Auditory Processing

Auditory Processing

Auditory processing is a term used to describe what happens when your brain recognizes and interprets the sounds around you. We hear when energy that we recognize as sound travels through the ear and is changed into electrical information that can be interpreted by the brain.

This processing is a series of tasks done by parts of the auditory nerve pathways in the brain to sort out and refine the raw data delivered by the ear. Recognizable sound messages are the result – those we use for both thinking and communication.

Those of us who hear and process language and information normally often find it difficult to understand when a child isn’t processing auditory information normally. Commonly, a parent gets frustrated after giving repeated commands to a child, only to have the child ignore it. Hearing is often checked and reported to be fine. But, still, the child can’t seem to follow a direct order without repeated warnings and threats. It is as if the child listens but doesn’t hear. Parents often feel that the child is ignoring them intentionally and battles erupt.

Auditory problems can be horrific for students in the modern American classroom. With fluorescent lights humming and computers whirring in the background, it is extremely difficult for some children to focus and concentrate on the necessary information. They are tuned into the background noises to such an extreme that the teacher’s voice fades away. Some kids hear at different levels of sensitivity. These kids may hear pencils moving across paper so loudly that they can’t focus on anything else.

Many kids don’t hear an internal voice when they read silently. This makes comprehension quite difficult. If you know somebody who reads a passage but has no idea what was just read, then it may be due to this problem.

Poor auditory memory is a huge problem for a large majority of students who are suffering from learning problems. It’s as if the information they receive flies right through their ears and bypasses their brains. Parents will often tell me these kids can recite movie lines word for word and don’t feel there is a problem, but keep in mind that movies have a colorful picture to go with this auditory stimulus.

When my son was little, he would get frustrated with all of the commands we would give him and he would say, “You’re giving me too many demandments!” And we were. We learned to tell him to do two things instead of three or four. We would gradually increase the “demandements” until he could succeed with several commands.

Often these kids are misdiagnosed as having ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) or ADD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ) and placed on harsh medications, when in reality they have an auditory processing disorder and are unable to filter out extraneous noises.

Auditory problems encompass a wide range of skills. Following is a list of the auditory skills that can affect learning:

1.) the ability to remember, retain, and recall material presented to the auditory channel.
2.) the ability to identify sounds in words
3.) the ability to recognize repetition and recall of sounds
4.) the ability to draw meaning from verbal stimuli
5.) the ability to fuse sounds coming from two ears into one unified impression
6.) the ability to sequence sounds heard out of order

Many people feel that auditory skills can’t be helped. They feel that the student should be allowed to carry a tape recorder and use it to help him/her remember what was said. This may work for some kids, but I feel that it would be more of a bother and distraction for most of the kids I work with. And what would happen if you forgot your tape recorder? You would have no skills to function in society. When a student is done with school, he/she will need to get a job. I don’t know of many employers who would want to hire a person who couldn’t remember a series of auditory information. There are too many people who can get the job done.

If a student is deficient in auditory processing skills, then the world is a scary place to be. We must have adequate auditory skills for reading, learning, and basic communication. Kids with poor auditory skills miss out on so much and become so frustrated because communication relies on auditory processing. Also, our modern schools rely almost totally on the lecture format, which is purely auditory. Very little is done in a visual fashion, and even less is done in a tactile manner, even with our young children. This leaves the kids with poor auditory skills at a huge disadvantage, because they miss so much of what was presented by the teacher.

Some of the symptoms of auditory processing include:

• Poor language ability
• Difficult time concentrating when listening
• Forgetting what was heard
• Noisy or disobedient
• Talking too loudly or too softly
• Daydreaming during lessons
• Difficult time sitting still when listening
• Inability to discriminate between certain sounds or words
• Not reacting immediately to commands
• Holds head slightly turned to side when listening
• Difficult time with multi-step instructions or directions
• Poor reading comprehension
• Poor mental math abilities

We can teach these kids the skills they need. Instead of giving them crutches, we can give them tools for success. The auditory system can be strengthened with exercises and practice, just like the visual system.