[carolinec]

anyone else have a young child dx'd with an autitory processing disorder??

My soon to be 3yr old was just dx'd, tho we knew it was coming. She will be entering preschool sometime next month, and I am looking for information on what kind of services the scholl will provide for her, and what has helped with other children?

[lucyjoy]

My neice has this disorder and unfortunately, the school hasn't offered much help and my sister had to fight for what she did get.
Her teacher wears a headset which helps Em hear her more clearly with the classroom background noise. She also receives speech therapy. That's it.

My father tutors Em and my sister sent her to a one to one program that helped a little but it was very expensive and she had to go everyday.

My son is in a private school that uses a program called Fast Forward that is suppose to be really good for children with this disorder. But, some of the research says it not better than other programs. It would be worth looking at, though from what I've seen. It also is expensive.

Although Em's speech is still poor and school is a stuggle, she has not been affected socially by it. She has many friends and does all the things other kids do. She even tried band this year, but the noise was too harsh(She use to run from the sound of toilet flushing and vacuuming). She is now 11 and playing school indoor sports(has always played outdoor sports). She says the noise is loud but she says she'll get use to it as she wants to play.

Hope your school offers better choices for you.

[mommymarz]

Carolinec,
I am interested in how they made this diagnosis in a 3 year old child. I am an audiologist and I know that standard testing for APD (Auditory Processing Disorders) is not valid for children younger then about 7 years of age.

A diagnosis of Auditory Neuropathy could be made in a child this young and is very different than APD.

Did they do an Auditory Brainstem Response Test and Otoacoustic Emissions on your daughter, as well as, the standard hearing test??

Please feel free to email me if you have additional questions.
AudwanaB@aol.com
Mary

[carolinec]

D is/was dx'd with autism last year, while in another foster home, and since being with us, that dx has been recinded, however she has several issues, not sure if related to the 18 months of neglect from that home, or her.

In making the ( I should say preliminary) dx of autitory processing disorder) she has had a hearing eval and autoacoustic tests,(she has not had a BAER test yet, as her hearing evals have been normal) and seen a speech therapist numerous times to constantly re-assess her language and processing skills. D, expressively, has a language base of a 29 month old, but her ability to comprehend and respond to what is said to her, takes several minutes, and is showing in the 20-24 month range. She has difficulty following simple directions and repeats what is said to her, until she understands and can follow, or react to what is said. Sometimes she repeats the question, comment over and over, for several minutes, but once she seems to understand what is said, she responds immediately. This is something that has been an issue for quite a while with her, and we had hoped to see some changes in her receptive skills within the last 6 months, and tho her abilities to name things, talk, and converse, have increased greatly, her ability to understand has not improved. Her speech therapists thought it wise to treat her for apd and it has helped her a great deal, even within the last 3 weeks.

I would rather treat her as a child with apd, trusting this therapist I have known for a while, and see improvements, than wait until she is 6/7 years old, without this dx, and risk putting her at a greater delay than she already is. She will receive more therapy and a smaller classroom, and her risks of falling further behind are reduced.

Does she definitively have apd, I don't know, for sure, but from what i see with her, and her abilities, and how she is responding to therapy for this dx with her team, it leads me to beleive she does and if it helps her, than great.

[KatieMill]

We had a child in our Head Start program several years back that the diagnostician and speech therapist suspected had apd. As previously stated, you can start the preliminary testing...but the actual test is not reliable until they should have a greater vocabulary and some other skills that come with age. We ended up spending about $1750 on this child trying to get a definitive yes or no diagnosis....and ended up with a non-verbal IQ score...and a referral to come back on his 7th birthday.

One of the preschool disabilities teachers had recently found a website www.nacd.org that listed some ideas. I've had a family member go there...and they are actually doing some good things with auditory processing disorders. There are some auditory tapes that the children can listen to that are making some big strides in apd. It is rather pricey to go for an initial interview...and that's hoping there is a place close to you...but it was quite interesting.

The microphone previously mentioned is called an Auditory Trainer...and it does help. The teacher for the above mentioned child used this and we did see some improvement. She later incorporated the auditory trainer with the use of the musical tapes from the NACD...and was seeing and documenting great results.

Thought I'd pass this along. I am not promoting the NACD...and haven't done much research on them the last 2 years...I just thought that it might be an avenue for some to pursue...