APLL 2012 - Auditory Processing Disorder

I registered to this year Global Conference on Disorders in Auditory Processing, Literacy, Language and Related Science held at The Hong Kong Institute of Education on Jan 4-7 2012. I was able to attend to the first two days of the conference.

First of all I am not a major in any sciences and everything that were presented were all new and interesting to me. I went to this conference because I felt the need to understand what my son may have. I think he has auditory processing delay.

Auditory processing disorder can cross over with other global delays and sensory issues. Children with APD are easily being misdiagnosis for having ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder) because of the shared symptoms. But then you can also have both disorders intertwine.

APD has nothing to do with hearing loss. APD is the brain lacking the tools to interpret sounds that makes them meaningful in association with speech. Children with APD are easily distracted, have difficulty following simple directions and have a hard time understanding abstract concepts.

One example: I was talking to Theodore about schools. I made a comment that there were no more space at his sister's school because there were too many students. Theodore asked me what space means. I quickly came up with space in relating to chairs. I told him space in school is like having a seat. There are only 30 chairs available in the classroom and when all the chairs are filled that means no more space.

A child can't be diagnosis with APD until age 7-8 because of brain development maturity. So what parents can do is to start speech therapy. Because APD and speech language delay goes hand in hand. If the child's brain cannot interpret the sound made and mimic in the same tonal speech pattern then speech language delay will occur simultaneously. APD can also link with SPD (Sensory processing disorder) because of sensitivity toward loud sounds in a quiet environment or a noisy environment. When background noise is present it is hard for a child with APD to distinguish background from foreground noisy and when SPD is in the mix the child will try to block out everything because it is just too overwhelming of sound information for the brain to interpret and the body will shut down.

APD will lead to phonics dyslexia. For example I have notice alphabet sounds N and M would be mixed up, E, J and G are often confusing sounds for a child with APD. Sometimes with visually looking at the letters, even if they know it back in their head what the letters are, the sounds will be mixed up as they try to say them. My son still cannot pronounce yellow. Sometimes he will say yeaO or leaO. It is often very unpredictable.

Learning When, Why, Where, What questions would be very confusing at first because the Ws all sound the same and he tends to not interpret the ending of the sounds. It takes a lot of practice in distinguishing the sounds. The more you speak the more the brain will connect. So never give up. That is why reading is the best tool, even if your child doesn't follow the books continue to read to them so they can listen. Even children that are very active will listen to a good story.

He is more aware of sounds now after he took Jolly Phonics, but with concept of sounds in relationship to visual of letter form is still off mark. But he is now able to stop to ask you to repeat the sentence again or the word again because he didn't catch the words or phrases the first time around. Another thing with APD is also related to the instant memory. Because in order to learn you have to remember somehow and add on to what you already know. And any sounds related memory are just very hard for APD to retain. Visual cue always help tremendously.

One thing I learn from the lectures is about how music can help. That is why music therapy is used along side speech therapy. Music creates tonal rhythms and increases phonological awareness. And in a controlled group testing that has been done also produced results in better readers when music therapy is given along side with speech therapy. People who learn to play musical instruments has a better brain connection to distinguish sounds and tends to be better readers.

Happy New 2012 : a resolution

Six months since we moved to Hong Kong. And somethings are getting better and some are just getting started.

I have met a lot of parents and all we talk about are our children in general. And everything in Hong Kong is related to education. How the culture wants their child to read at age 3. Some child can but obviously for a normal happy child you should be worried if they are not playing. And I came to a conclusion that SPD is a modern day disease, because we want so much for our children to act normal when what is "normal" isn't it just a perception of average say? Every child develop at different rate and there to could be a reason for what we don't know. We cannot always look at a timeline into the future, but like Steve Job said in one of his speech to a bunch of Stanford graduates:

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

We do all lack the guts because we follow the trend and the normalcy of things in our lives. And you as parents have to be advocates for your child with whatever condition that is hindering them, but not for long. Why are we treating SPD like it is somehow bad for society. How many percent of our brain do we use? The 10% say is only a myth. We use 100% of our brains, but to what potential that is another story.

And when it is the best time for a child to learn at school? We are talking about maturity and ability to adapt new ideas into use ... like writing, reading and comprehension. Children are not suppose to do those things with ease at age 3, 4, 5 ... maybe at age 6 when they learn to control their hand eye coordination and emotionally ready.

I am at a half point when I want to give up to even to have him go to mainstream school in Hong Kong where the standards are set high when the child is literally pushed to the limit to cope with studying two languages and 10 homework assignment and tutoring back to back. Is that really worth it? If you want the same outcome to go to college or get a decent job, I think anyone in the right mind would guide a child into their potential capacity when he is ready.

And a child's brain soak up facts and they love asking questions. I never seen my son question so much and he is in love with science. He wanted to talk about the human body so I got him a book about the human body. A five years old wants to learn about virus, cancer cells, bacterias and why white blood cells are the only things in the body that essentially defending the body. And I was literally going back to my favorite biology class and re reading facts so I have to give him the right answers to those great questions.

And do you know that there are 5 different type of white blood cells? And I did learn about Natural Killer cells by just watching youtube videos with my son. And it is very fascinating, like going back in time but learning more. But not at age 5. I remembered watching E.T. at age 8, I didn't know what was going on with all the hoopla scientific talk about DNA. Somehow at age 12 or so it clicked and I re watched E.T. again and all that I learned came together like missing puzzle pieces.

My children are different and sometimes they drive me mad, but they can't really help it. With therapies, those will make them aware and cope, but do not loose guard on potential and always be an advocate for them to make them be the best that they can be without comparing to cultural pressure and the so called "normalcy."