The solution is often a comprehensive approach, at school and at home. “They were listening, but they weren’t hearing the right thing.” “The normal reactionīy the parent is ‘Why don’t you listen?’ ” Ms. The teacher’s voice, a chair scraping the floor and crinkling paper are all heard at the same level. Abstract language, metaphors like “cover third base,” even “knock-knock”Ĭhildren with auditory processing problems often can’t filter out other sounds. Those sounds are being distorted or misinterpreted, and it affects how the child is going to learn speech and language.”īlake’s brain struggled to retain the words he heard, resulting in a limited vocabulary and trouble with reading and spelling. “But while they try to figure it out, the teacher continues talkingĪnd now they’re behind. “The child hears ‘And the girl went to dead,’ and they know it doesn’t make sense,” Ms. Like “tangerine” and “tambourine,” “bed” and “dead,” may sound the same. Heymann, who determined that while Blake could hear perfectly well, he had trouble distinguishing between sounds. O’Donnell’s quest to do better led her to Ms. “I pulled off on the freeway and hugged him,” Ms. O’Donnell realized her mistake.īy “little haircut,” Blake meant little hair should be cut. But in the car later, Blake erupted in tears, and Ms. Haircut” and she pressed him on his meaning, she told the barber he wanted short hair like his brother’s. Blake had already been working with a speech therapist on his vague responses and other difficulties, so when he asked for a “little It began with a haircut before her son started first grade. O’Donnell recounts how she learned something was amiss. In the foreword to a new book, “The Sound of Hope” (Ballantine) - by Lois Kam Heymann, the speech pathologist and auditory therapist who helped Blake - Ms. trouble paying attention and following directions, low academic performance, behavior problems and poor reading and vocabulary - are often mistaken for attention problems or evenīut now the disorder is getting some overdue attention, thanks in part to the talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell and her 10-year-old son, Blake, who has A.P.D.
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