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Language and Auditory Processing Disorders

Public Group active 4 months, 2 weeks ago ago

A group for learning about and sharing about language and auditory processing disorders.

Why Did You Join? (5 posts)

  • Profile picture of Dara Squires Dara Squires said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    Noticed there are a few of us in this group. But no one’s posted anything yet. Just wondering why each of you joined.
    My son comes from a long line of late-talkers. Throughout my side of the family, both in my direct and expanded family there are late talkers and stutterers and dyslexia. He didn’t talk till he was three. His “delay” is pretty much unnoticeable now, but we’re starting to notice other auditory issues. Dyslexia is a big concern right now and as well he suffers from auditory overload a lot.

    His younger sister talked early and talks endlessly. No concerns with her.

    Our youngest son is now 21 months and although he is better than his brother was at this age, his speech is severly limited. At least he’s learned a little sign language.

    Around here, they don’t really “diagnose” anything – just say what the problem is and treat it when it comes to speech. I kind of like that approach, but it would be nice to know if their delays are linked or if my youngest son’s is due to his Neurofibromatosis and the delays that come from that.

    What’s your reason for joining?

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  • Profile picture of Ben Edwards Ben Edwards said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    I started the group because my 13 year-old daughter has been diagnosed with language processing disorder. We thought she had auditory processing problems, but after some testing it appears that all the information gets into her brain alright, it just gets jumbled once it is there. The way the speech therapist explained it is that most of us have filing systems in our brains where we put bits of information. My daughter Katie has no filing system so everything gets mixed up and this makes it had for her to retrieve information, especially information which she gets orally. We did not know our daughter had this disorder until she was diagnosed by a psychologist when she was 6 years-old. This was after the school system in the lovely suburb where we live tested her and told us that Katie was stupid. We had her retested when she was 6 and she has been diagnosed repeatedly since that time with the same disorder. Her disorder is pretty severe and the psychologist started our meeting off by saying, “this is going to be hard for you to hear….. but school will always be extremely difficult for your daughter.” It went downhill from there.

    How does the disorder manifest itself in our daughter? Katie uses very simply language for a 13 year-old. She often struggles to find words and she often has problems explaining herself. Katie does not understand idioms at all. Because of her slower processing rate, Katie requires more time to get all her work done. On the the problems we have is that people and teachers will often assume that Katie is not very bright because of her problems expressing herself verbally. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is a very bright kid.

    What is the cure? There is none. Speech therapy to help increase the speed of her language processing seems to help. Unfortunately, she has not been able to be in speech therapy for the past year because her school lost their funding. Katie has gotten lots better on her own and the psychologist who has assessed her several times since that first assessment has been amazing by Katie’s progress. Katie has been at a Montessori school where she has been protected and allowed to grow and develop at her own rate for the past 7 years. Paying for this school has killed us financially, but is has been worth it. Next year Katie will got to a charter school that appears to be similar to her Montessori school. We hope it will work out for her and that they will be able to adjust her work load so that she can complete her work. I am so worried about the change in schools that sometimes I cannot sleep at night. Instead I lie there worrying.

    Katie is the hardest working kid I know. She has to be. Academically everything is hard for her. She is often questions why she has so many problems and asks me if she is stupid. Sometimes she simply says that she is stupid. This breaks my heart and I just do not know how to help her understand that just because things take her longer, does not mean that she is stupid. She says that I am her Dad and am not allowed to tell her if she actually is stupid.

    So why did I start the group? To get to know other parents with similar problems. To get to know more about the disorder. There is virtually nothing out there about language processing disorders and only a small amount out there about auditory processing disorders. I asked my daughters psychologist for information on the disorder and she could not provide any. I asked the speech therapist for help explaining my daughter’s disorder to her, but the speech therapist has not called me back. I cannot find anything at libraries or online. Only academics seem to know anything and they are not very accessible.

    Maybe we can help each other? That is my hope. [s]

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  • Profile picture of Stephanie Jackels Stephanie Jackels said 1 year, 8 months ago:

    I joined because of my two children. My oldest had Apraxia when he was younger. When he was 2 and 2 1/2 I told the pediatrician I thought he was behind his peers – at his 3 year checkup they finally said “yes, he does seem to be way behind” – I learned then and there to be a “from the mountaintop” voice for my children – everyone just said he seemed fine up to that point – family mostly because we didn’t want anything to be wrong, doctors because they didn’t want to deal with yet another hypochondriac mother and because he exhibited no fine or large motor skills delays and showed intelligence in what he did do. But I knew something was not right – I learned to speak up. After two years of speech pathology in his daycare setting and yes much money out-of-pocket later he overcame the apraxia, moving on to show the signs of receptive-expressive language disorder. He is going to a special school for that after his normal school hours. If we were staying in our current town and not moving we would probably put him in that school full-time in hopes to help correct or “train” his retrieval process in about two years so that he could return to a public school setting.
    Ben, I don’t know if you have access to a school like that in your area, but most of these schools have a goal to only have your child for a year or two, train them to “retrieve” the normal information in response to questions within that time so that they can move back into a more normal setting. It is expensive, but a lot of these schools have payment plans and scholarships or assistance. Feel free to email me – we’re in metro Atlanta and I could give you some names/numbers. If you are no where close, don’t give up – my understanding from many here (multiple schools addressing this specific disorder) is that the kids are able to be trained how to retrieve the “normal” answers to questions to return to “normal” schools. and the blessing is they often have a different insight that sometimes blows you away – due to how they retrieve their info.
    My youngest luckily seems to have skipped the apraxia, but he has already exhibited speech delay and has undergone speech pathology/therapy since about 18 months old. But we are slightly wiser for the other experiences and he has progressed more quickly.
    I’m here to share my experiences in hopes it gives hope elsewhere, and to get hope too.

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  • Profile picture of Karen Karen said 1 year, 8 months ago:

    I joined because my son was born profoundly hearing impaired. His first language was ASL.
    It turned out it was a mechanical issue (inter-cranial pressure on the brain stem prevented processing) causing his hearing loss, which began spontaneously resolving when he was a toddler. He had delayed speech development and still has signs of an APD.
    He’s also an Aspie – so he wants to talk A LOT, but has issues processing what he hears.

    This syndrome is notrious for unstable hearing, so he may or may not retain his current level of hearing, and they’re not sure what specific damage he still has in his brainstem.

    I wanted to see what other parents were dealing with, and to share with parents who can relate to what we’re going through.

    Karen

    Karen, working mom of 2
    @karengodel
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  • Profile picture of Janet Callahan Janet Callahan said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    I joined because my son has a tracheostomy, and because of that he’s severely delayed in speech – the official paperwork says he’s non-verbal at this point (age 2). His testing shows he’s severely delayed receptively too, but we’re not convinced – he’s seriuosly anxious about new people (and had never met the evaluator), and he’s stubborn….and he dislikes most of the early intervention staff we’ve worked with. He does things at the request of us and his nurses that the school can’t convince him to do.

    Janet, mom to Acorn
    http://ourlittleacorn.blogspot.com
    Twitter: @kadiera
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