Have you ever thought about how important sound is to your life? Have you ever imagined being deaf? Sounds energise our sensory universe. They fill our lives with music. Sounds warn us about dangers. Spoken language is our primary form of communication. We share sounds with each other, as do all the other animals on this planet. Sounds inside our sensory universe play an enormous role in our lives. What if the sounds we heard were miscued and distorted in some way? How would we cope in that situation? Would we feel out of kilter and disturbed because of this sensory distortion?
The Human Condition
There is a golden rule in the life of humans, we only pay attention to something when it has gone, and we miss it from our lives. Think about it. Love, we, often, neglect those we love and only wake up to that fact, when they walk out the door. Wealth, we, often, complain about not having enough, and only realise how wealthy we were, when we lose the lot. Life, we take it for granted, and then along comes a potentially terminal illness, and we cling to what we have and treat it far more preciously. What about those who never had it to miss it?
Auditory Processing Disorder in Children
Auditory Processing Disorder in children poses that very conundrum. The incoming sounds for these children are not the same as those sounds for you and me. The settings inside these kids are different and they experience noises as too loud or undefined. Sounds that are coming from far seem near and the reverse can be the case too. As human beings we order our spatial universe via our geolocation sensing of sounds, if these are out of kilter, imagine the ensuing chaos and the panic.
Our Kids Were Suffering
For many years this condition went unrecognised by medical science and was ascribed to a variety of other illnesses and ailments. Things like autism, and later ADHD, were popular medical culprits. It is only in the last couple of decades that Auditory Processing Disorder has received the due recognition it required to move forward to find treatments for this condition. Our kids were suffering, and doctors did not know what was going on and why. Parents were very worried and frustrated at the lack of medical and scientific expertise available. Thankfully things are now heading in the right direction.