Have you read these books on auditory processing disorders ??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, I'm going to be ordering these books today.

Like sound through water by karen foil

When the brain can't hear by Teri Bellis.

They are both about Auditory processing disorder. If you have read either one of them, please let me know what you thought of them and if one is more helpfull than the other.
Thanks

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no but would be very interested to hear if they are any good LOL. Tiny/MLL - do you know if you can have auditory processing disorder without any problems with making speech sounds? when I looked into this with DS a year ago, he ticked all the boxes except for pronunication problems - and when I tried to discuss it with SALT they seem to think hmmm, interesting, maybe and mention it no more!

I think it can effect different children in different ways. My daughter can sometimes carry out severel instructions at once but can't hear the difference in sounds. They say that if the child has a high IQ it can be alot harder to detect as they develop coping stratogies.
I'll let you know what the books are like.
DEfinatly get the SALT to refere you for an audiology appointment to check auditory processing.

HI TC, I am not an expert at all, but yes I believe you can have APD without any problems making speech sounds. IN fact, a person with this disorder could repeat the sentence word for word, but just finds it difficult to process the meaning.

I have no idea if DS has this disorder, but what is very clear is that he has very VERY slow processing of language and poor auditory memory.
I took DS to the Tomatis therapy to see if it could help him with this, but he still struggles.

Will be very interested to know if these books are useful mummyloveslucy.

Thanks MLL and Tiny Socks. I suspect DS does have this disorder, so I could do with working on his auditory memory (well it's not going to him any harm to do that even if he hasn't got it will it?). Can you recommend any books/websites for working on auditory memory anyone?

With auditory processing disorder, the advice is to use simple sentences and say them slightly slower and slightly louder. Limmit back ground noise and make sure he is looking at you when you speek.
You can get an auditory trainer for school, it's a head set the child wears and it is linked to a small microphone on the teacher. It sends the teachers voice directly to the child and cuts out back ground noise. (I could do with one of those now).

A game I play with my daughter for auditory memory are, singing rhyming songs that she knows and leaving the last word of every line so that she can put in the missing words. We also read books together all the time and she has certain ones she likes over and over again, whith these books we take turns "reading". She obviously has to do it from memory. I also give her instructions through out the day like "Can you ask Daddy if her wants a cup of tea" or "Can you find your white shoe". She is very good at this if she isn't distracted. If I give her two instructions that are un related, she'll forget one of them. It's good practice though. Make it fun and give loads of praise.

My 10 year old daughter has APD and now, apart from the occasional lisp she has no problems with pronounciation but she did when she was younger.

We were lucky as we got her diagnosed relatively quickly and the strategies that were suggested to us and her teachers have worked so well that no one would usually notice that she has any problems - so much so that every time she gets a new teacher we have to explain everything all over again!

However, I have written an article about the condition, our experience getting a diagnosis (took a couple of years), the strategies we use and there's also links to other sites.

You can find the article HERE

Have you read Like sound through water yet?

My dd has apd and reading this book really upset me. I have since thrown it in the bin.

HI AJ2008.
I've just read your article, it was very interesting, thank you.
Do you know what sort of tests did the audiologist do to diagnose APD?

thanks for the link and info aj2008.

Podrick - what upset you about the book?

Lots of things - i needed dp to talk me down from it!

A big one for me was that the boy in the book had far more severe problems than my dd. These were picked up earlier (because he was non-verbal); the mother had to struggle in the dark to find what to do for the best, and then they identified a lot of help for the child which was time consuming and expensive and some bits helped more than others. Some bits required a daily 2 hour drive each way. At the end of the day after a few years of help and therapies the child actually overtook his peers in school, I think before the age of 10.

I was in tears because I have not been able to devote as much time and money to the problem as this mother has, and the US is much further forward in options to help. Despite the time and money I have been putting into helping my dd, I don't expect her to ever stop struggling at school, even though she is a bright child. So I feel that i am not able to help my dd enough, and that my best is far from good enough.

oh I know that feeling well, I felt that because I didn't have the patience to spend 10 hour a day doing tea parties with DS that I was somehow failing him. And yes, reading US based books I do feel a bit jealous to that if you meet the criteria they seem to have very good early intervention programmes. Guilt is a mother's lot and all that, we just have to do what we can regarding our children's particularly difficulties and remember to enjoy them and provide love and a guiding hand.

Podrick "..and that my best is far from good enough"

Oh sweetie, don't be so hard on yourself. I think we all feel this way at some point. We just do what we can.

Mind you, forget about reading american books, sometimes just logging into mumsnet and reading about what other mums are doing here on the SN section makes me feel a bit useless.

Would also like to have feedback mummyloveslucy please so happy reading!!!!!

Might my DS2 have APD?
No prononciation problems (or only age-appropriate ones!) but

• will mistake similar sounds eg expected "Eleanor" not "Melanie" the other day and used to mistake "house" for "cow".

Use to point to his toes when I said nose. That kind of thing.

• plus had ability to memorise huge chunks of speech but couldn't extract meaning from them. The easier they were to memorise, the harder they were to actually process.

He is still on a rhyme-free "diet" bookwise. Anything with rhymes or a catchy rhythm is not processed as language. Some of you may remember my old posts where I said we lived in an opera sung in a foreign language.

lingle - I've always wondered that as well about my DS - as he ticks all the boxes except for pronunciation problems - when I've asked both NHS and private SALT they've gone hmmm yes, maybe, don't know much about it though - so it's not gone any further. and DS was exactly the same with memorising chunks of speech, I still try and avoid rhyming books for the same reason.

Totalchaos and tinysocks

I found a private OT to run screening tests for my dd. They use headphones and do things like playing different words into each ear at the same time.

My dd had very few problems with pronounciation but there were a few - such as nap for map. The NHS have not yet caught up with APD. My paediatrician audiologist admitted that there are some children who pass standard hearing tests yet still have problems processing sound - but the NHS has nothing to offer these children. It is a very different story in Australia and in the USA.

Do your children have high sensitivity to certain noises? Do they find some "normal" sounds painful or uncomfortable?

yes - I would probably agree with that re:APD and the NHS - so do you think that OT rather than SALT are the best professionals to look into this?

I don't think DS has a problem with any particular noises btw.

I think you need to find someone with specialist knowledge who can run the audiology battery of screening test.

This is not widely available in the UK so I would say go with whoever is offering it in your area.

Podrick, let's say they ran the tests (there is no chance that DS2 would cooperate so it's not a realistic option for me) and said "yes, he has APD, what could they do to help?

What I'm wondering is if I could find out what the strategies are and feed them in to the therapy I do already.

Total Chaos, how interesting that you also avoid rhyming books, you're the first other person I've found who does this. Was your DS a singer too? Does he benefit from books that have very clear drawings and frame-by-frame commentary like "Go Dog Go!" (our favourite). So many books are so very unlike that, .

Much sympathy about the guilt thing. I'm usually very free of maternal guilt but I do think I could have eased DS2's frustrations at 2 if I'd applied myself a year sooner. But I caught myself thinking that if I'd behaved in some hypothetically perfect way at 2.0 he'd have developed language typically and that's nonsense. You can only teach them what their "in the zone" for.

podrick - thanks

Lingle - DS wasn't a singer but a "telly talker", but I feel that rhyming books encourage DS to tune out of the actual words used, and tend to use quite "frilly" language - so words DS is unlikely to pick up and make good use of - exception being the Gruffalo/Stick Man books, as I feel they have strong visuals and quite "plain" language iyswim. At 3.5 DS was still at the "where's spot" stage of story telling - but by 4 things had improved somewhat - he was enjoying the Mog books, Harry and the Dinosaurs etc. I'ld defo say he benefits from books with frame by frame commentary, or even just separated out frame by frame without any commentary.

I'm looking up "Go Dog Go" on amazon lol.

Sorry I have not been back sooner to answer the questions specifically asked of me - but here goes:

Tinysocks - my daughter had the usual hearing tests (twice) and they came back "normal" but because I insisted that "something" was not quite right I was referred to an Audiology specialist at our local Family Clinic. We were very, very lucky because she was one of the few Doctors in the country who could recognise the condition. Basically, she listened to what I was telling her about my daughter, looked at her test results and was able to put two and two together.

This was five years ago, so I know new tests are being developed all the time.

Podrick - I can understand how frustrated you must feel sometimes, but dont beat yourself up about it! It's normal for parents to feel they do not do enough for their children - the main thing is that you do the best you can.

And yes, my daughter cannot bear certain sounds, such as anyone picking at their nails. It drives her mad. She also used to cover her ears if she anticipated that anything noisy was going to happen in the classroom as it is painful for her. A couple of weeks ago, she was sitting next to me on the sofa and I cheered loudly when someone did a brilliant jump during "Dancing on ice" and my poor daughter's right ear was still ringing a couple of hours later.