APD

[carmad2011]

Hello, please bear with me as I'm new to this! but I desperatly want help. 2 weeks ago my son was diagnoised with APD after searching the web and ordering books - none of my questions seemed to be answered. Is there anyone else whos child has APD and could give me some advice please. His speech is fine, it's his memory and concentration that led us down this path. He is also very busy does not stop until his head hits the pillow but then he talks in his sleep.
I would like to know if there are any groups in medway that I could go to or has anyone got advice.
Thank you.

By apd do you mean auditory processing disorder? There are a few people on here with experience of that, my experience is more of having a child with receptive language delay. Do you have support from school/ed psych at all?

You need dolfrog. He's the expert....

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a Listening Disability, or about having problems processing what you hear.
Those who have APD can have a poor auditory memory, and poor sequencing skills. Those who have APD have problems following verbal conversations, and following verbal instructions.
Living with APD is about developing your own coping strategies by developing your own cognitive strengths to compensate for your auditory processing deficit, most children begin developing these coping strategies from birth, if they have have genetic form of APD, or after they subconsciously become aware of their listening deficit after acquiring APD as a result of having a severe ear infection such as Otitis Media with Effusion (Glue Ear)
Coping strategies are run in our working memories (short term memory) and like all humans we prioritise our working memory usage subconsciously.
Working memory is like the RAM of a computer limited capacity, and crashes if overloaded. So something has to make way to enable us to run our coping strategies, usually our self organisation abilities. Or coping strategies will in turn have to make way when our bodies are having to cope with stress or any form of illness. So this is another form of poor memory.

Many who have APD have problems getting to sleep, this can sometimes be compensated by playing favorite music, and in some extreme cases playing the music (low level) all night.

APD is one of many causes of the dyslexic symptom, which is due to the problems processing the gaps between sounds, especially the sounds which make up words and the gaps between word of those who have a fast rate of speech. You may have to ask them to slow down their rate of speech to enable your son to process what they are saying.

Those like me and my family who have APD, on a bad APD day, can easily loose the plot of a conversation because we have not processed part or all of what has been said, and more than likely will not be able to best guess to fill in the information processing gap.

Sleep talking is not related to having APD that would be a separate issue

There is more information on the APDUK web site

my dd is 17 now and she's got apd she was diagnosed about 9yrs ago if you need to talk and ask questions pm me

Thank you for replying. What is your experience with this condition. We have just had parents evening and put basic things in place i.e. sit near the front, regain his concentration etc. I understand that he won't grow out of it but does it get worse and how does it effect them when they are tenagers?

carmad2011

there is no cure for APD,
APD does not get worse, but your abilities to cope with it can vary especially when stressed or ill.

APD is usually a genetic condition so usually at least one biological parent will share some of the APD issues.
Teenage APDs can go into denial trying be like other teenagers who do not have APD just trying to be like their peers.

Not too sure what is meant by regaining his concentration. ADHD is the attention disability. But if they are trying to imply that sitting near the front of the class will improve his auditory processing abilities then they are mistaken.

Edulink FM systems (teacher has a microphone and student has either headphones or a small speaker) can provide a consistent good quality sound source, but it can not improve the auditory processing abilities.

APD is about having a listening disability, which means that those of us who have APD do not process all that we hear, we miss bits, regardless of where we sit in relation to the sound source.
Low levels of background noise (pink noise) can be a problem.
Living with APD is about anticipating what will happen tomorrow, trying to anticipate all the events of the next day, preparing for all the likely questions so that we can prepare our answers the day or night before.
It is the events that we have not anticipated that cause the real problems as our coping strategies may not be accessible for that task or we may not even have any coping strategies for a new task, which may take some time to develop.
Ask the school to provide a written summary of all his classes, and may be some advanced information regarding new topics to be covered in class.

My two eldest APD sons did not get the support they required, even though they attended a high achieving secondary school, until they went to college where they got the support they needed, including a note taker. And it was only when he went to college that my eldest APD son learnt how to learn and develop his self confidence.
However things are improving and our youngest APD son is getting very good support at his new secondary school.

carmad2011

I forgot to mention the Ideas to be Considered Prior to Creating an IEP for an APD web page. which can be downloaded as part of a combined APDUK download or if you have a visual processing problems

Thank you very much for all your help.