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Auditory Processing
Auditory Processing,
Reading, & Spelling
Auditory
Processing
& Speech
Auditory Processing
Links on the Web
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Sound might be the most
challenging type of information we have to process. In
order to make sense of words, sounds, and noises, we
need to distinguish similar sounds, recognize where
they're coming from, and match them up to words and
ideas. We listen in a variety of acoustic environments,
a noisy playground or swimming pool, a car with the
windows open, a carpeted library, and the telephone.
When we can't hear
clearly, we might miss the endings or middle parts of
words, miss a friend's punch line, or fail to hear a
person's question.
When we miss or confuse sounds, people think we're rude
or slow, inattentive or flaky, or spacey or aloof.
Friends and family can lose patience with us because we
miss the point, are always asking to have something
repeated (people only want to repeat something once -
and often not even that), and can't seem to stick with
quick back-and-forth conversations and want to flee
large groups and parties.
If you have a child with
auditory processing difficulties, help them by talking
about the challenging social aspects of this condition,
anticipating challenging sound environments, and
providing them with constructive examples for dealing
with sound overload.
You can help children with background noise impairment
by encouraging small play dates one-on-one or in small
groups at acoustic-friendly settings like homes,
backyards, rather than Chuck E. Cheese, movie theatres,
or baseball stadiums.
Sound sensitivity tends to get better as children head
into their upper elementary school years, but many
students still need to work at listening over background
noise or in suboptimal acoustic environments. We'll talk
more about accommodations and training / educational
approaches for Auditory Processing disorders in
The Mislabeled Child.
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