Auditory processing disorder is a rare condition that affects 5% of school aged children. Kids who are affected by this condition usually have a hard time processing information due to the fact their ears and brains don’t fully coordinate. As a result, school can be quite a challenge for kids of this age. With that being said, this did not stop these children from achieving success in their respective fields:
The schoolboy Luke Strivens smashed a Wimbledon record in a mammoth tennis match. A former pupil at a specialist school in Abingdon raised thousands for his alma mater by tackling a gruelling 11-hour tennis session.The Unicorn School said it is “indebted” to 16-year-old Luke Strivens, whose passion for the sport helped him to socialise despite a rare hearing disability. Competitive player Luke, who has a hearing problem called auditory processing disorder and struggles with speech and language, had been playing since the age of 10.
There is also news about Special Olympics tennis player from Sanford who made history with an Orlando victory. Brittany Tagliareni was the only Special Olympian in the field, combined with former Winter Park High standout Ninan Kumar to win the championship. Tagliareni, 26, suffers from autism, motor-control issues caused by apraxia and dyspraxia, and auditory processing disorder.
Last but definitely not the list is a Sriram Narayanan, a 13-year-old Newton Pianist who performed at Carnegie Hall. He was playing at Carnegie Hall for the third time.
Sriram, son of Sunanda Narayanan, has a neurological disability in which he processes information differently than other children. At age 2, he was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. For the last three years, Sriram successfully attended Learning Prep School in Newton where he continued to make progress in academics and with his peers.
As you can see, you will not be finding any shortage of success stories about kids who were diagnosed with auditory processing disorder. A huge contributing factor to their success lies primarily on their parents. This is the reason why it’s important for parents to accept their children for who they are. It is also vital for them to discover the early signs of the problems with regards to their kids. Since auditory processing disorder, like sensory processing disorder can develop at an early age, it is necessary for parents to learn more about it to give them to some extent an overview on what to expect. This may require an auditory processing disorder checklist and in order to have your checklist requirements complete you need to know its early symptoms.
As mentioned earlier, Auditory processing disorder often exhibits trouble understanding speech. Parents may want to take notice of slight cues including a child who gets easily distracted or bothered by loud or sudden noises. A child having difficulty following directions, whether simple or complicated can also be a determining factor. Another area to take note of is if they have having difficulty in reading, spelling, writing or other speech language compared to the majority of the children or class.
Auditory Processing Disorder Checklist
There are commonly 3 areas of APD-related difficulty:
Sound discrimination. If a child cannot pick sounds out, “frill” instead of “thrill” speaking, reading and spelling are at risk
Auditory memory. If the language sounds muddy, it does not always make sense and so it is hard to organise and commit to memory. This impacts math facts, following directions, etc.
Language processing. This is where auditory processing disorder causes the most havoc. It impacts the ability to understand and think about language, spoken and written. This has academic and social consequences.
Here are some of the most common warning signs of central auditory processing disorder:
- Difficulty listening with background noise
- Speech therapy or language delays when young
- Poor auditory attention, drifts off in class
- Difficulty with phonics and speech sound discrimination
- Difficulty with sounding out when reading
- Poor auditory memory
- Often misunderstands what is said, needs information to be repeated
- Poor expressive language skills
- Slow or delayed response to verbal requests and instructions
Parents should not be dismayed if they found out that their kid has auditory processing disorder via a test or checklist. The success stories listed above are a testament that this condition can be conquered. Parents not only need to work hand in hand with their doctors but also with their children to overcome such challenges.