I went to study special education to help children and adults with learning difficulties. When I started my journey, over 30 years ago, I thought there were many people with learning difficulties, like auditory processing disorders. I still think there are, but in the past, I believed they were “organic” – physical, possibly genetic – and therefore hard to change.
Now, after seeing so many children and people of all ages, I think that social attitude aggravates, and even creates, the problems in many cases. Many people have small difficulties that are blown out of proportion and labeled as disorders.
Auditory processing disorders are very popular and easily labeled, even among very young children. Every year that passes, I hear about younger and younger kids with auditory processing disorders. Recently, I even talked to the mother of a one-year-old boy who insisted that her son had an auditory processing disorder. I am qualified enough to know that I cannot assess a child for APD at one year of age.
I tend to think people like to give names to their challenges. For some reason, it makes them feel less bad about them.
Let’s get rid of labels
My goal for this blog is to change the way people think about learning difficulties and to help them understand that our attitude towards them determines our kids’ experiences and quality of life. I work with parents because I believe that one parent with the right attitude can change the life of a whole family and often more. If I manage to convince one parent to consider auditory processing difficulties differently, I have saved one child, and maybe other kids in that family, from the harsh labeling of our society.
Recently, I had some success with a mother who read my blog and this encouraged her to consider her daughter’s auditory processing issues differently. With her permission, I am sharing the conversation we had. I hope it will inspire you to change your attitude if you need to.
Hi Ronit,
Here you have a wonderful blog. It’s so positive, that’s what I liked about it and the parenting tips are really useful.
I came across you blog while looking for self talking related information for my daughter and I am really happy to find a post about auditory communication.
Further to my research I discovered that I have all the symptoms of auditory processing disorder. Even my daughter, who is just 3 year old now, showing few signs APD. It looks like hereditary, my mother has it too.
Throughout my life I was looked down by all like a slow brainer which has left me in so much of low confidence and low self esteem.
Just don’t want things to repeat with my child, On web for people suffering from CAPD it is mentioned that they have low ability for music. Hence I was wondering if auditory communication is different from CAPD?
But I kind of believe that our brain can be trained to come out of it. Solving puzzles and listening to reading comprehension might improve things. Don’t you think so.
I really do believe. Knowing there is a problem, doesn’t really help.
But yours is the only post which spoke positively about auditory challenges.
Thank you,
Sandra
Hi Sandra,
I suggest you read all the info on the site about auditory children. It is very applicable to adults.
I am a Special Ed teacher and I know for sure there is such a thing as CAPD or APD (same name to the same issue), but I think most people are just auditory people and it is not a disorder in most cases. It is just a way to absorb information and the quality of the sounds is very important.
I agree that auditory people are a minority and their challenge is more social than with brain function. I have been doing this work for 30 years. Auditory people/children can do amazing things if they are not perceived as having a disorder every time they find it challenging to manage “auditory overwhelm”.
The best thing you can do to your daughter is “kill” everyone who tells her something is wrong with her.
I had to do it with my son Tsoof, who is very auditory. We made sure he considered this an advantage, a gift rather than a disorder (because it is not!).
Tsoof finished high school on his 16th birthday. He was a school captain, received high achievement awards, had lots of friends and showed high emotional intelligence. He is a musician and finished a 4-year degree (in music) when he was 20. Tsoof does amazing things and he has all the “disorders” they claim auditory people have, but it was never a problem in his life, only because we didn’t allow others to say things like that to him.
Being auditory is not a disease. It is a gift, if you make it so!
Good luck,
Ronit
Hi Ronit,
So quickly you got back to me. You are amazing.
By all means, I’ll believe this and put the same thing in my child’s head too.
I have read all the auditory related posts, which are there on the site. Funniest things was the ‘head tilted to one side’ observation, I do that while conversing when I want to capture all the information provided by the other person like doctor etc.
I got worried because as a child I always got that ‘she is dull’ kind of a look and I never wanted my daughter to go through that. At the age of 3 she knows maximum number of rhymes and loves music. I am happy.
So far I was thinking I am an under confidant person and that’s why I avoid groups, telephonic conversations or anything to do with communication in general but now I know I am a confidant person. I have spent so much of time in reading -‘how to be confidant’ material.
Thank you so much Ronit. Your blog must be making so many people smile. There are no other website which addresses this issue so positively.
And other parenting blog entries are awesome too.
Also I read your life story. You are a brave woman, definitely you know how to bounce back. Life brings so many challenges we have to face it, overcome it; then it’s fun.
Thank You,
Sandra, your loyal reader
One loyal reader, one parent, one family. We need more, so join us and together, we can stop the labeling and make a difference. And not just for auditory processing disorders.
Please pass this post on and share your stories of success in the comment box below.
Thank you for being my reader too,
Ronit
