I need an audiologist  for my 10-year-old son who can re-evaluate auditory processing.  He is known to have CAPD from his brain injury and prior audiology evaluations.  Our son has had intensive rehab for his brain injury and auditory processing, and we need to see his progress and document continued disabilities for accommodations.   Within 2 hours we can go to all of NJ,  and parts of Pa, NY, Delaware, and Maryland.

 I was quite dismayed with the audiologist that we just saw in Pennsylvania.  She does not seem to accept my son's irreversible brain injury from 10 years ago, acts like he is just a developmental delay, and just a learning disabiliy.  She thinks that trouble with word finding is a language processing disorder (which is a learning disability-temporary).  She then told me that his brain is maturing, and the connections will form.  (Connections between his lobes are permanently damaged from an irreversible and diffuse brain injury.  They will not miraculously reappear).  She seems to think that he will outgrow his brain injury like a simple developmental delay.  (The opposite is true for young pediatric brain injury.  You often don't know how much the injury affects the child until teen years).  Our son did not meet any developmental milestones without intensive rehab.  She is now  going to tell me what to do with him academically.  She is only interested in what school teachers say and his grades (inflated and inaccurate) on report cards.

My son needs to function in life.  His brain injury cannot be measured on prior school report cards, and cannot be evaluated or managed by a school teacher with no scientific knowledge.  My son has also been homeschooled for 3 1/2 years, and made dramatic progress language socially, physically, and cognitively (auditory processing/sequencing/memory, visual processing/sequencing/memory, language, motor execution).

Please help with a referral!  I am so tired of wasting my time, money and energy with quacks.  I don't have time to teach clinicians about brain injury.  Why did I pay this audioologist $450 for a 45-minute visit?  I feel she should be paying me for my educational program I had to gave her.  I worked with thousands of brain-injured patients as a nurse at trauma centers in Philadelphia.

Thank you for listening to my ending rant.

Donna in southern NJ