Auditory Processing, Listening Devices, and Phonemic Awareness

In case you missed last week's newsletter, I will start with the definition of Auditory Processing:

Auditory processing disorder definition

"Children with APD may exhibit a variety of listening and related complaints. For example, they may have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments, following directions, and discriminating (or telling the difference between) similar-sounding speech sounds. Sometimes they may behave as if a hearing loss is present, often asking for repetition or clarification. In school, children with APD may have difficulty with spelling, reading, and understanding information presented verbally in the classroom. Often their performance in classes that don't rely heavily on listening is much better, and they typically are able to complete a task independently once they know what is expected of them."

From American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

Listening Devices

You may be wondering what listening devices are. I made up the term, because I had not seen a category name for things that look a little like phones, but only transmit our own voice back to our own ear.

They can be made out of PVC piping found at any hardware store, or purchased for a few dollars from various manufacturers. You can find them called Phonic Phones, Tubaloos, Whisper Phones or Accordion Tubes. They all work well, as they are all simple plastic tubing directing the sound from the mouth to the ear.

Why are they effective? Most of our voice goes straight out from our body when we speak. Very little of it comes back to our ear to be processed. When speaking into this, the student must whisper, or too much of the volume will hurt the ear. So, when reading quietly into the phone, no other students can hear, allowing the student to read out loud. Many people remember what they read when reading out loud, but not when reading silently. This is a great advantage to those who read this way.

Ear Dominance and the Right Ear

Also, many people do not process sounds well. When they speak and read using this on the right side, the language goes into the right ear to be processed by the left hemisphere of the brain - where language is processed. The student finds that he can process auditory information easier when using one of these devices. It can truly help a person who has an auditory processing problem to be able to "hear" the sounds of the spoken language better, and therefore process more effectively and efficiently.

Phonemic Awareness

This is the ability to process the sounds of our language, distinguish between them, and manipulate them. A person who does not have this ability has difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words when reading. There are only 44 sounds in the English Language, according to Diane McGuinness, as opposed to 1500 letter combinations. Teaching reading through sound rather than letters becomes a very quick process!

I start the progression toward reading with primitive reflexes, so that the child's brain is set up to being able to learn. It truly is the foundation, as I've found with the work I've done and many others that have been trained in this over the past 15 years.

After reflex integration, or in conjunction with it, comes listening therapy as needed and listening devices as accommodations. Vision is addressed after auditory.

Now that the child can process what is heard, it is time for phonemic awareness, which is done without letters. It is strictly auditory, so that it is not overwhelming. I learned this process out of the book, Reading Reflex by McGuiness.

Blending

I give the child one sound at a time and they give me the word. We start with 2 sounds and work our way up to 5 distinct sounds. I do not teach blends or families, as that is too much information that is extraneous. If a child can blend 3 sounds but not 4 sounds, then the issue is NOT auditory processing - it is working memory. Working memory can be improved through cognitive training (like through Brain Advancement Coaching).

Segmenting

This time I give the child a word, and the child should be able to give me the individual sounds heard. If they cannot - perhaps because they don't "know" their short vowel sounds - then go back to step one. If they cannot segment a nonsense word like "fot" because they don't know their vowels, it means they cannot distinguish between those sounds. They need reflex integration, listening therapy, and listening devices. Start with 2 sound words and work your way up to 5 sound words.

Phoneme manipulation

There are many ways to manipulate phonemes - taking out a sound (what's "stop" without the sound /t/), adding a sound (what's "it" with a /ss/ added to the end), and replacing a sound (what's "slit" if I replace the /l/ with a /p/). This is a little more difficult than blending and segmenting, but very important to do well in order to become a quick decoding reader.

Only when the student is proficient with dealing with the sounds of our language is it appropriate to add in the next step - letters. Reading letters requires a good visual system and to combine that at the same time as working the auditory system is too much for most people who are struggling with reading. Work the steps in order, one at a time, soon reading is much easier!

Don't forget that the Course on DVD, Primitive Reflexes: Foundation for Learning is on sale until the end of the month. More in-depth information about the course can be found at  http://www.pyramidofpotential.com/primitive-reflexes/.

Next month I will be breaking down the complexities of visual processing, and what issues may be present beyond acuity (the ability to see clearly). If a person cannot process text, it is very difficult to read, write, and do math!