to see if my son would qualify for HAs through our audiologist, and it turned out he did.

Our audiologist evaluates and diagnoses APD, but she didn’t do any sort of treatment other than providing recommendations. I talked to her about Dr. Stout and she ended up reaching out to her for more information and guidance. My son has had his hearing aids for a year now and he has made AMAZING progress! His speech has improved so much we dropped his outpatient speech therapy, only keeping his school therapy which was reduced to 1x/week. His school speech therapist (who has been with him since kindergarten) is blown away by his progress (so are his other teachers/therapists, family, and friends!).

As far as reading, his teacher said he’s made a whole year’s worth of progress, bringing him the closest to grade level he’s ever been. To say these hearing aids have been helpful is an understatement bc they have been life changing. I am so thankful I found this group and forever grateful for Dr. Stout for spearheading this kinda of treatment for people with APD. My husband and I were so lost and so worried our son was going to get lost in the system and struggle the rest of his life, but these HAs have changed that.

If you’re on the fence about LGHAs, I highly recommend trying them!! Reach out to your local audiologist to see if they work with APD, if they don’t contact Dr. Stout!! She can help you figure out a game plan.

Pictures are of my sweet boy the day he got his hearing aids. His reaction when putting them on for the first time was priceless. He got emotional and said “I can actually hear myself!” Yes, I cried lol