Good Enough For Me
Before Travis started school at The Joshua School (TJS) the director at his previous school had referred him to Able Kids Foundation. The director had shared with us that not only did she believe that Travis had an auditory processing disorder, but that it was also possibly the most severe she had seen in her career. (Of course it is.)
Looking back, I imagine that I was thinking at the time, seriously? Could this boy just catch a break?
But then you think, what if this is “the” piece? The missing piece to the puzzle that opens the door to learning for him.
So I did my research. And as I check right now online, I see that they are still in existence. Their website states, “The Able Kids Foundation improves lives and expands opportunities for individuals facing communication barriers through focused work on the identification and management of central auditory processing disorder (CAPD).
The Foundation was established to continue the work that began at Colorado State University in the 1970s on central auditory processing disorder. Children and adults seen at the Foundation typically have excellent hearing but have difficulty understanding auditory information when in a less than quiet listening environment.”
It also states, “Our one-of-a-kind testing and management program has attracted individuals from 26 countries and 49 states since the Foundation’s inception in 2006”.
I look back at my file and Travis’s date of evaluation was in July of 2006. So not long after their inception. And just as he was beginning school at TJS.
The evaluation is somewhat technical. I wanted to share some of the findings. None of which was surprising to us.
One of the tests completed evaluates the efficiency with which two ears work together to make a message intelligible. Travis’s evaluation stated, “Travis’ auditory system changed the way he heard certain words. For example, stairway was clearway; lifeboat was large boat; and housework was heard as hard work. Students who have difficulty with this test often demonstrate difficulty interpreting auditory information when background noise is present.”
Also, “Travis has difficulty isolating auditory information from unimportant auditory signals. His auditory system appears to become overloaded when a variety of auditory messages or noise is present”.
The evaluation also notes that his left ear has more difficulty sorting out auditory stimuli.
The following is a list of some of the suggestions the Foundation recommended:
Preferential seating away from busy portions of the room. The least distracting location.
Earplugs/headphones worn during desk and study activities will help Travis concentrate more effectively. A special ear filter for his left ear is recommended to help filter out background noise.
Travis should take short breaks during the day so that he can give his auditory system a rest.
It will help if Travis receives both auditory and visual instructions. A hands-on approach to learning will also be helpful.
Multiple directions should be avoided when possible.
The way his issue was described to us is that when he is in a classroom, all of the classroom noises as well as the teacher’s voice come into his processing center at the same volume. And that he is unable to pick out which information is the most important and filter out or ignore, the other noises such as students talking or coughing. And in this case what the teacher is saying is the most important.
And then if she gives multiple directions, “OK students, come in, hang up your coats, get your notebook and pencil out of your backpack, get seated at your desk and write your name and the date on a sheet of paper from your notebook”, he was lost after the first direction, if he even heard it correctly. Because remember, in a noisy room he is hearing clearway instead of stairway. There is no telling what he is hearing.
So then when he is not doing what he is supposed to be doing the teacher sees it as he is refusing to follow directions.
Right now as I type this I am sitting at my kitchen island, in my house located in the mountains. I live here because I love the quiet. (Along with many other things.) But if I take notice, I can hear all kinds of other noises. The birds are chirping in the background. I can hear my refrigerator running, my dog walking down the hall, her nails clickety clacking on my wood floor because they are overdue for a trimming, her groan as she lays down, but not in a painful way, a car driving by outside, a plane flying overhead and the wind blowing.
But I am able to focus on what I am doing and not pay any attention to all that is going on around me.
But Travis hears everything at the same volume. And cannot determine what is the most important and filter out the rest.
Somewhere along the way while doing this research it was suggested to me that if I want to better understand how challenging an auditory processing disorder may be for Travis that I should watch the movie “Insomnia” starring Al Pacino. Some of you may have seen this movie. It has been a long time since I have seen it and I am going off my feeble memory so forgive me if this is not exactly right. Al Pacino plays a detective that follows a murder suspect to Alaska.
His character is unable to sleep while he is in Alaska because of long hours of daylight. After not being able to sleep for several days it begins to affect his brain. In one scene he walks into the police department and has another detective standing right next to him, talking to him. He is not hearing the conversation. He can hear the coffee pot percolating, someone is tapping their teeth with their pencil, file drawers closing, all the office noises coming in much louder than they actually sound.
And so the conversation is just blending in.
It did help me to better understand what Travis may be experiencing.
You may be wondering if insurance covered this unturned stone. Nope.
Looking back I realize how lucky we were to have Able Kids Foundation located right here near our home town. Travis’s evaluation was overseen by Dr. Joan Burleigh, Ph.D.
As I look through my file today I see that I have copies of several articles that she co-authored. One of the articles gives a bit of information about her, that she is a research scientist, the director at the Center for Central Auditory Research at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. That she has lectured throughout the country. She has co-authored a book.
And most important to me, she advised us on our boy.
After the evaluation we purchased an ear filter for Travis’s left ear. I carried that filter in its original container for years. We still have it today. Yes, we were supposed to have it checked and re-sized over the years. But I don’t think we needed to. Travis asked me for it when he needed it. And it was always when you would expect he would, like at a restaurant.
Based on some of my previous blogs descriptions of hit or misses on stones that we unturned, you may be wondering if this is a real diagnosis, or is this another example of a treatment that sounds convincing but is not based on science?
If you remember when I wrote about Travis’s blue colored lenses, after several months we gave up on trying to make him wear them. And I commented that if they were helping him in any way, wouldn’t he want to wear them?
Travis asked me for his ear filter on numerous occasions, every year for several years. That is all the proof I need that the filter provided him some relief. I decided no matter what the research said, if it was helping him in any way, well that’s good enough for me.
And to this day, most times wherever you find Travis, his headphones are close by, if not on his head.
And it is clear to me that he still has problems with his auditory processing. He gets visibly agitated when two people are talking to him at the same time. He struggled bowling on his league, if he forgot his headphones. Bowling alleys are extremely loud. And he still struggles at restaurants and will go outside and have us text him to come in when the food arrives.
Next time you are at a restaurant, pause for a moment and just listen to the the noise. And imagine how hard it would be for someone with a sensory integration disorder and an auditory processing disorder.
Oftentimes as I write a blog, I re-research. What does that mean? I reread the research I have saved from all those years ago. But then I google what is being said today. And as I was writing today I wondered if there is a cause for auditory processing disorder. I know I have written about how we have no idea what may have caused Travis’s autism. We do know that his mental illness is most likely hereditary from his biological family.
I found an article on www.additudemag.com written by Priscilla Scherer titled “Could Your Child Have Auditory Processing Disorder?” In the article Scherer states, “The underlying cause of ADP isn’t known. Experts debate whether heredity or environment -or both- are responsible for the condition. While the human auditory system is fully developed at birth, auditory pathways don’t mature until the age of 10 to 12. Because of this, early influences - such as poor prenatal nutrition, a mother’s exposure to cigarettes or alcohol, childhood malnutrition, and chronic ear infections - may negatively affect auditory processing.”
One of the other things she brought up that may play a role was premature birth.
Travis was born prematurely, his birth mom did smoke, and she did not receive proper prenatal care. And he had chronic ear infections for the first few years of his life resulting in three sets of ear tubes.
Whatever the cause may be doesn’t matter now. We cannot go back and change it. But we can come up with ways to help him cope. Keeping his headphones with him just about everywhere he goes is one way he has learned to cope.
So if you see someone wearing headphones in an unexpected place, now you may know why.
“If an autistic person says something is too loud, bright or smelly, it IS too loud, bright or smelly. Validate and address sensory issues, even if you don’t experience them yourself.” - Author Unknown