Hello everyone! I am here to share a topic today that is quite specific but may be useful to many of you. Have you ever had a loved one (or even yourself) go through difficulties of answering questions? Other areas can include following commands, or understanding people’s stories. Although this can be as simple as inattention or being unsure of the answer, you may want to consider looking into the possibility of an auditory processing disorder in adults or children.
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Auditory processing disorder in adults or children: What are the signs?
Before immediately concluding if an adult or child has auditory processing disorder, there are definitely some signs and symptoms you want to look into. Often, auditory processing disorder does not exist on its own. For many it is result of a developmental issue such as auditory processing disorder ADHD, Autism, or GDD. The processing issue is a symptom of those main conditions.
For adults, the auditory processing disorder symptoms mostly stem from a neurological problem. Some adults can develop these after suffering from a stroke, brain damage, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Dementia, or other related issues.
Below, you will see an array of auditory processing disorder symptoms you can watch out for, helping you determine if it goes beyond inattention.
- Difficulties following simple commands which is expected of age (clap your hands, point to a body part, etc.)
- When asked questions, answers are incomprehensible or unrelated
- Challenges responding and following through conversations
- Shows nonverbal signs of paying attention, but has difficulties comprehending
So, if you notice these signs, what are some things you can do to improve auditory processing disorder issues? Aside from consulting a doctor and getting referrals, you can also do the following things I will be mentioning below.
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Auditory processing disorder in adults and children: Things that help
Highlighting your words
When talking to someone who has difficulties answering questions, what you can do is highlight some important words in your statements. For example, when you ask an adult or a child, “When is your birthday?”, and they answer “Birthdays have cakes”, this means that they have attempts to process the question through a related but incorrect response.
Thus, what you can help to improve their processing is by highlighting some key words in your questions or statements. In the first example mentioned, you can ask “WHEN is YOUR birthday?” to help the listener remember that the question being given is about the date of their birthday.
You can modify the words being highlighted depending on your problem. You can lengthen the way you say it, increase the volume, or have pauses to help in processing.
Use skill-related books
Another way to help in processing problems is through the use of auditory processing activities. One way to boost this skill easily and to target specific areas is through an auditory processing book.
In this resource, called Auditory Processing Exercises, you will find a set of worksheets and activities that can help adults and children sharpen their skills to answer wh- and how questions. It ranges from simple visual-related questions to those which pertain to more complex general information.
To know more about Auditory Processing Exercises, you can visit Amazon.com.
Aiding with visuals and gestures
The reason why this issue is called “auditory processing disorder” is because this is related to information relayed through oral speech. When people hear and listen to what you said, it is another process to comprehend the information they heard.
Thus, making use of other avenues such as gestures and visuals can help strengthen connections and memory. One example you can use for auditory processing disorder in adults and children is using gestures. If you asked, “Did you eat?”, you can gesture out something as you say “eat” to help them pick up the question from the cue.
Others use cards and other visuals to help in better auditory processing. Once processing is mastered, then you can eventually fade out the visuals and gestures.
Frequent interaction
Much like any other skill, auditory processing can improve through frequent interaction. Talking to other people can help eventually improve auditory processing–as a practice helps increase the instances that they hear and sort information.
So if you have an adult or child at home who presents signs of auditory processing disorder, you can frequently interact with them to give increase the instances that they can listen to information.
I hope these simple tips help you out! Again, if you would like to take a look at the Auditory Processing Exercises workbook, you can do so on Amazon.
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