Auditory Processing Dissorder
by Ron B. Minson, M.D.

Many of you have heard the term 'auditory  processing difficulties'. What exactly does it mean, and how is it  affecting your child? Auditory processing refers to how you take in/process/store/retrieve/use auditory information. This involoves  auditory tonal as well as auditory sequential abilities, both forming the foundation of language processing. The speed of auditory processing is critical to success in learning and  communication.

Think about what it's like to try to converse with another person in a foreign language, where your ability to translate is too slow for the pace of the conversation.

Many children are affected by the slower processing of language; in other words, it takes longer to grasp the  meaning of what they've just heard. The problem is that while those children are focusing on understanding a word or phrase, they will  lose the next set of words. You can see in their faces the struggle to 'keep up' with the teacher. Yet with each new chunk of  information, they fall further behind.

Their days are more exhausting than yours  or mine because they are working so hard all the time. It is common for these children to have a hard time getting up in the morning because their sleep has not fully restored them.

Another processing difficulty occurs because the child may not hear sounds in their proper order. For instance, 'desk' may be heard as 'decks', with the 's' and 'k' sounds arriving in reverse order. While some children have visual letter reversal, these kids have an auditory reversal and are  writing what they heard.

Many children are sensitive in a different way. We think the ear's job is getting auditory  information to the brain. Yet, an important role is keeping unnecessary information in the background. The focusing of attention  is done with the ear, as well as the brain. If the muscles of the middle ear are weak, they are not serving their role of filtering  sounds so that the mind can be focused and attentive. It would be like going into a restaurant and hearing the conversations of all the surrounding tables.

Frequently, children with this difficulty  are either hyper-distracted or hyper-focused; often times moving  from one to another. So a child who cannot pay attention at school,  may come home and watch TV and not hear you call his name from three  feet away. It is a compensatory mechanism-a way of givning the brain  a 'rest'.

Fortunately, most auditory processing  problems are easily treated with the Tomatis Method, a listening  program. This non-invasive, auditory re-education program has helped thousands of children achieve fast, efficient auditory processing. Good listening improves tonal processing, and improved tonal processing supports auditory sequential processing and language processing. Get more information about auditory processing problems  and how they can be treated. I invite you to call a Dynamic  Listening Center near you today.

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