I need some information on Auditory processing. DS4 1/2 was diagnosed with Apraxia at 3. A year of speech therapy and he talks great. I have major issues with his listening skills. He's not the kind of child to blatantly disregard someone who is speaking to him. He's a very happy, very helpful little man. He follows directions well, until someone seemingly flips a switch.........
Turn 180 degrees and you have a little boy who for all intents and purposes acts like he is deaf. He's had his hearing tested twice and it's fine. I'm wondering if since he had a verbal processing condition, it would be resonable to think he has auditory process issues as well. Is one related to the other? Should I be looking at something else entirely?

Speak people!! I need some ideas!

Is this an adopted son, and if so, do you have any background on him and how long have you had him?
I hope that didn't sound crass.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by turning 180 degrees...as in turning your body away from him?

Have you 'conducted' you own home tests of his hearing? Sometimes there can be hearing loss that is specific to the speaking range. Sometimes bright kids can trick the testers. Were you in there watching during the test?

Is he doing any pre-reading? That might give you some clues.
Talk it a little more...give some examples?

Thanks,
Grinity

180 degrees.... What I meant was is that it's like someone flipped a switch and turned his hearing off. I was present for both of his hearing tests. He has been working through a montesorri pre-reading program for a while. Just last week he got his "readers" and has started book 1.

He is one of my adopted kids. Born addicted, i've had him since he was 3 weeks old.

An example would be that you can ask him to pick up his toys and he runs to take care of them (I suspect he'd OCD, that's another thread)Then one day you'll ask him to pick up his toys and he'll look at you with a blank expression. When he's like that it generally takes 4-5 repititions of the same direction before you get through, then he runs to do as you ask.

He very bright, he took two tests from the WPPSI a few months ago for a program he's involved in and ceilinged on both.

He's done this off and on for a long time but it seems to be getting worse.

Have you considered absence seizures?

What if you change what you ask him -- like if he doesn't run to pick up his toys, will he do anything else you ask him? raise his right hand, stick out his tongue, etc. Something unexpected to see if it catches his attention?

Is he visual spatial perhaps? We use a lot of pictures to communicate here. I feel like there are some days I can't get the words out right and other days DS7 is trying to create pictures with words that don't necessarily have a picture. Example: If I need him dressed and out the door, I show him a picture of himself dressed (coat, shoes, etc) first then a picture of him in the vehicle buckled up. That seems to be much more effective than multiple step verbal instructions. HTH

It seems like there could be a lot of causes for this. I'm glad you got him so young, that eliminates some issues from neglect to abuse to being bounced around for a couple years. I think I'd be going to a doctor for this one. The absence seizures sounds like a strong possibility.

My dd was tested (4 years ago) using the Test of Auditory-Perceptual Skills-Revised among other tests that I cannot immediately locate. She earned a few extremely low scores, especially a 1st percentile on Auditory Word Discrimination. From her report;

�Her Scaled Score of 2 indicated she was unable to discriminate or hear differences in paired words even though she was able to identify pairs that contained identical words correctly. Restated, ------ perceived many unlike word pairs as being alike or the same.�

We also reported that she had difficulty with verbal multiple steps and other times seemed oblivious to speech.

This is not included with regular hearing tests. It was recommended that we seek an specialist audiologist and believed that she would require therapy of some sort, but we decided not to pursue it as it hasn�t been an issue academically yet (also our district is too �difficult�). We chose to allocate our time and money towards her/their strengths.

Hearing the difference between b and v is most difficult for many in our house, dh excluded. I thought it would be a big problem for language acquisition, but dd is breezing through Spanish and ds does really well in Latin.

He has a Dr appt. in December for another issue. I'm trying to get some ideas together to discuss with the Dr. I've never heard of absence seizures so i'll look into that.

What about hand and arm gestures? ((I'm being serious here!))

You could practice with him some 'commonly used' commands and come up with some basics.

I'm thinking of ADD (not ADHD) as 'the ability to take in new information from the enviornment is taking a brief vacation' several times a day (or hour.)

There is a program where they teach children to monitor how 'alert' they are, probably by lifting their hands high above their heads to signify 'bouncing off the wall'
down by the ankles to signify 'couch potato' and face height to signify 'ready to interact.'

then you can praise the child for self monitoring and teach stratagies (running in place) to raise pulse and blood pressure when they are 'too low.'

I wish I could remember the name of the program, it was something like 'how does your engine run?' Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I just like the idea that on can teach a child to self monitor this important skill and then stratagise about it. Just to see, I would try a few compliments like: I could tell that your mind was really far away, but you were kind enough to come back to listen to me - good job.

Smiles,
Grinity

I have auditory processing disorder, so can explain a bit of what its like. When someone talks to me, I can hear their voice- but what they are saying just doesn't connect in my head. Its like listening to a radio so low you can hear the sounds but not make out the words. I also have mild hearing loss. I adapted at a young age, learning to read lips. My DD12 has similar issues, as well as ADHD.

When DD12 was young I would instruct her to "show me your eyes" before talking to her. I used that term because its so easy to shout "Look at me!" in frustration, but much harder to shout "show me your eyes". Once she looked at me, I would tell her what I wanted- "Pick up your toys please". I also taught her to say "Yes, Mom" after I tell her to do something. The purpose of the "yes mom" was so I knew she understood what she was supposed to do. It worked wonders! Like most children she also has "selective hearing", lol.

If I were you I'd check on the selective hearing thing. Most children, even the most helpful and obedient, sometimes choose to not listen. My favorite way to test this is first to give the direction- "Please pick up your toys". If I get no response, I then ask "Would you like some ice cream?". If she truly can't hear me then she won't respond to that one either

Once you have ruled out selective hearing, do have him look at you. If he is having auditory problems, he has likely already taught himself to compensate by reading lips. When doing any testing, make sure you mention this to the examiner.

Cheers,
ithinkican