ND Tip of the Month:
Auditory Processing, the Best Kept Secret in Education
By Jan Bedell, M.Ed., M.ND
Auditory processing is the ability to sequentially hold multiple pieces of auditory information together. This ability is a person's auditory short term memory and refers to information coming into the brain and then coming immediately out. Each person's auditory processing ability has a global affect on their lives and functional capabilities. Auditory processing is vital for picking up on social cues, following a conversation, reading comprehension skills, following directions, attending, ability to read with a phonetic approach, and many other skills needed to be successful in school and life. Behavior is also greatly influenced by one's auditory function. For example, if you have a 12 year old child that processes information at 4-5 level, he is developmentally more like a 4-5 year old. He will be socially immature, interacting better with younger children and interrupting conversations so that he won't forget what he wants to say. He will be unable to follow multi-step directions such as, "Go upstairs, change your clothes, and bring your jacket down with you when you come". You, the parent, are soon angrily stomping up the stairs to confront an otherwise compliant child who did go upstairs, did change his clothes and then promptly forgot what else he was supposed to do. He simply couldn't hold all the auditory instructions together long enough to accomplish the task. Another prominent symptom of a child with auditory dysfunction is the inability to accomplish age appropriate responsibilities (i.e. having to be reminded everyday for years to take out the trash, brush his teeth or feed the dog). Having to be redirected in order to stay on task is also a common symptom of low auditory processing.
What can be done?
Since the brain is dynamic and ever changing, much can be done to remediate the processing ability of any person, at any age. By providing specific stimulation to the brain to increase ability in auditory processing, global benefits will result for the child.
You can request a free auditory test kit by emailing: [email protected] put Free Test Kit in the subject line. This kit will allow you to test any individual ages four to adult. This information will give you a baseline to work from and a better understanding of your child's struggles or inefficiencies. To increase auditory processing, digit span exercises can be done with a four minute time investment and the reward of increased global abilities. Instructions for digit spans are also included in the free kit.
In addition to digit spans daily, I encourage you to read to your children at least an hour a day as another way of developing processing skills. When they are not listening to you read, they should be listening to books or stories on tape (without the book). This is a great way to add value to the time spent playing with legos, coloring or other fine motor activities. Audio stories are also a great way to productively occupy pre-school children while you are schooling older siblings.
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The Memory & Motion Tool Kit will help adults and seniors get back their "grove" so they remember, retain information and have improved motor skills.
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